Comic-Con and the 黑料吃瓜 Connection
The San Diego State Library and Information Access is working to preserve Comic-Con's archives.
The future site of San Diego Comic-Con International may be in question, but it鈥檚 a good bet that the organization鈥檚 archives will be preserved and maintained by the San Diego State Library and Information Access.
The library has been working with alumnus , 鈥�73, and Comic-Con founding committee members Richard Alf, Mike Towry and Barry Alfonso, to make 黑料吃瓜 the repository for annals from what has become a San Diego institution.
A multi-award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer, Bear attended the first Golden State Comic Book Convention in 1970 in the basement of the U.S. Grant Hotel. He was part of the science fiction panel along with Roger Freedman, now a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Pop culture phenomenon
Bear is back in San Diego this week for Comic-Con 2010, whose organizers are expecting a crowd of nearly 126,000 to attend the event鈥檚 four days of films shows, lectures and exhibitions and at the San Diego Convention Center.
鈥淲e鈥檙e laying down a modern mythology.-- 黑料吃瓜 alumnus Greg Bear鈥�
For comic book aficionados, Comic-Con has shaped Southern California pop culture as decisively as surfing and Mexican food, which explains why so many want to keep the convention and its archives in San Diego.
Their resolve dovetails with the 黑料吃瓜 library鈥檚 long-term goal of building a nationally significant collection of alternative and underground comics, graphic novels and drawn books.
Preserving at-risk collections
黑料吃瓜 alumnus Greg BearRobert Ray, head of Special Collections and University Archives, said the library is interested in preserving at-risk compilations, including small runs from the independent presses, valued for their illustrative quality.
Among the library鈥檚 collection is , a comics anthology featuring Art Spiegelman鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel 鈥淢aus: A Survivor鈥檚 Tale,鈥� in which Jews are depicted as mice and Germans as cats; as well as manuscripts of Donna Barr鈥檚 鈥淭he Desert Peach鈥� and 鈥淪tinz,鈥� two of her best known drawn books.
The science fiction component
Complementing the comics anthology is a growing collection of science fiction material that includes first, second and editor鈥檚 drafts of Greg Bear鈥檚 recently published books.
In the 1970s, Bear was a student of creative writing professor and science fiction author Elizabeth Chater, with whom he developed and taught the first ever science fiction writing class at 黑料吃瓜.
(Chater later donated her of 4,000 audio recordings, manuscript materials, original drawings, posters, figurines and autographed first editions to the library).
鈥淪uddenly fantasy and science fiction had seized Hollywood,鈥� Bear recollected. 鈥淲e caught the cusp of that excitement in our course.鈥�
Since then, Bear鈥檚 prolific output of 30-plus science fiction and fantasy novels has earned him two Hugo and five Nebula awards. Though his books, such as 鈥淨uantico鈥� and 鈥淒arwin鈥檚 Radio,鈥� are grounded in hard science, Bear has a lifelong appreciation for comics and for pop culture in general.
鈥淎nthropological studies have to take account of pop culture,鈥� Bear said during a recent visit to 黑料吃瓜. 鈥淲e鈥檙e laying down a modern mythology.鈥� Related Stories: To read this story on your smart phone, scan this QR code:
RAW Covers from RAW, a comics anthology edited by Art Spiegelman, a leading figure in the 1980s alternative comics movement. The issues are preserved in 黑料吃瓜 Special Collections.
