Unshelved (Webcomics)

I haven't been posting much lately and the timing is nice for this one, so let's do another webcomic. In honor of the American Library Association meeting in Chicago this weekend, which I know of due to a friend's Twitter feed and the website that I'm currently introducing, I want to bring to your attention Unshelved, a comic about public libraries which I've mentioned before. You are probably already wetting yourself laughing with thoughts of all of the hi-jinks at your local public library, but nonetheless I assure you that Unshelved is worth your time. It hosts a cast of great characters from wise-cracking comic aficionado Dewey to Buddy, a guy in a beaver suit, to the naked libertarian lawyer Ned.

Unshelved has a typical newspaper comic format: a daily three-panel black and white strip with a longer, color version on Sundays. With the exception of Sundays, the strip focuses on the antics of the characters and varies from fairly funny to hilarious. But the highlight is the Sunday "Book Club" strips which provide a little comic teaser for a book. The books can be old or new, for different age groups, of different genres, and are often done by guest artists or writers. Here's an excellent one about Moby Dick by Zach Weiner of SMBC, although they are usually a little less satirical. Today's Book Club about Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan is also done by a guest artist, Box Brown of bellen!, which I may post about in the future.

Unshelved has been around for a while, and in fact they used to be called Overdue. They have a substantial archive dating back to 2002, and even better have a separate archive of the color Sunday Book Club comics. Finally, they have stuff to buy, too, like some funny shirts and books.