The 1968 comic book that started it all, Marvel’s Avengers #1, is one item in a massive collection recently donated to University Libraries by lifelong collector Gary Lee Watson of Columbus, Ohio.
Avengers #1 marked the first appearance of creator Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s superhero team the Avengers, which includes Ant Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and the Wasp.
One of the largest collections of its kind, the Gary Lee Watson Comics Collection includes 143,000 unique comics, 20,000 magazines, 15,000 paperbacks and 5,000 pulp publications and other items.
“This is such a phenomenal, transformational gift,” says Elizabeth Sudduth, associate dean of special collections at UofSC Libraries. “This is the work of a committed, lifelong collector. We could have never amassed a collection like this on our own. We are so grateful to Gary for entrusting his amazing collection with the Irvin Department.”
In addition to Avengers #1, other rare and sought after items in the collection include:
Star Trek #1
The Brave and the Bold # 28, which is the first appearance of the Justice League of America — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter
Comics with the first single appearances of the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Hulk, Spiderman, the Black Panther, Vixen, and Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern
It took two trips to Ohio to pick up the collection — with two 26-foot-long moving trucks. Weighing in at about 40,000 pounds, the collection represents all comics genres and publishers and gives the university community access to a significant percentage of all comics ever published.
[Clip]
While it will take many years for Irvin Department staff to go through the boxes, inspect each item and catalog the entire inventory, staff members are able to fulfill requests for UofSC classes now. Faculty and students can contact the Irvin Department and arrange to visit the Hollings Library reading room and work with all but the most fragile items in the collection.
Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.
From the Montana Free Press: Commissioners for the Montana State Library voted Tuesday to reject a redesigned logo for the agency, weeks after some commissioners raised concerns that the logo’s ...
The video embedded below was recorded on June 30, 2022. From the Aspen Institute: Whom do we trust to tell us what to read and, perhaps more importantly, should we ...
From an IFLA Blog Post: We are pleased to announce the following results of IFLA’s Extraordinary Elections 2022, which determine the key posts of President-elect and Treasurer. President-elect: Vicki McDonald ...
From Motherboard: There has been a swift escalation of LGBTQ-related attacks on libraries in recent months, turning typically quiet public spaces into political battlegrounds at a time of growing hostility ...
From the Our World in Data Website: Explore the world’s political systems with the leading approaches of measuring democracy. Direct to Democracy Data Explorer See Also: Download the Complete Democracy ...
Canada’s Bestselling Books by Province and Territory (Booknet Canada) Changing the Academic Gender Narrative through Open Access (via Publications) NLM Responds to Librarians’ Open Letter re: MeSH Term Changes (Medical ...
From the U.S. Census: On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, setting the 13 colonies on the road to freedom as a sovereign nation. As ...
The article linked below was recently published by Library & Information Science Research. Title Exploring User Experience in Digital Libraries Through Questionnaire and Eye-Tracking Data Authors Maja Kuhar University of ...
The article linked below was recently published by PLoS One. Title Click Me…! The Influence of Clickbait on User Engagement in Social Media and the Role of Digital Nudging Authors ...
From SPARC Europe: SPARC Europe has been selected to deliver the first project sponsored under the Knowledge Rights 21 (KR21) programme. KR21 seeks to strengthen access to knowledge in particular through ...
From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...
The article linked below was recently published by Certified Public Manager® Applied Research Title Public Libraries as Community Health Partners Authors Melinda HodgesLibrary Director, Buda Public Library, City of Buda ...