Comic book exhibit opens at Lilly

To the bat cave! Well, to the Lilly Library at least, where currently everyone can go hang out with all their favorite heroes and humorous casts of characters. People have been visiting the bat cave for years, along with special places like Metropolis, Mars or Haverville High.\nThe Lilly Library's newest exhibit, titled "Comics as Cultural Mythology: The Michael E. Uslan Collection of Comic Books and Graphic Novels," presents a selection of Uslan's donated comic book collection. Uslan, an IU graduate and producer of the "Batman" movies, has provided the library with more than 30,000 comic books.\n"I have donated the collection for fans, for scholars and for prosperity," Uslan said.\nThe exhibit offers a look at a range of comic books over the years. Furthermore, there are comic books showing more than the usual suspects well-known from summer blockbusters.\n"There has always been more to comics than superheroes," said Mike Cagle, the curator of the exhibition.\nAdditionally, the east side of the gallery offers a look at many of these forgotten and somewhat unknown characters taken from cultural mythology and folklore.\n"From Beowulf and Thor to Prince Valiant, Conan the Barbarian and Wagner's Ring Cycle, mythology -- and pseudo- or quasi-mythology -- of various kinds has always been a rich source of ideas material for comics storytellers," Cagle said.\nVisitors might also be interested in comic book collecting. The exhibit seems to present the question, what is it about comic books that can be so intriguing? Faculty member Donald Petkus, a visitor of the exhibit, shared his thoughts. \n"People never actually grow up," he said.\nComic books have always had their place in the hearts of children but Petkus said the fascination does not end there. \n"You can go back to it at a certain age and claim you're a collector. You can go back to your comic books and notice differences," Petkus said. \nComic books have become so interesting to Uslan that he began a class about them as contemporary American folklore in 1971. The exhibit displays newspaper articles and a brief summary of the course's beginning at IU.\n"The ancient gods of the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians and the Norse still exist, only today they're clad in spandex, capes and masks," Uslan said. \nCagle wished to emphasize this academic angle of the exhibit, particularly in reference to the benefits it gives IU.\n"I hope the exhibit gives a sense of the resources available here to scholars, researchers, artists, students, comics fans and the general curious public," he said.\nWhile the exhibit, Cagle said, only displays a brief presentation of comic book history, the Lilly Library offers visitors a chance to look at an art form that displays what Uslan describes as a reflection of the times and the "ever-changing American culture."\nIn spite of the "ever-changing" culture, there is an element of comics that remains permanent, Petkus said. \n"These people, we understand them, we see them, we know what they stand for. They change over time but all come back to the same image. It always stays with you," he said.\nThe exhibit runs until Dec. 17. The Lilly Library is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, call 855-2452 or visit www.indiana.edu/~liblilly.