The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels, and alternative political cartoons, has announced that Jeff Smith’s Cartoon Books publishing company will be joining the publishers participating in the SPX Graphic Novel Gift Program.

SPX also has announced that the gift amount has been raised from $5000 to $6000, allowing the selected library system a larger budget to purchase graphic novels for their patrons.

The addition of Cartoon Books to the Graphic Novel Gift Program will allow the selected library system to choose from the entire catalog of Bone books popular with  young readers all over the world.

Cartoon Books join Fantagraphics, Top Shelf, Drawn & Quarterly, Adhouse Books and Koyama Press as publishers from which collections managers can order books for this program.

The Graphic Novel Gift Program is an outright gift of graphic novels to a local library. The books are chosen by the receiving library’s Collections Specialist. The targets of this program are public and academic library systems in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area as selected by the Small Press Expo Executive Committee.

The goals of the program are:

• Facilitate the availability of graphic novels to readers of all ages utilizing public and school libraries.
• Promote learning and literacy through the availability of graphic novels at local libraries.
• Provide library systems with additional resources by which they can purchase graphic novels and comics.

The Graphic Novel Gift Program is the first of its kind to help put graphic novels onto the shelves of public libraries. It is an expansion of the philanthropic and charitable endeavors that are part of its corporate charter, and is in addition to SPX’s annual support to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and SPX’s support of the Library of Congress National Book Festival.

SPX will be held Saturday, September 13th from 11:00 am – 7:00 pm and Sunday, September 14th 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm at The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Admission is $15 for Saturday only, $10 for Sunday only, and $20 for both days.