It's BATMAN Week!

Never before has a character in popular culture so electrified our collective imagination as Batman has in comics, books and movies. Help the Dark Knight celebrate 75 years of chasing down and putting away bad guys in the name of justice.

Holy cornucopia of comics Batman!

We've got a selection of Batman tales--even some focusing on his partners in crimebusting: Robin and Batgirl. We'll have even more titles throughout the week, so make sure you make more than one stop to check 'em out!

Seasons Greetings and Salutations!

We've seen an increase in traffic to this site and our second home on Facebook, thanks to some promotion on the official Little Free Library Facebook page--so WELCOME! ...to our new visitors!

Feel free to poke around the site and learn more about out pint-sized hall of (literary) heroes and how it came to be.

It's been a busy month of December for us. Over the last week or so we've done a complete rotation of the books and comics in the library. We received a few new donations that have now been stamped and added this past weekend. Just about everything in the library now is fresh--save for the recent movie novels we featured in the From Books to Screen series (they're in there also).

Other new additions include:

Crime and mystery books, graphic novels, and comics--for a variety of ages. Classic Nancy Drew books! And a comic version of Nancy's newer adventures too.

By way of a generous donor we now have some excellent Batman: Shadow of the Bat comics following the caped crusader through his adventures as the "World's Greatest Detective" (sorry Sherlock!) as takes on the inmates at Arkham Asylum.

And I'm SUPER excited about Incognito, a great couple of graphic novels by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Not your typical superhero-fare, they're steeped in intrigue have a classic pulp noir look and feel to them (they're for grown ups, FYI).

If novels are more your thing, we have a copy of the 1934 detective classic The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet!

We also acquired two editions of globe-trotting reporter/detective Tintin. While relatively unknown in the US before his big film debut last year, Tintin has been a cherished character in Europe for decades and more well-known around the world. Each book has three classic Tintin adventures and are great for kids of all ages.

Finally, we'd like to pay tribute to the seasonal help we hired to provide customer service and spread some holiday cheer. He was all smiles when he began:

...but I'm afraid we worked the chap a bit too hard:

The holidays can be tough on all of us I guess.

Before he left us, he put together a wonderful selection of Christmas titles to get you in the spirit of the season. And there are many more books, comics, and graphic novels to check out as well!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and have a fantastic New Year!

P.S. You can always find us on this site by going to www.libraryofjustice.org!

JUST ADDED: New Superhero books and comics!

The Library of Justice received not one, but TWO packages packed with super-powered donations recently....

The first is a fresh batch of classic comics from Eric in Salina, Kansas, which included single issues of Batman: Shadow of the Bat, Iron Man, Sword of the Atom, Richie Rich, and others:

The second delivery comes from Jeny in Houston, Texas, who also is a librarian (like, with a real Masters in Library Sciences and everything!) and sent these library-quality hardcover DC superheroes books for young ones:

Click images to enlarge 

Thanks for the generous donations--you guys are real heroes of literacy! Several of these are now available in the Library of Justice. Single issues on the secret comic shelf, hard-backs on the main shelf.

Enjoy!

Catch up on your heroes with BIG anthologies!

Has a been a while since you've cracked open a comic book? Maybe you're just looking for a refresher on an old favorite--or want to get the low down on a Marvel or DC character you've always wanted to know more about. Maybe you're totally new to comics.

You're in luck. 

You can digest dozens of stories thanks to the thick, black and white comics anthologies published by Marvel and DC. What they lack in color, they make up in spinning good 'ol yarns about your favorite superheroes from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Modern eras of comic book publishing. They're printed on salt-of-the-Earth, pulp paper and show off the beautiful--and oft forgotten--ink work rendered before they were colored.

Both Marvel and DC have put out volume after volume on an array of characters, super teams, and special titles--well-known and not-so-well known. A few in my personal collection include The Avengers, Ant-Man, and Marvel's take on Conan the Barbarian (among some of the best comics every written!).

A few weekends ago, I was a willing participant in that great, nerdly swirl of comic geeks held every autumn at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds--FallCon. The "one day wonder" is a great place to get a good deal on comics--and especially those compiled in trade paperback form. That's just what I did, picking up a few Marvel Essentials collections as well as some DC Showcase Presents volumes.

I selected mainly "Volume #1" books so Library of Justice readers could enjoy the origins and early days of favorites like Superman, Batman, Iron Man, and Amethyst. At least three of these are over 500 pages of some of the best and most memorable stories.

If these become popular reads, I'm hoping to include a few more volumes that I found--maybe even make them a regular item. Let me know in the comments if you enjoy these monstrous anthologies!

Reading Tips:

• Take one at a time: They're BIG volumes, even for voracious readers, so plan to get comfy with a character for a while. 
• Careful turning those pages: The paper is cheap and tears easily (how else can you afford 500 pages of comics?)
• Get a book mark: You'd have to be SUPER HUMAN to read these in just one sitting!
• Return in good condition and help others enjoy these great stories.

Good Reading!