No one knows more about graphic novels than that one guy at my local comic shop, the one who doesn’t date much. But next to him, it’s our good friends at Diamond, the #1 distributor of comics & graphic novels in the world. They produce a handy publication called Diamond Bookshelf, chock full of news, reviews, and other resources helpful to librarians, teachers, and others wading through the colorful but chaotic sea of graphic novel possibilities. Click on over and sign up for free e-delivery.

We recently got a copy of a mailing by Whatcom County, WA that went out to tens of thousands of households. They're pushing library cards, something we support, and when they asked if they could use an Unshelved strip to help make a point about reading, we of course said yes. And when they asked how much, we said "your money's no good here."

It looks great.

So here's our offer. We've got over two thousand strips about libraries and the things that go on there. Please use them to promote your library, school, or other noncommercial reading-friendly cause. If you have questions about usage, or if you need a high-resolution version suitable for printing, just mail us.

And heck, if you are overwhelmed with gratitude you can always buy a book.

Update: I edited this post last night, clarifying the offer. I also alluded to an ongoing debate Gene and I are having about Creative Commons.

Technical difficulties indeed - Photoshop crashed while I was polishing off my pencils. (Memo to self- hit command-S more often). So rather than delaying Monday's strip, which was already done, I'm going to go back and finish Sunday's later today.

Update: As promised, it's up. As a sidebar, today begins a long uninterrupted run of paying sponsors. That's good news, of course, but I'm interested to see what effect it will have on my tendency to be late on strips (even without technical difficulties). The going theory is that it will make me an honest man. Let's see!