The first floor of 22-year-old Bloomington native Megan Pierce’s home is covered in thousands of Joker collectibles from DC’s “Batman” franchise. From life-size cardboard cutouts sporting the Joker’s infamous grin to action figures, rollerblades and a skateboard, the collection is part shrine, part time capsule.
One shelf features the latest addition: Joker milk caps from 1966. Another has Joker chocolate bars and candy displays from 1989, and under those is a Joker Campbell's soup can from 2004. Encapsulated in the multiplicity of Jokers is the same grandiose style the character is known for.
Pierce is a senior at Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana. She travels from her house in Bloomington, which holds the collection, to her home in North Manchester during school semesters. Her plaque for the Guinness World Record largest collection of Joker memorabilia always makes the 132-mile trip with her.
Pierce learned her record was accepted Sept. 19 during her Educational Systems class. After fighting the urge to rush out of class, she finally ran home to tell her mother, Jayne Pierce, who had once waited in the rain for the newest Joker Funko Pop! with her.
Next, she told her sister, who had once eaten all the chocolates in a display of Kinder Joys in search of the Joker collectible Pierce was looking for. A vegan, Pierce wouldn’t open the candy if it meant wasting the chocolate.
Her family helped Pierce rearrange the house to fit her collection so they could take pictures for the Guinness record proposal. The process, which began in 2023 after other collectors urged Pierce to apply for the record, wasn’t easy.
“I had to measure them all,” Pierce said. “I had to provide a description of each item and a photo of everything.”
The collection had to be reviewed by five “expert eyewitnesses,” including one member of law enforcement and four trustworthy individuals with credentials relevant to the record. Among the five were George Robinson, deputy chief of the Ellettsville Police Department, and Jeff Albertson, an Indiana University alumnus and former stunt actor with credits in “The Dark Knight.”
For the record, Guinness only recognized officially licensed items, which totaled 2,318 collectibles. The process of documenting every item, although tedious, didn’t bother Pierce. It was part of her reason for collecting, as she plans on trying to turn her collection into a museum.
“Working your way through his history and getting to see the collectibles and the comics, and just seeing how he's evolved over the years,” Pierce said. “My dream is for it to be chronological order and tell the story of the Joker.”
Pierce’s goal of starting a museum began while attending Edgewood Intermediate School, when she first began collecting. After Pierce received a small Imaginext Joker toy in the second grade from a classmate, her collection began to snowball in middle school. Having trouble in school and experiencing bullying along with mental health issues, Pierce turned to her passion for collecting.
“All of a sudden we're walking in Hot Topic for Funko Pops,” Jayne Pierce said. “It was an adjustment, but I was going to do whatever it took to understand what she was needing and to be there and support her.”
Admitting to a fascination with the Joker’s mysterious origin and propensity for “re-inventing himself,” Pierce's collection connected her to a community that embraced her.
“I was more bullied for having toys as a kid than I am now, it's kind of backwards thinking,” Pierce said. “When I was in middle school and I would wear a Joker shirt, someone might laugh and think I'm a loser, but now people see me as a Joker person.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Pierce began posting content about the Joker and her collection on TikTok, which has since amassed over 65,000 followers. Around this time, Pierce’s mother began noticing a change.
“This is her new family,” Jayne Pierce said. “Whether they're other collectors or icons in the industry. She has this ability to make a relationship with them.”
Pierce uses her platform to connect with “Joker legends” at events like Comic-Con, including animated Joker voice actor Mark Hamill, who complimented her green hair. A few years ago, at the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois, Pierce met Angel Young, who collects collectibles of Harley Quinn — one of Joker’s accomplices. Since then, Pierce and Young have sparked a friendship through exchanging collectibles.
“Interacting with another collector that has such genuine passion for what they collect is one of the best feelings,” Young said. “It's a sort of bond and understanding that this person gets what you're doing.”
Pierce met Michael Uslan, producer of the “Batman” movie franchise and IU professor of practice, at an event in January 2019 but missed Uslan’s next appearance at IU later in February 2020 when she was struggling with a mental health crisis. Pierce’s father attended the event and explained her absence to Uslan, who sent her a copy of his book, “The Boy Who Loved Batman," with a handwritten note signed with a Batman symbol on the inside.
“To me a real-life super-hero is someone who perseveres and holds her head high in the face of adversity-never allowing the bad guys to win," Uslan wrote. “That takes courage, strength and a smile. You’re one of my super-heroes!”
Ulsan met with Pierce the next day, inviting her to watch the Oscars with his class in February 2020. That year, Joaquin Phoenix won an Oscar for his portrayal of the Joker.
Ulsan said he is proud of Pierce and her record and sees similarities in her to himself as a child.
“She has taken a degree of negativity in her life and turned it all into a huge positive in her life that doesn't simply bring happiness to her, but to fans everywhere and to the world at large,” Uslan said.
As she focuses on her passion for documenting history, Pierce can forget the cost of collecting. She said she doesn’t know the most expensive item in her collection or how much the entire collection is worth.
For Pierce, the value in collecting isn’t profit, but preservation and storytelling.
“She’s easy to shop for,” Jayne Pierce said. “With every item, she has a story of how she got it.”
One story includes Pierce, her father and two sisters piling up in a car during a snowstorm to drive hours into Ohio for a life-size Joker cardboard cutout. They somehow fit the cutout into the car with them, and Pierce now laughs at her family's ability to have kept the collectible in decent condition.
At Manchester, Pierce is pursuing a communications degree and finds connections between her collection and education. She points to comics as the main reason she was able to start reading and learning in class, crediting them for her love of literature.
Pierce often contextualizes history by pointing out different Batman and Joker marketing campaigns during her public relations classes. In one case, Pierce spoke to a class about her collection and love for the Joker, as she hopes to inspire others like her to collect.
“Ignore the bullies,” she said. “They're not this all-powerful person that's way better than you. ‘Oh, they're so cool, they're so popular, they're better than me.’ They're not. Stay true to yourself and find a community for you.”
As Pierce continues to stack Joker items for her museum, she eyes a future attempt at breaking her own record. But she doesn’t plan to rush it. Although her passion for collecting remains, Pierce claims she isn’t worried about anyone else breaking her record.
“It will only inspire me to collect more,” Pierce said. “Go for it.”
