The Cherokee Nation became the first Native American tribe with a tribal newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. The Serial & Government Publications Division holds a number of original issues of the Cherokee Phoenix, first published on February 21, 1828. The newspaper was printed “partly with English, and partly with Cherokee print; and all matter which is common …
Whether you are a comics fan or not, chances are you have heard of Stan Lee. His larger than life personality and dedication to the fans are some of the many things that people are remembering in the wake of his passing this week at age 95. Lee, Marvel’s “Chairman Emeritus,” unofficial ambassador, and alliteration …
Inspired by the true detective and mystery pulp fiction magazines from the early 20th century, such as Black Mask, Detective Story, and G-Men, crime comics were one of the most popular genres of the Golden Age during the 1940s and 1950s. But public fascination with crime dates back even earlier with publications such as The …
Legendary artist Marie Severin passed away a few weeks ago, and I wanted to take a moment to share some of her works that are available at the Library of Congress and highlight her decades-long career in the comic book industry. Marie began working as a colorist for EC (Entertaining Comics) in the 1950’s and …
For me, the end of the summer has become a time of year when I get to work extensively with our independent comic materials in the Small Press Expo Collection. Every year since 2011, staff from the Library of Congress have attended the Small Press Expo, a festival dedicated to celebrating all things indie comics, …
Could a picture be worth more than a thousand words? For anyone trying to find an elusive photograph, illustration, or comic in a historic newspaper – the answer might be yes! Searching for these types of images is dramatically easier thanks to digitization efforts, such as the National Digital Newspaper Program, which makes millions of …
Before comic books, people read comics in their local newspapers such as Little Nemo, Mutt and Jeff, and the Yellow Kid. Read more about these early comics in the collections of the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room.
For those of you celebrating #StarWarsDay on this May 4th, we thought we’d geek out with you a little bit by showing off some of the amazing items from the Library of Congress’ Comic Book Collection - did you know that many of your favorite characters have their own comics? Of course, we also have the original …
