The article reports on the acquisition made by the Portland State University (PSU) on the archives of Dark Horse Comics Inc. The acquisition is done after PSU alumnus and founder of Dark Horse Comics Mark Richardson donated multiple copies of the past issues of their publication and succeeding copies of the publication. The donation is also for the purpose of preserving the publication in the university library. The donated publication is also expected to be used by researchers as a destination resource in popular culture, gender studies, and sequential art. Donating copies to the library, Richardson also expects to create an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals as well as a sense of ownership for Dark Horse creators

Bowman, Michael S.

Paschild, Cristine

Willson-St. Clair, Kimberly

PDXScholar (Portland State University)

Portland State UniversityPDXScholarLibrary Faculty Publications and Presentations University Library11-1-2009How the dark horse came in : Portland State University Libraryacquires Dark Horse Comics archiveMichael S. BowmanPortland State University, bowman@pdx.eduCristine PaschildPortland State University, paschild@pdx.eduKimberly Willson-St. ClairPortland State University, willson-stclairk@pdx.eduLet us know how access to this document benefits you.Follow this and additional works at: http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/ulib_facPart of the Library and Information Science CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Library Faculty Publications and Presentations by anauthorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu.Citation DetailsBrowman, M., Paschild, C. N., & Willson, K. (2009). How the dark horse came in. College & Research Libraries News, 70(10),570-572C&RL News November 2009  570It’s another hot night, dry and windless. The kind that makes people do sweaty, secret things. I wait and listen. For a while it’s quiet as it gets in Sin City.”1 In 2008, the Portland State University Library acquired the archives from the third largest comics publisher in the United States, the Milwaukie, Oregon-based Dark Horse Comics, Inc. Port-land State University alumnus Mike Richardson, founder and president of Dark Horse Comics, Inc., and Neil Hanker-son, executive vice president, donated multiple copies of all publications and products generated by Dark Horse from its establishment in 1986 to the present and will continue to provide copies of all future items produced by the com-pany.2 Richardson’s hour-long presentation covers the history of comics from format changes to the Comics Code to the advent of art comics and the graphic novel.3 This generous gift will re-sult in a complete collection of the Dark Horse corpus to be preserved in the Portland State University Library Special Collections. The research collection contains one copy of every Dark Horse comics book, graphic novel, collected edition, foreign trans-lations of Dark Horse original works, book, print, poster, statue, fi gure, and all other products. An additional circulating library of the published Dark Horse canon, added to the general Portland State Library collection, is available to more than 26,000 students at Portland State University as well as more than 200,000 students and faculty in Oregon and Washington through the Orbis Cascade Alli-ance academic library consortium. National and international access via the Portland State Library’s interlibrary loan service also is available to in-terested readers.University Librarian Helen H. Spalding states, “This col-lection will be a destination resource for researchers in popular culture, gender stud-ies, communications, and sequential art. Even the busi-ness and publishing programs will have products, packaging, and advertising materials to study.”4 To date, more than 2,000 Dark Horse comics, graphic novels, manga and books have been received, cataloged, and made available for students and faculty to check out at the Portland State Library. Access points in the bibliographic re-cords are provided for not only authors and illustrators, but other important contributors, including colorists and engravers, opening Michael Bowman, Cristine N. Paschild, and Kimberly Willson-St. ClairHow the dark horse came inPortland State University Library acquires Dark Horse Comics archives Michael Bowman is comics librarian, e-mail: bowman@pdx.edu, Cristine N. Paschild is special collections librarian, e-mail: paschild@pdx.edu, and Kimberly Willson-St. Clair is public relations coordinator, e-mail: willsons@pdx.edu, and at Portland State University © 2009 Michael Bowman, Cristine N. Paschild, Kimberly Willson-St. ClairDark Horse Comics® and the Dark Horse logo are trade-marks of Dark Horse Com-ics, Inc., registered in various categories and countries. All rights reserved.November 2009  571 C&RL Newsavenues of research about these important artists and their work.5 The 20 languages rep-resented in the collection provide additional material for students in Portland State’s foreign language program.Making a lasting impact on the industry, Richardson sought to establish an ideal at-mosphere for creative professionals and set a policy that Dark Horse offer creators own-ership of their works, at a time when other publishers were reluctant to acknowledge artists’ copyrights. Dark Horse began with two titles, Dark Horse Presents, an anthology series, and Boris the Bear. The success of these titles enabled Dark Horse to expand its pub-lishing line. In the company’s second year, it began publishing manga, making Dark Horse Com-ics one of the earliest translators of manga in the United States. Today the company releases approximately 30 comic books and graphic novels per month. Dark Horse comics and creators have received 94 