Comic book, graphic novel and manga lovers will be able to celebrate National Comic Books and Graphic Novels Day Sept. 25 at Texas A&M University-San Antonio by flipping through a sizable selection of books available for checkout through the university’s library located on the first floor of Business and Library Hall.
TAMUSA’s library houses a growing number of comic books, graphic novels and even manga ranging from superheroes and comic strips to non-fiction and memoirs.
According to Kimberly Grotewold, an education librarian, the University Library got a one-time grant in March 2022 for $2,500 to buy additional Latinx comics and graphic novels.
“We had comics and graphic novels and that kind of collection, but it was what we call interfiled. It was spread out through the collection based on the subject matter it was dealing with so not specifically on it being comics, graphic novels so we did two things essentially,” Grotewold said. “We pulled the comics and graphic novels into a separate collection, and we noticed that there were some that had Latinx themes or characters or creators. Then we wrote the grant to buy specifically titles that were either Latinx stories, had characters, or were by people of Latinx heritage who actually created the comic books.”
The Latinx collection contains over 80 comics and graphic novels that are by Hispanic and Latinx authors and artists and/or feature Hispanic and Latinx characters.
In total, the library has over 4,200 items related to comics, graphic novels, or manga including materials like videos, e-books, scholarly materials and 655 print books.
Students can explore the university’s comics and graphic novel section online by visiting the Comics and Graphic Novels Research Guide.
