Comics Plus Exceeds One Million Checkouts in 2022!

2022 was another record year for digital circulation in many libraries as the demand for digital content continued unabated. LibraryPass hit a new benchmark of its own, announcing more than one million checkouts of digital comics, graphic novels, and manga in Comics Plus throughout the year. Achieving this milestone in only its third year exclusively serving schools and libraries was thanks to 2,500+ customers in the US and around the world offering their students and patrons unlimited, simultaneous access to a diverse collection of titles. And it was made possible by dozens of library-friendly publisher partners making their titles available to schools and libraries because they truly believe in equitable access.

“Unlimited, simultaneous access is what makes Comics Plus a no-brainer for many schools and libraries, but affordability doesn’t mean anything if the content isn’t appealing to, and appropriate for, their readers,” explained Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, LibraryPass’ Chief Content Officer. “We’re proud to work with a library-friendly group of publishers who genuinely care about reaching more readers with as little friction as possible. Meanwhile, our age-appropriate guidelines ensure librarians can be confident in the collections we curate and make available to them and their readers.”

The most popular publishers in the Comics Plus collection in 2022 were, in order, Dark Horse, Andrews McMeel, Yen Press, IDW, BOOM! Studios, Kodansha, Capstone, Tokyopop, Papercutz, and Lerner — all of whom offer a diverse range of comics, graphic novels, and manga for readers of every age and interest.

Engage. Excite. Circulate.

With schools representing a majority of Comics Plus customers, the Top 20 titles for 2022 were dominated by franchises popular with younger readers like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Big Nate, Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Stranger Things, along with popular creator Svetlana Chmakova (Berrybrook Middle School, Dramacon, The Weirn Books) whose latest release, Enemies, just missed the top 20 despite being released in October 2022.

While traditional manga is popular with Comics Plus’ older teens and adult readers — dominated by a broad range of Kodansha‘s popular series, including Attack on Titan, Cells at Work!, Fairy Tail, and A Kiss, For Real — Immedium’s The Discovery of Anime & Manga proved popular with younger readers who wanted to learn more about manga itself. Since a lot of traditional manga typically skews older, those younger readers enjoy a range of manga-influenced series from Western publishers, including the aforementioned Avatar and Chmakova titles, as well as various Disney Manga adaptations, Manga Classics, and Saturday AM.

Comics Plus’ entire catalog is rated by age to ensure schools can offer age-appropriate materials to their students in collections for Elementary, Middle and High Schools, while Public Libraries typically offer the Children’s Public Library collection to their younger readers. Adult titles are only available to public and academic libraries, so circulation for each age level offers a deeper view of what readers are engaging with across the collection, with many backlist titles performing exceptionally well with readers of all ages.