Columbia University Libraries Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) has acquired the archives of Kitchen Sink Press, which includes 30 years of correspondence, publishing and editorial files, mechanicals, original art and mock-ups, business files and more. Kitchen Sink, which operated between 1969 and 1999, published some of the top creators in comics history, including Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman; early strip giants such as Al Capp and Ernie Bushmiller; underground pioneers Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Art Spiegelman; and modern stars Charles Burns and Neil Gaiman.
The archives include over 50,000 letters, including draft artwork and published and unpublished story ideas, each one date-stamped, saved with its envelope, and with publisher Denis Kitchen’s response attached.
"Apparently I am a natural-born archivist," Kitchen said. "I will miss the rows of file cabinets full of handwritten letters, illustrated letters, and even letters that came out of devices called typewriters, all created before the digital age made traditional correspondence all but obsolete, but I hope they provide scholars with insights into the development of underground comix and the work of the multiple generations of creators I had the distinct pleasure of working with."
Karen Green, librarian and developer of the CUL/IS comics and graphic novels collection, noted the significance of the collection. "These archives do far more than simply document comics history; they are a chronicle of the cultural and social history of the twentieth century," she said.
The Columbia Rare Book and Manuscript Library has been on a comics tear this year. Back in February, it acquired all of the original art for every ElfQuest story from creators Wendy and Richard Pini.
30 Years of Comic Publishing
Posted by ICv2 on December 18, 2013 @ 11:56 pm CT
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