Treasures and Musings @ Modern Graphic History Library

Race, Ethnicity, & Identity at the Modern Graphic History Library

We've created a new research guide for anyone interested in researching race and ethnicity in the Modern Graphic History Library's collections. It provides an overview of what kind of materials and images we have and how to find them, relevant digital image collections, and recommended books. The guide draws from four different collections and highlights relevant original artwork, magazines, tear sheets, children's books, comic books, graphic novels, and zines.

A few images, along with more information about the collections represented in the guide, are included below. Check out the Race, Ethnicity, and Identity at MGHL research guide to see more, and don't forget to take a look at our recent guides about Advertisements and Women in Popular Culture if you haven't already.

Illustration from the Robert Weaver Collection. Weaver was dedicated to capturing the changing social and cultural climate of his times, and this collection is particularly strong in mid-century depictions of African Americans.

Illustration from A Great Miracle Happened There: A Chanukah Story, part of the Robert Andrew Parker Collection. Parker has illustrated over 40 children's books, several of which deal with race and ethnicity. The collection contains original artwork as well as published books.

The above comic is part of the Center for the Humanities Comics Collection which is comprised of thousands of comic books, predominantly published between 1960 and 2000. The collection contains a particularly strong selection of titles featuring African American super heroes and protagonists. This collection also includes graphic novels, magazines, and zines dealing with race and ethnicity.

Illustration by Stevan Dohanos, from the Charles Craver Collection. This collection contains hundreds of tear sheets of illustrated fiction, nonfiction, and advertisements from the 1930s to the 1950s by dozens of important mid-century illustrators. A list of illustrators relevant to researchers of race and ethnicity is available on the Craver page of the research guide.

The Center for the Humanities Comics Collection

We're excited to announce an amazing new addition to the MGHL collections: The Center for the Humanities Comics Collection. A transfer from Washington University's The Center for the Humanities, the collection contains thousands of comic books, as well as pulp magazines, graphic novels, manga, zines, and reference materials.

While the majority of the collection is superhero titles published by Marvel and DC during the second half of the twentieth century, the collection contains comics published from the 1940's to the 2000's by a variety of mainstream and independent publishers. Many genres are represented as well, including war comics, erotic comics, horror comics, adventure comics, romance comics, and alternative and underground comics. The collection contains a particularly strong selection of titles featuring African American protagonists and female superheroes.

To learn more about the Center for the Humanities Comics Collection, take a look at the finding aid.

Check out a few of the first highlights from the collection below.

 Detective Comics, No 292, 1957

Jumbo Comics No 97, 1947

Although Jumbo Comics was anthology, most of the issues during its run from 1938 to 1953 featured Sheena, Queen of the Jungle on the cover (most often wielding a weapon and in the midst of an attack or fight).  In 1937, Sheena -- more or less a female version of Tarzan -- was the first female character to have her own comic book title.

Black Lightning No 3, 1977

Black Lightning -- with the curious backstory of once having been an Olympic athlete and a high school principal -- was one of the earliest African American superheroes to appear in DC comics. While the original series only ran from 1977 to 1978, in subsequent years Black Lightning continued to be revived in other DC titles such as Outsiders and Justice League of America.

Catwoman No 18, 1995

Classics Illustrated No 33, 1948

Classics Illustrated, which ran from 1941 to 1971, featured adaptations of literary classics with the intent of introducing "reluctant" young readers to "great literature." The cover of this Sherlock Holmes issue features references to two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous works about the detective -- A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

 Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, 1978 

This one-shot comic was part of the larger trend in the late 1970s of real life stars making "guest appearances" in Superman comics. Intended to be published in 1977 while Muhammad Ali was reigning World Heavyweight Champion, the comic experienced delays that pushed publication to the following year when Ali lost the title. If you look closely, you'll see that the wrap-around cover by comic book artist Neal Adams features an audience of DC characters and real life celebrities. For a full view and detailed list, check out the Wikipedia entry about the issue.

MGHL at NARA's Preservation Road Show

This week from July 10-12, the National Archives in St. Louis is hosting a Preservation Road Show. This event is free and open to the public and will include workshops, demonstrations, and a panel discussion all aimed at providing instruction and techniques to help you preserve your family or personal items, such as scrapbooks, photos, home movies, and the like. The Modern Graphic History Library will have a table on Thursday the 12th with information on preserving artwork and comic books. Check the flyer below for more details.

Because artwork can be particularly challenging to preserve, we wanted to share a few tips for dealing with acrylic paintings, which many people have at home:

• The soft paint of acrylic paintings attracts and holds dirt, making works suspectible to damage. To clean, place the painting on a padded surface and hold upright at an angle so the dust will fall away from the piece. Then, using a clean, soft, natural-hair artists’ brush, lightly dust the painting's surface (if there is no visible flaking).
• Store paintings in a cool place, and away from direct sunlight and dust. Avoid hanging art over a fireplace.

If you can't attend the event but are interested in learning more about the care, handling, and storage your personal collection, check out the Library of Congress page about preserving family treasures, the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works page on caring for your artwork, and the @ Your Library page about preserving comic books.

The Kaltenthaler Comics & Zines Collection Now Available

We're excited to announce that the Karl S. Kaltenthaler Comic Books and Zines Collection is now available for use. The collection contains over 1,000 comic books from spanning many genres and styles, including super-hero comics, war comics, horror comics, and alternative and underground titles. Some of the most influential comic book artists and writers of the late twentieth century are included, such as Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Robert Crumb, Peter Bagge, and Daniel Clowes. The collection also contains zines, graphic novels, and magazines. To learn more about the collection and its contents, take a look at the finding aid, and check out a few highlights below.

Sneak Peek from the Kaltenthaler Comic Books & Zines Collection

We're in the midst of processing a new collection of comic books and zines and wanted to share a few highlights with you. (A zine is a self-published magazine with a small circulation.) Most of the zines in the Karl S. Kaltenthaler Collection are from the early to mid 1980s and focus on music, and punk in particular. They're an excellent resource for anyone interested in subcultures, DIY, or underground music, and also worth checking out for their graphic design. The collection will be ready for use in the near future, and when it is, we'll have a post about it here.

The Famous Artists School's Cartooning Lesson Book

In 1948, illustrator Albert Dorne founded the Famous Artists School, a correspondence program for aspiring artists. Recruiting several other influential illustrators to be part of the project -- including Norman Rockwell and Al Parker -- Dorne and his colleagues distributed their curriculum and assessed student work by mail. The Al Parker Collection contains several of the school's lesson books. A few excerpts from the 1956 edition of the cartooning course are below.

A page from the Introduction about necessary and unnecessary lines calls cartooning "the art of simplification."

Lesson 7 is devoted to drawing "Pretty Girls." Above are tips for hairstyles, which note that "smart cartoon girls should wear the latest styles."

A fantastic illustration from Lesson 13, "Perspective," demonstrating successful technique.

This page from Lesson 18 provides guidelines on balloon lettering.

Each chapter concludes with an assignment the student is to complete and send in for evaluation. The above assignment follows Lesson 9, about drawing clothes and folds.