Gabriel’s Trumpet: Librarians in Comic Books

Categories: Comic News|Published On: April 11, 2003|Views: 4|

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Imagination is the heart of comic book art…

“Comic books in
libraries” is a popular theme. But how often do we hear about “librarians in
comic books?” I find this reversal quite interesting. And of course, this all
coincides with a collaboration the New York City Comic Book Museum has with the
B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library. For those of you counting this makes three
exhibits we are currently offering-not too bad for a homeless museum! The
exhibit, “Comics: A Flight Through Time” opens this weekend and runs through May
20th at the C.W. Post Campus Library of Long Island University. It is
the museum’s first collaboration with a university library, and also our first
time working with my Canadian/Librarian friend Steven Bergson.

Steven, a
librarian at the Albert & Temmy Latner Jewish Public Library of Toronto, has
been fascinated by this topic of librarians as characters in comics for years.
His own collection has supplied the comic books for this exhibit. Comics scholar
Steve has also archived his research into the appearances of librarians in
comics and indexed it online at http://www.ibiblio.org/librariesfaq/combks/combks.htm.
Some of his favorite portrayals of this esteemed profession are:
Batgirl/Oracle-Barbara Gordon, the librarian in the Star Raiders graphic
novel and Giles from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics series. Said
Steve, “the first two are fighters as well as thinkers and Giles is an
invaluable assistant to Buffy (who does the fighting for him.) In Star
Raiders
, the “librarian” was a military man who survived an apocalypse by
going underground during the cataclysm. Library books were stored below, so he
made himself that world’s librarian. His abilities are later underestimated
because he is thought to be “merely” a librarian.” His least favorite is the
portrayal found in Joe Sacco’s “Voyage to the End of the Library,” for its
“unfairly negative view of libraries, librarians, and library users.” Steve’s
list has many more examples to check into, and many of the books he lists are a
part of the exhibit. He delved far enough into this theme to discover an old
issue of Spidey Super Stories containing the character Valerie the
Librarian-who apparently became Spider-Woman well before the first Jessica Drew
ever donned her own webbed garb.

I asked a few librarians: What comic
book character would YOU most like to be? Here are some
replies:

“Super-Librarian. Memory power to remember the exact answer to
every reference question ever asked. Super-speed to look up the correct answer
to any question instantaneously. Strength to carry the entire Oxford English
Dictonary
set in one arm, and the complete Encyclopedia Brittanica in
the other. Mental powers to browse the Internet instantly just by concentrating.
Flying ability (which almost all the superheroes have nowadays) would be an
asset, enabling me to retrieve the important books that always seem to get put
up on the very top shelf. Sound absorption powers to ward off attacks from
villains using sonic weapons, and to help keep the library quiet. Martial arts
skills, which I learn about from browsing materials in the library’s physical
fitness collection, to ward off ninjas and other “problem patrons.” And an
excellent grasp of higher-level mathematics to calculate the correct overdue
amount in my head, no matter how delinquent the patrons have been. I would have
to be a multi-millionaire in my secret identity so that I could make the huge
anonymous donations to the library acquisitions budget that allow me to fill the
“gaps” in the collection-starting with comics, of course.
Steven M.
Bergson

“I wouldn’t mind being like Oracle…tapped into all the info
systems in the world. It would be awesome to have access to all the information
in the world- even info that you’re not supposed to have.”
Michael
Timpani
Law Librarian/ Dept of Energy

“I think I’d pick the Silver Age
Flash. There’s too many books to read, too many photographs to catalogue, too
many exhibits to see…super-speed would make all that much easier. And in the
Silver Age, nobody was really trying to kill you. “
Mike Rhode
Archivist,
National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, DC

“Wonder Woman is
an inspirational role model in that she values democracy and respects the rights
of women. She encourages women to be strong but advocates that force be used
only as a last resort. She is indeed a remarkably sensitive person who is
concerned in war-time about protecting the foreign born from intolerance and
prejudice.”
Manju Prasad-Rao
Head, Instructional Media Center, C.W. Post
Campus, Long Island University

Interesting to note that Mary Kate
Boyd-Byrnes, Reference Librarian, Amrita Madray, Reference Librarian and Jean
Uhl, Media Librarian also from C.W. Post Campus, also said Wonder Woman…must
be a trend.

“Comics: A Flight through Time” from April 10, 2003 – May
20, 2003 in the Main Lobby of the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library, C.W. Post
Campus, Long Island University, 720 Northern Blvd. Brookville, NY. Please check
our website at www.nyccbm.org
for more information.

Until next time…

This is a weekly
column from our friend David Jay Gabriel, Executive Director and Founder of the
New York City Comic Book Museum. You can find out more about the museum at www.nyccbm.org.


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