IU alumnus gives comics to Lilly Library

The Bat Cave and the Fortress of Solitude have moved to the Lilly Library. All manner of costumed super heroes and maniacal villains will now take residence with first edition Shakespeare thanks to the generosity of an IU alumnus.\nMichael Uslan, who earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1973, a master's in education in 1975 and a law degree in 1976, has donated more than 25,000 comic books to the Lilly Library. Uslan is the president of Branded Entertainment and has produced all of the Batman feature films. He also has authored several books, and his company owns the rights to produce CrossGen comic properties in television and film. \nThis collection, which still is being processed and catalogued by the library, will vastly improve the library's current collection of comic books and complement its other popular culture collections.\nThe ongoing transfer of comic books began in 2001 and continued last semester. The collection includes DC, Marvel, CrossGen and Dark Horse comics and documents detailing much of comic book history.\nThe library collection provides a look at popular culture as well as a unique look at the medium.\n"In addition to the Gutenberg Bible, we have a number of books, pamphlets and manuscripts," said Joel Silver, the curator of books at the Lilly Library. "Scholars of the future will be as interested in study of comic books of the 20th century as we are in studying pop culture of the 17th and 18th centuries."\nMatt Traughber, the assistant manager at Bloomington's Vintage Phoenix comic bookstore, said he was pleased that IU's collection was expanding and that comic books were being studied academically. \n"Anything that's created in an artistic endeavor surely is worth studying," Traughber said. "(Do comic books) fall short of high, lofty goals sometimes? Sure, but so do TV and movies."\nSilver characterized any library as a "collection of collections," and said that cataloging and processing Uslan's donation should be complete and a part of the larger collection by the fall semester. Comic book scholars, fans or those with a casual interest will then be able to find titles at the Lilly Library Web site and request them in the library's reading room. \n"Anyone who wants to use the collection, may," Silver said. "Curiosity has always been a valid reason for using the library."\nTraughber agreed that displaying the entire collection isn't necessary. \n"The bulk of it -- there's no point in trying to display its uniqueness, because most of it isn't unique," he said. "If you'd never seen a movie before, I wouldn't take you to 'Weekend at Bernie's'."\nSilver also said "Star Trek" fans often come to Lilly Library to browse the library's complete collection of original television series scripts, and he said he anticipates that comic aficionados will do the same.\nLilly Library Director Breon Mitchell said the role of the library is to preserve works that reflect the culture of the times. He also said comic books have become a more important subject for academic research in the last 20 years. \n"We preserve a reflection of the times, and a part of that has got to be comic books," Mitchell said. "Not to say that comic books are as important as other forms of art or literature, but they are important"