It’s my favorite time of the year! It’s the only time of the year that it is socially acceptable to like weird and spooky things.
Erica Rogers
In order to get into the mood this year, I am tackling something that has been on my to-read list for a few years: “The Walking Dead” comic books by Robert Kirkman.
This series of graphic novels was the inspiration for the long-running TV series of the same name, which now has multiple spin-off series. We have the entire TV series available to check out in our DVD section, and it’s a great way to get into the spirit of Halloween!
However, I discovered we don’t have the graphic novels available to check out (yet.) I started looking through our digital services and found that we have them available in not just one place … but THREE!
Now, this series of graphic novels has been running for many years and there are a lot of issues. The publishers have conveniently bundled these issues into larger books called compendiums. Each compendium consists of about 50 issues or chapters of the story, which makes for a hefty book.
People are also reading…
One of the reasons I never tackled the series is because the books are so large and intimidating. The great thing about digital books is they fit onto your phone, Kindle, iPad or other reading device! You can take it wherever you go and it’s a lot less scary (when it comes to the size and weight, the zombies are still terrifying). Luckily, you can get digital copies of these books from Libby, Hoopla AND Comics Plus. What’s the difference between them? Let me explain.
Robert Kirkman’s “The Walking Dead” launched as a comic book in 2003, and later became a TV empire on AMC. This series of comic books has been on librarian Erica Rogers’ reading list for several years and she’s finally getting to it.
Libby by Overdrive is one of the popular options for digital items from the library. Libby is literally a digital library. You can have six items checked out at a time. Much like the physical library, there are a certain number of copies of each item. When the item is checked out, it’s unavailable to everybody else. You can have three holds at a time on books that are unavailable. It has e-books, audio books, graphic novels and magazines. It also has the option to send it to your Kindle to read, no special app required.
Hoopla Digital is another option. You can check out 10 items per month. There are unlimited copies of each item, so you don’t ever have to wait for titles. Hoopla has audiobooks, ebooks, graphic novels, music and movies.
I use this one mostly for audiobooks, but the graphic novel capabilities are really good. You can read the graphics by zooming in on the whole page, or you can click to enlarge each panel and it will scroll through in order. This can be helpful on pages that are loaded with a lot of action and it can be hard to decipher which order to read the panels in.
Comics Plus is a newer resource that you might not have heard of yet. As the name suggests, it is all comic books and graphic novels. It has a large selection of titles, including all of “The Walking Dead” titles. They also have a TON of manga titles, if that is a style you’re interested in.
The great thing about this service is everything is unlimited. You can borrow as many as you want and there isn’t a limited amount of copies. You can zoom in on the pages, but it doesn’t have the panel-by-panel option. It’s a new service and it’s always adding new titles and improving.
Even if zombies aren’t what you have in mind for your reading enjoyment, these three digital resources have a lot to offer that you should check out. You can access them from your computer by going to our website at gilibrary.org.
All three of them also have apps that you can download onto your phones. The only thing you need to use these services is a library card!
I hope you investigate and try something new. Happy Halloween!
Erica Rogers serves as the technology and teen librarian for the Grand Island Public Library. Email her at ericar@gilibrary.org