Adam Graham discusses how to legally read comics for free. Legal sources for free comics include the library, library services such as Hoopla, Overdrive, and Comics Plus. Also, there is NetGalley and Comixology has a free comics selection.
Transcript:
Do you want to read comic books and graphic novels for free? We'll tell you how, straight ahead.
Welcome to the Classy Comics Podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise, Idaho here is your host, Adam Graham.
Today is one of those non-review shows where we take a look at a topic that's really worth pursuing. There are a lot of people who like comics and superheroes and sci-fi franchises, but they can't afford to read as many books as they might like. And this episode is going to show you legal ways, and I want to underline that, legal ways to read comics for free. Now, of course, there are people out there who will pirate anything, but I strictly discourage that. As somebody who writes things and does podcast, it is just not appropriate to violate copyright law and I completely and utterly discourage that. It also can hurt the production of new works, particularly with lesser known comics. Though it should be said that many methods of reading comics for free don't necessarily put money into the pockets of companies and creators either. But some of them do and we'll discuss that as we go.
The first and most obvious way to read comics for free, and we're talking about physical books, is through your local library. Most libraries with any size have a good collection of comic books and graphic novels that are onsite and that you can go and check out. Personally, I rarely go through the stacks – I use the online catalog and place the books on hold that I'd like to read. If I'm in a medium-size city like Boise, this helps because I can have everything shipped to my particular branch library. Now, if you want to read a book your library doesn't have there are a couple ways to go about it. The first is you can request that your library order the book. This way not only do you get to enjoy it, but so do other people; plus it also can help the publishers of the comic books get some revenue from the book being purchased by the library.
Another option – and often this only applies to older books, usually at least a year old perhaps, even more so depending on your branch – is to place an interlibrary loan request where the library will try to borrow the book you're requesting from somewhere else in the country. I had a lot of success at giving some pretty rare graphic novels that I couldn't find anywhere else online or I could only find online at a big premium – though it's not always successful. I would suggest if there is a space for it to include the ISBN number, because there are some comic book titles that are very similar to other ones. In addition, do keep in mind when it comes to borrowing from other libraries that you may have less time to read it than a book that you get from your own library. So, if you're putting in a request for a thousand page novel, be sure that you're actually going to have time to read it, because you may only have a couple weeks unless they're able to get it renewed.
Of course the big downside with library books is that they have been handled a lot, and particularly if you read an all-ages title, some of the younger of those all-ages readers may have done some things to the book. It's particularly popular for kids to decide, ‘Hey, we'll cut the cover for the comic out of the book' – even it has a page of story on ...