“Comics will demand next to nothing from some people even as it demands almost everything from others.” –Tom Spurgeon
The hardest part about teaching comics in the classroom is actually acquiring the comics. If you’re teaching long-form comics or graphic novels about serious (often autobiographical) subjects, you may have an easier time getting the materials you need for your students. If you’re teaching Persepolis, there’s a minuscule chance that a parent or alum or grant writer will take pity on you and give you money or used copies of the book. Batman, though? Captain America? Cape comics? Unless your school is cool on a level unknown to even me, you’re on your own.
This poses a problem when you need copies of comics for lessons. In earlier lesson plans, I’ve recommended downloading ebooks, finding used copies of comics on Amazon, or buying a subscription to Marvel. There are a few more ways to acquire the comics you need. Some are extraordinarily expensive. Some are surprisingly cheap.
Although it’s expensive–you’re going to be buying comics at list price, and if they’re old comics, they’ll be more expensive, not less (I will discuss comic collectors another day)–supporting your local comic book shop is always a good option. Comic Book Resources has a store locator which can be used to find stores near you. Comic shops do have deals sometimes. Free Comic Book Day is coming up on the first Saturday in May. There, you can get free comics and possibly discounts on other comics. Some stores turn this into a party with face-painting, artists’ booths, and trivia competitions. Mark your calendars.
Amazon has some good deals on comics; they’re also a good place to search if you’re looking for a specific issue of a comic. The Kindle ebook system, as mentioned above, can be a good resource, though that depends on your budget and whether or not you have access to ebooks.
One store that has surprisingly good deals on comics is Five Below. If you’ve never been to a Five Below before, the premise is that every item in the store costs $5 or less. Marvel sells four-packs of recent comics there for $4/pack. To put this in perspective, a single issue of a comic today sells for $3.99 at the comic book store. Instead of spending $16, you’re spending $4. Unfortunately, the outside of the package doesn’t tell you what comics are inside; the package is clear plastic, so you can see the two outside comics, but the two inner comics are a mystery. However, Five Below usually sells only a couple variations of these packages at a time, which means that you can pick up four matching packs of comics for your students and have 16 comics (4 sets of matching issues) for $16.
Your local library may also have copies of comic collections. These comics will vary wildly from library to library, and they usually won’t have more than one copy of a particular comic collection at a particular time, but library cards are free.
Finally, I recommend searching through tumblr or other similar sites for issues of comics that might interest your class. Some bloggers are going through the process of scanning comics, especially older ones. I’ll add the links here when I find them.
Where do you get your comics? Do you have any cheap alternatives? As always, let me know in the comments.
superlessons 