Comics & Cartoons
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) collects archives relating to comics creators, editors, publishers, researchers, and fandom. We also collect fanzines and minicomics, but rarely comic book collections. The collection complements RBML's holdings in artist books, book illustration, children's literature, and American history.
Collection Highlights
Chris Claremont (X-Men) papers
Al Jaffee (Mad magazine) papers
Wendy and Richard Pini (Elfquest) papers
Charles Saxon (New Yorker) papers
Dennis Ryan editorial cartoon art collection
Kitchen Sink Press records, which features over 40,000 letters between Denis Kitchen and every major underground cartoonist of the 1970s and 1980s.
We also hold a small collection of Silver Age and underground comic books, comic-con programs, and, in the Pulitzer Prize Board archives, Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoons. The collections complement RBML’s holdings in American history and the history of publishing, as well as the Graphic Arts artist books collection and the Historical Children’s Literature collection.
The collection welcomes all types of creators in the comics medium, including those who produce single-panel cartoons, comic strips, comic books, or graphic novels. Materials of interest include manuscripts, drafts, original art, roughs and tracings, correspondence, contracts, records, fanzines, artifacts, and other formats in support of research and teaching in comics studies as an interdisciplinary field. RBML also collects materials related to comics fan culture, especially convention material, fanzines, and fan mail.
Contact Us
Karen Green
Curator, Comics & Cartoons; Lecturer in English & Comparative Literature
- Rare Book & Manuscript Library