strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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May 22 05: 100% to Zot!
So we spent the weekend in Ithaca again. It was delightful, as usual: the weather sunny and mild, the streets quiet, the dogs happy, the produce fresh. And as usual I spent the whole long and lovely day seated at Tom and Genevieve’s dining-room table, counting comic books.
The census is finally finished. There are 5,215 comic books in those boxes, dating from the early 1980s to about a month ago. I’m one step closer to giving them all away.
Why? It’s my contention that comic books are a storytelling medium that deserves more academic attention. For that to happen, the academy needs archives of the stories themselves. Their contents can be examined along critical, historical, and cultural lines—get me started on how superhero-origin stories mirror the popular anxieties of the era in which they’re told, for instance, and I could go on for hours. (Alternatively: How did the AIDS crisis affect mainstream comic books? Initial response followed two lines. First, biological pathogens gained increased prominence among origin stories. Second, super-hero costume design, particularly among male characters, took a sudden turn towards heavy body armor, often bristling with spikes. Pop culture was saying, Don’t touch me. Discuss.) Lit-crit aside, the books are potentially useful historical documents for other reasons: who was advertising in them, and how, and why? What did readers have to say in the letter columns? What did the creators say in response?
Right. So, that’s the plan, and last I spoke to my alma mater’s Rare Book and Manuscript division, the academy was interested in playing along with it. A fair amount of homework yet to do, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.