Credit Emanuele Berry / WKAR-MSU
Randy Scott, the head of Michigan State University Libraries Comic Art Collection, says he remembers a time when there was an anti-comic book movement.
French cowboys, Korean princes and superheroes of the Golden Age are all housed in the basement of MSU’s main library, as part of the university's Comic Art Collection. It’s the largest library comic collection in the world.
In the 1970’s, MSU professor and popular culture pioneer Russel Nye made a founding donation of 6,000 comics, which were commandeered from students in his classes. Today the collection consists of around 200,000 works.
Randy Scott is the assistant head of the library's special collections and is in charge of the Comic Art Collection. He guided Current State’s Emanuele Berry on a tour, discussing North Korean comics, Germany's Chief Winnetou series and Wonder Woman.