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the comics industry’s most respected award.Notable series include Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and Frank Miller’s Sin City. Mignola’s series about the mythic char-acter, Hellboy, combine themes from folktales, epics, and fairy tales to spin adventure stories set in the latter half of the 20th century. Mignola opens The Right Hand of Doom by reciting Edgar Allan Poe’s “Lygeia” juxtaposed with panels depicting dusk at an eerie castle where vampires await their awakening. In Sin City, Frank Miller, also noted for revitalizing Batman in The Dark Knight Returns series, creates a contemporary, hard-boiled detective narrative that echoes classics by Raymond Chandler and John M. Cain. Depicted in stark black- and-white im-ages, Sin City features Dwight, a scruffy ver-sion of Philip Marlowe, and a Frankenstein’s monster-like character named Marv. Star Wars, the Alien series, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are original interpretations of the fi lms and TV series. These syndication narratives have been written about as part of popular 20th-century American culture, including a Buffy lexicon published Oxford University Press, Michael Adam’s Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon, and a critical deconstruction of the Buffy saga, Rhonda Wilcox’s Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.6At Portland State University, Diana Schutz, Dark Horse executive editor and multiple Eisner award recipient, teaches two courses, ”Contemporary Comics Theory” and “Under-standing Comics Art,” which focus on sequential art work from Winsor McCay to Alan Moore to Frank Miller. Schutz com-mented,Portland State Univer-sity is one of the cur-rent crop of forward-thinking universities that are supporting the exciting new disci-pline of Comics Stud-ies, not only with the incredible backing of the Portland State Li-brary for acquisitions of this sort, but also by offering comics-related courses via their English and Art departments. It’s been a pleasure to be part of this new academic sphere and to introduce students to some of the real classics of the medium.7 The collection also holds great potential for researchers. According to chair of the Sequential Art Department at the Savannah College of Art and Design David Duncan: A complete and continuing collection such as this is surely a great benefi t The Goon™ © 2009 Eric Powell.C&RL News November 2009  572to scholars and historians. The most heartfelt benefi ciary will be the young cartoonists who will fi nd true inspira-tion in their fi rst exposure to the artists and stories in the books. This collection represents an impressive cross-section of genres, styles, and readerships; the demographic of those that can be positively affected by this acquisition is just as diverse. I hope that this will be an inspiration to other publishers and academic librar-ies that will follow Dark Horse and Port-land State University Library’s lead in nur-turing future comic creators and scholars.8 With the vast Dark Horse collection me-ticulously cataloged for scholarly research, more courses on campus will incorporate these visual/verbal narratives into the classroom. Anchored by the Dark Horse Comics archives, and ideally situated in the heart of a city known for its thriving comics creators’ community, Portland State University Library’s Special Collections seeks to expand its holdings to include the entire output of other indepen-dent comics publishers as well, beginning with several locally based nationally recog-nized companies. Special Collections will also collect promotional materials, realia, business records, and personal papers from its featured publishers as well as the papers and works of artists and writers associated with the comics community, many of whom got their start with Dark Horse’s support. These important materials will augment the study of sequential art by providing further insight into the creative process as well as into the business and promotion side of the independent publishing and promotion industry. Notes1. Frank Miller, Sin City: The Frank Miller Library Set I, Volume II: A Dame to Kill For (Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2005), 1.2. Portland State University Library, Octo-ber 31, 2008, “Video from Dark Horse Comics Celebration,” www.media.pdx.edu/Library/Dark_Horse_Event_101608.asx (accessed October 14, 2009).3. Douglas Wolk, Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean (Philadelphia: Da Capo P re s s ,  2007 ) .  Read Wolk’s Reading Comics for a comprehensive, critical exploration of art comics and graphic novels.4. Helen H. Spald-ing, university librarian, Portland State University Library, e-mail to Kim-berly Willson-St. Clair, July 3, 2009. 5. Gary Markham, “Cataloging the Publi-cations of Dark Horse Comics: One Publisher in an Academic Catalog,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 35, no. 2 (2009): 162–69.6. Michael Adams, Slayer Slang: A Buffy the Vampire Slayer Lexicon, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: the art of Buffy the vampire slayer (London: I.B. Tauris, 2005).7. Diana Schutz, Dark Horse Comics ex-ecutive editor, e-mail to Kimberly Willson-St. Clair, July 1, 2009.8. David Duncan, Sequential Art Depart-ment chair, Savannah College of Art and Design, e-mail to Kimberly Willson-St. Clair, July 2, 2009. Mike Mignola’s Hellboy™ © 2009 Michael Mignola. All rights reserved.

How the Dark Horse Came in: Portland State University Library Acquires Dark Horse Comics Archive

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How the Dark Horse Came in: Portland State University Library Acquires Dark Horse Comics Archive

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