Subjects: There's More Than One Way to Skin A Cat...

Graphic collections are complex, intricate creatures. Some might refer to them as "high maintenance" in a number of realms: preservation, collection development, access, description, organization. Subject headings are no exception. Multiple factors come into play when considering what and how many subject headings to assign a record so that it can be accessed by those who need it. When the target audience itself presents special challenges, that's when the fun begins.

Library of Congress Subject Headings
These are not intuitive to our target audience (or many others, for that matter), but we will likely be requested to keep these in for consistency's sake. Using these plus any we may manufacture (see section below) will result in several subject headings showing up on each record. I don't think that will be a problem as long as the more intuitive ones are first in line.

Here are several books that could be grouped simply or separated completely depending on the subject headings - And a list of subject headings that have appeared with these books:
Tigers -- Fiction.
Drooling -- Comic books, strips, etc.
Hobbes (Fictitious character) -- Comic books, strips, etc.
Wit and humor, Pictorial.
Cats -- Comic books, strips, etc.
Pets -- Comic books, strips, etc.
American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Cats -- Fiction.
Cartoons and comics.
Cats -- Caricatures and cartoons.
some have no subjects at all

Lexicon
Offering search terms beyond the LCSH allows further exploration of the library's collections. By meeting teens where they are, we can offer easier use of and, therefore, greater access to the collections. This can occur by using different terms for already established LCSH ("growing up" instead of "coming of age" or "memoir") or adding subject headings up front that might appear far down the line or not at all ("learning to drive", "braces", "report cards", "being grounded", "ninjas", "cats").

Tagging:
Sticking solely to LCSH focuses subject headings on lengthy phrases referring to art or drawing or comics with time period and country of origin. Adding intuitive subject headings allows teens to find what they need. Another way we can do this is by subject tagging these items. We could add it to the teen page of the website for a targeted effect; the catalog itself allows tagging, too. A tag cloud could be posted on the teen page. Teens would have an additional means of sparking their imagination with regard to reading choices.