That is the question we hear a lot at the beginning of the new academic year as students explore Butler Library and end up here, in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, aka “The Pink Palace.” The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) is Columbia’s principal repository for primary source collections. The range of collections […]
Category: Comics and Cartoons
New from RBML’s Archivists | August 2019
Head Archivist Kevin Schlottmann shares collections newly opened or updated by RBML’s Archivists. New finding aids Yehudah Joffe papers, 1893-1966, bulk 1920-1945 “The collection consists of Joffe’s correspondence, manuscripts/notes, and newspaper clippings. Joffe’s correspondence in Yiddish in English is both personal and professional, covering communication with institutions he was working at or hoping to work […]
A Rare Hatless Herriman, with Scotties
George Herriman, creator of the newspaper strip “Krazy Kat,” is generally acknowledged as one of the true geniuses of the comics medium. The endless invention of his strip’s setting, Coconino County, combined with Krazy’s philosophical musings conveyed in a playfully creative language, led cultural critic Gilbert Seldes to devote a chapter to the strip in […]
An unexpected task for Conservation
While going through the Mark Nevins minicomics collection–a deep dive into global cartooning!–we came across a seemingly innocuous anthology from CF, called Burning, with this lovely Ron Rege Jr cover: […]
An oddity in the comics collections
A true treasure trove of a gift has been coming over the past few years from Jens Robinson, the son of illustrator and Golden Age comics artist Jerry Robinson. In addition to all of Jerry’s Playbill art, his strips, his book illustration, and other materials, Jens has been giving us Jerry’s library. In preparation for […]