How the Dark Horse Came in Portland State University Library Acquires Dark Horse Comics Archives
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Michael Bowman, Cristine N. Paschild, and Kimberly Willson-St. Clair How the dark horse came in Portland State University Library acquires Dark Horse Comics archives t’s another hot night, dry and windless. The the general Portland State Library collection, Ikind that makes people do sweaty, secret is available to more than 26,000 students at things. I wait and listen. For a while it’s quiet Portland State University as well as more than as it gets in Sin City.”1 200,000 students and faculty in Oregon and In 2008, the Portland State University Washington through the Orbis Cascade Alli- Library acquired the archives from the third ance academic library consortium. National largest comics publisher in the United States, and international access via the Portland the Milwaukie, Oregon-based State Library’s interlibrary loan Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Port- service also is available to in- land State University alumnus terested readers. Mike Richardson, founder University Librarian Helen and president of Dark Horse H. Spalding states, “This col- Comics, Inc., and Neil Hanker- lection will be a destination son, executive vice president, resource for researchers in donated multiple copies of popular culture, gender stud- all publications and products ies, communications, and generated by Dark Horse from sequential art. Even the busi- its establishment in 1986 to ness and publishing programs the present and will continue will have products, packaging, to provide copies of all future and advertising materials to items produced by the com- study.”4 pany.2 Richardson’s hour-long To date, more than 2,000 presentation covers the history Dark Horse Comics® and the Dark Horse comics, graphic of comics from format changes Dark Horse logo are trade- novels, manga and books have to the Comics Code to the marks of Dark Horse Com- been received, cataloged, and advent of art comics and the ics, Inc., registered in various made available for students graphic novel.3 categories and countries. All and faculty to check out at the This generous gift will re- rights reserved. Portland State Library. Access sult in a complete collection points in the bibliographic re- of the Dark Horse corpus to be preserved in cords are provided for not only authors and the Portland State University Library Special illustrators, but other important contributors, Collections. The research collection contains including colorists and engravers, opening one copy of every Dark Horse comics book, graphic novel, collected edition, foreign trans- Michael Bowman is comics librarian, e-mail: bowman@ lations of Dark Horse original works, book, pdx.edu, Cristine N. Paschild is special collections librarian, e-mail: [email protected], and Kimberly print, poster, statue, fi gure, and all other Willson-St. Clair is public relations coordinator, e-mail: products. An additional circulating library of [email protected], and at Portland State University the published Dark Horse canon, added to © 2009 Michael Bowman, Cristine N. Paschild, Kimberly Willson-St. Clair C&RL News November 2009 570 avenues of research about these important sion of Philip Marlowe, and a Frankenstein’s artists and their work.5 The 20 languages rep- monster-like character named Marv. Star Wars, resented in the collection provide additional the Alien series, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer material for students in Portland State’s foreign are original interpretations of the fi lms and TV language program. series. These syndication narratives have been Making a lasting impact on the industry, written about as part of popular 20th-century Richardson sought to establish an ideal at- American culture, including a Buffy lexicon mosphere for creative professionals and set published Oxford University Press, Michael a policy that Dark Horse offer creators own- Adam’s Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire ership of their works, at a time when other Slayer Lexicon, and a critical deconstruction publishers were reluctant to acknowledge of the Buffy saga, Rhonda Wilcox’s Why Buffy artists’ copyrights. Dark Horse began with Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.6 two titles, Dark Horse Presents, an anthology At Portland State University, Diana Schutz, series, and Boris the Bear. The success of these Dark Horse executive editor and multiple titles enabled Dark Horse to expand its pub- Eisner award recipient, teaches two courses, lishing line. In the company’s second year, it ”Contemporary Comics Theory” and “Under- began publishing manga, standing Comics Art,” making Dark Horse Com- which focus on sequential ics one of the earliest art work from Winsor translators of manga in