During the past decade we have witnessed a remarkable number of complete
collections of comic strips come into being---the Complete Peanuts, the
Complete Far Side, the Complete Calvin & Hobbes, etc.
In my opinion, large libraries ought to buy and keep these volumes. But
are
they doing so? My guess is that they are not. Public libraries, even
large
ones, might acquire some of these volumes on an ad hoc basis, but at best
they are likely to acquire just one copy which will circulate and which
will
be sold or discarded all too soon. I do not blame them for this; given
the
mission of a public library, I might very well do that if I were in charge
of a public library.
University libraries, on the other hand, may not regard comic strips as
"serious literature." Even if they have thought about acquiring some
comic
strip collections in the past, they may have (justifiably, I think) been
dissatisfied with the haphazard state of comic strip reprint books and
decided to beg off any systematic effort to acquire them.
Fortunately, the complete collections address this objection. However, my
guess is that the proliferation of these complete collections has escaped
the notice of most university librarians, who have many other things to
think about.
I think it would be a great idea for comic strip fans to contact their
local university reference librarians and make sure that these complete
collections of comic strips are on their radar screen. I have done
so myself at my local university library, offering to kick off their
collection by donating the first few volumes of the Complete Peanuts.
I made the case that Schulz's fame is such that scholarly analyses of his
work are inevitable, and that now is the time to buy the volumes while
they are cheaply and readily available. The graphic arts section of the
library was delighted to receive the donations and agreed to continue
acquiring the rest of the set. I encourage you to go and do likewise!
--
Tim Chow tchow-at-alum-dot-mit-dot-edu
The range of our projectiles---even ... the artillery---however great,
will
never exceed four of those miles of which as many thousand separate us
from
the center of the earth. ---Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New
Sciences
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