Before we get started this Blog isn’t going to be “The Case for Digital Comics” although it has been on the record here and in several many podcast episodes that Professor Jason and Professor Ashley love digital comics! In our How to Start Collecting Comics Blog Post we wrote extensively about picking the right collecting format for the space you live in and, as Los Angeles-based apartment dwellers, we’re passionate about a digital-first approach to comic book collecting. Tragically, your iPad can always store more stories than your bookshelves.
The digital realm also comes with questions of app, platforms, and formats all their own. Webtoons is different from Comixology is different from creators who upload their panels directly to social media like Instagram. Did you know Nimona, OMG Check, Please!, and Heartstopper came to life on Tumblr?
But that’s not what you came here for today, Students, and we know that. You came here because the phrase “Free Comics” would snap the head of any comic book-obsessed geek no matter the health of your budget.
A few years ago Professor Jason made a video highlighting one of our favourite options, so here is the TL;DR version:
Now, it’s not 2017, and you can’t meet Professor Jason at the Hoopla Digital booth anymore, but we still love them. Of all the free online comic book readers we love Hoopla the best. First, it’s based on your LIBRARY CARD. Yes, the little laminated piece of plastic so many of us carried proudly in our pockets from day-to-day as small children because we owned a wallet, but no money no anything else to populate it with. By sourcing your comic book (and Hoopla has tons and tons of collections reaching back to the Golden Age all the way to new releases each week), from a public library the comic book goes through the same process as when you borrow a physical book from the physical library building. This type of tracking allows for libraries to know what types of art their patrons are interested in reading (i.e. comic books and graphic novels!), it encourages libraries to stock the types of content you want to see, and it lets the publishers and creators be paid for the work they put into creating the collection you want to read versus a pirated website where everyone loses - from creatives to consumers.
Another alternative to Hoopla is an app called Libby. Libby has a larger selection than Hoopla (even if you are borrowing from the same library system), in our experience, although markedly less comic book options. Hoopla has a ton of access to mainstream comics (Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, IDW), and Libby has a wider variety of graphic novels (think semi-autobiographical graphic novels from First Second or Random House). Libby has a wider variety of traditional prose offerings. If you’ve been sleeping on The Expanse series or interested in The Daughter of Doctor Moreau - or anything else from our Geeky Summer Reads Blog Post - you’re going to have more luck on Libby.
That’s adorable now how do I get my free comics?
Technology has opened up the annals of comic books through the power of digital comics. It’s easier than ever to find rare collections or one off issues without digging through piles of books at convention after convention. This comes to you through the power of Your Public Library. Most library systems have an incredibly easy way to access a library card. You can either:
Search the system for your preexisting library card
Get a free digital library card
If you’re an organized human person who has your library card easily on hand you can disregard these couple of paragraphs, download your apps of choice, and skip right to reading the Batman adventure of your dreams. For the less organized among our students, keep reading:
Digital Library Card are exactly what they sound like. Here’s the Los Angeles County Application. Most major library systems in the world offer a Digital or E-Library Card. All you have to do is:
Select your local library branch (the one located closest to you)
OR enter your address … which will attach you to your local library branch
Copy your brand spanking new library card number
Paster your brand spanking new library card number into you reading app of choice
YES, STUDENTS IT IS JUST THAT EASY!
Say what you want about the digital medium as a vehicle for comic books. The efficacy of publishers marketing to the digital space leaves much to be desired. Even effective marketers like Webtoons could use a more deft hand with the language they elect to refer to their creators with. Digital comics are here and they are accessible in a way comic book rarely are - even if you have a Local Comic Book Shoppe you make a point to frequent. Even if you have to follow every step we listed out above (that’s a mere 6 total and one of the steps begins with the word “OR”), and do it twice for 2 apps (for a total of 12 with 2 beginning with the word “OR”), you can have a flood of free comic books at your fingers in minutes from ever-growing catalogues.
To write nothing about the importance of libraries in a local community and the power of feeding such an institution in such a meaningful way without ever leaving your home. By the by, if you really love your local library and would like them to carry our comics, would like to have Professor Jason and Professor Ashley teach or develop programming there, or would like to have us do those thing remotely please feel free to pass along the email address: geekhistorylesson@gmail.com
header image courtesy of Pixabay via pexels