McCay to Alan Moore to the United States. Today Frank Miller. Schutz com- the company releases mented, approximately 30 comic books and graphic novels Portland State Univer- per month. Dark Horse sity is one of the cur- comics and creators have rent crop of forward- received 94 Will Eisner thinking universities Comic Industry Awards, that are supporting the comics industry’s the exciting new disci- most respected award. pline of Comics Stud- Notable series include ies, not only with the Mike Mignola’s Hellboy incredible backing of and Frank Miller’s Sin the Portland State Li- City. Mignola’s series brary for acquisitions about the mythic char- The Goon™ © 2009 Eric Powell. of this sort, but also acter, Hellboy, combine by offering comics- themes from folktales, epics, and fairy tales related courses via their English and Art to spin adventure stories set in the latter half departments. It’s been a pleasure to be of the 20th century. Mignola opens The Right part of this new academic sphere and Hand of Doom by reciting Edgar Allan Poe’s to introduce students to some of the “Lygeia” juxtaposed with panels depicting real classics of the medium.7 dusk at an eerie castle where vampires await their awakening. In Sin City, Frank Miller, also The collection also holds great potential noted for revitalizing Batman in The Dark for researchers. According to chair of the Knight Returns series, creates a contemporary, Sequential Art Department at the Savannah hard-boiled detective narrative that echoes College of Art and Design David Duncan: classics by Raymond Chandler and John M. Cain. Depicted in stark black- and-white im- A complete and continuing collection ages, Sin City features Dwight, a scruffy ver- such as this is surely a great benefi t November 2009 571 C&RL News to scholars and historians. The most the independent publishing and promotion heartfelt benefi ciary will be the young industry. cartoonists who will fi nd true inspira- tion in their fi rst exposure to the artists Notes and stories in the books. This collection 1. Frank Miller, Sin City: The Frank Miller represents an impressive cross-section Library Set I, Volume II: A Dame to Kill For of genres, styles, and readerships; the (Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2005), 1. demographic of those that can be 2. Portland State University Library, Octo- positively affected by this acquisition ber 31, 2008, “Video from Dark Horse Comics is just as diverse. I hope that this will Celebration,” www.media.pdx.edu/Library be an inspiration to other publishers /Dark_Horse_Event_101608.asx (accessed and academic librar- October 14, 2009). ies that will follow 3. Douglas Wolk, Dark Horse and Port- Reading Comics: How land State University Graphic Novels Work Library’s lead in nur- and What They Mean turing future comic (Philadelphia: Da Capo creators and scholars.8 Press, 2007). Read Wolk’s Reading Comics With the vast Dark for a comprehensive, Horse collection me- critical exploration of ticulously cataloged for art comics and graphic scholarly research, more novels. courses on campus will 4. Helen H. Spald- incorporate these visual/ ing, university librarian, verbal narratives into the Portland State University classroom. Library, e-mail to Kim- Anchored by the Dark berly Willson-St. Clair, Horse Comics archives, July 3, 2009. and ideally situated in 5. Gary Markham, Mike Mignola’s Hellboy™ © 2009 the heart of a city known “Cataloging the Publi- Michael Mignola. All rights reserved. for its thriving comics cations of Dark Horse creators’ community, Comics: One Publisher Portland State University Library’s Special in an Academic Catalog,” Journal of Collections seeks to expand its holdings to Academic Librarianship 35, no. 2 (2009): include the entire output of other indepen- 162–69. dent comics publishers as well, beginning 6. Michael Adams, Slayer Slang: A Buffy with several locally based nationally recog- the Vampire Slayer Lexicon, (New York: nized companies. Special Collections will Oxford University Press, 2003). Rhonda also collect promotional materials, realia, Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: the art of Buffy business records, and personal papers from the vampire slayer (London: I.B. Tauris, its featured publishers as well as the papers 2005). and works of artists and writers associated 7. Diana Schutz, Dark Horse Comics ex- with the comics community, many of whom ecutive editor, e-mail to Kimberly Willson-St. got their start with Dark Horse’s support. Clair, July 1, 2009. These important materials will augment the 8. David Duncan, Sequential Art Depart- study of sequential art by providing further ment chair, Savannah College of Art and insight into the creative process as well as Design, e-mail to Kimberly Willson-St. Clair, into the business and promotion side of July 2, 2009. C&RL News November 2009 572.