Tales of the new Maine's libraries are suddenly warming to graphic novels BY SAM PFEIFLE

Something strange is afoot in our state’s libraries. A new class of book is winding its way into their halls, and, once there, multiplying greatly. They are insidious, these books, never staying in place for more than a short period, as much as 90 percent of them checked out at any one time. Striking at young and old alike, they alternately appeal to the playful and dark recesses of our collective psyche. It is an invasion that has been building for a decade, but has just broken through the defenses erected by misunderstanding and tight budgets.

It is the rise of the graphic novel, the artful combination of story and design, plot and delivery. Now, stacked among Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, Morrison’s Milkman Dead, and Foster Wallace’s irresistible movie, you’ll find Moore’s creatures From Hell, Gaiman’s Sandman, Eisner’s Invisible People, and Miller’s Dark Knight. Well, you can find them if they’re not checked out.

Librarians across the state are amazed by the circulation rate of these titles. With a mandate to keep their collections relevant, and entice nontraditional library users, these keeper’s of tomes have reacted very quickly to keep in stride with one another.

Jay Scherma, past president of the Maine Library Association, and head of the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth, says that " we certainly are increasing the availability of graphic novels, certainly within the young-adult section. We’re gradually acquiring a number of the more popular titles. "

When did this start? " We’ve probably been doing it for a year or so, maybe two, certainly no longer than two. "

Suzanne Sullivan, reference librarian at the Portland Public Library’s main branch, and responsible for all the fiction buying, got on the bandwagon slightly later. " We just started ordering them this year, " she says. " We have about 70 or so. Most days there are either none or less than five on the shelf. We don’t even have a permanent location for them, they’re just in with the new books. " She says she has hopes for establishing their own special section because she fears they would get lost among the general population, what with them being out all the time.

Melissa Orth, young-adult librarian at Brunswick’s Curtis Memorial Library and the only full-time young-adult librarian in Maine, is one of the state’s biggest graphic-novel supporters. She reports that, in just two years of buying, their collection has grown to 217 titles.

" I spend about one-fifth of the young-adult materials budget on graphic novels, " she says. " At any given moment we have less than half on the shelves, about 75, and there have been times when the Japanese shelf, which has about 70 titles, is totally empty. "

The obvious question remains: Why now? Graphic novels have a solid quarter-century history of popularity amongst comic-book readers and other readers interested in non-standard book forms (for a fun definition of graphic novels, see artbabe.com’s Jessica Abel’s definition at http://www.artbomb.net/comics/introgn.jsp). Will Eisner is generally considered the grandfather of the genre (see if you can find his Dating and Hanging Out, from 1966), and you might say that Art Spiegelman, with Maus, brought mainstream credibility to the form (many high-school history classes latched onto the 1986 Holocaust tale). Then along came Alan Moore’s The Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, and now the genre has any number of publishers putting out quality product.

But that was by 1995. Why are the libraries and schools really catching on now? Well, in Maine, many people credit Casablanca Comics owner Rick Lowell, whose passion for these books goes well beyond making a buck at his store. He’s been fighting an uphill battle for 10 years or more, and, when I join him for a gander through the Portland Public Library’s collection, it’s pretty clear that he’s finally beginning to feel some satisfaction.

" I remember the first library show I went to, I spent three days up there, and only sold $80 worth of material, " he had said earlier, in his store. " People looked at me like, ‘What are you doing here.’ " Now Lowell is selling books to almost every library in the state.

So, as we cruise around the PPL looking for their graphic novels, the half-smirk on his face reads like a man who knows he’s about to be proven right. He has been continually emphasizing how great the circulation for these books has been, how much of a boon to libraries they’ve been, getting young readers and nontraditional readers into the libraries and actively checking things out. He walks with such a purpose that I have a hard time keeping up.

Problem is, we can’t find them. I’d been told that there was a new kiosk set up for them, but all we see on the main floor is a little A-frame labeled " New Books — Graphic Novels, " which contains about five graphic novels: Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnals, a Phoenix title, a Star Trek book. It’s unclear whether this is the whole collection, or just their new stuff.

Rick heads over to the 700 section, where graphic novels are sometimes filed as fiction. That’s not happening. So we head downstairs to the young-adult section and buzz around. We can’t find anything, so we ask the librarian manning the young-adult desk. Or, Lowell does, leaning casually on his right hand with an air of general disinterest. He’s not fooling me.

" I don’t know where they are, " she says. " I’ll have to check. " She fiddles with her computer and returns that they should be under 741.591 (or something). We find that section, but, still, there are no graphic novels. Just as we’re about to give up, however, we spot the cache — they’re sectioned out with special stickers in a spot by themselves.

There’s some good stuff: two copies of Bone: Out from Boneville; Oh My Goddess, which Rick notes has been out twice in the three weeks since the library put it out; a Usagio title, brand new and also with two stamps; a Meridian title and Books of Magic title, both of which can barely be kept in place. All of these are books Lowell has told me are great introductions to graphic novels. All of them are brand new, and already they appear a bit dog-eared.

" Do libraries have problems with keeping them in good shape? " I ask.

" Well, they carry other paperbacks, " says Lowell, somewhat defensively. " I’ve seen books go out 30, 40 times and they’re still holding up pretty well. " Brunswick’s Melissa Orth later tells me that, yes, they do get used up quick sometimes, but part of the increased popularity lately is because the publishers are starting to put out a more durable product, but still at an affordable price.

Lowell stops in his tracks: " Whoah, do you want this in the kid’s section? " It’s a copy of Road to America, which, upon flipping through it, does contain plenty of blood and a couple of nipple shots. " This should maybe be upstairs, " Lowell says delicately.

It’s a touchy subject. When I ask Cape Elizabeth’s Jay Scherma how he handles graphic novels’ sometimes, er, graphic qualities, he says, " Very carefully. It’s always a question in terms of when is a purchase appropriate for the audience that the collection is intended for. " There’s a definite distinction in almost all libraries between young-adult and adult collections. Some graphic novels belong in both, some very definitely only in one.

" We try very carefully to balance an acquisition’s and a collection’s artistic and creative merit, and there’s a certain comic line, where, if something looked inappropriate for a young-adult collection, we might consider it for the adult collection, if it was critically acclaimed for its artistic or thematic merits. "

Speaking of the adult section, Rick and I head back upstairs. He knows PPL must have more — he sold them to the library, after all. So we ask another woman at a reference desk to look up the titles. Forty one come up in her search. All but five are out. We had found all of them.

Lowell’s smirk broadens. I venture that you can’t compare the percentage of graphic novels out with the percentage of all the other books. There are too few.

He knows. " My argument is that they’re out all the time, " he says simply. He’s definitely right about that, and that’s why graphic novels are in libraries to stay.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com