Sean Kleefield alerts us to a preview of the Underground & Independent Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels site which appears to do for indies what the now vanished htmlcomics.com did for all comics…but here’s the twist….it’s…legit?
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels is the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. Beginning with the first underground comix from the 1960’s to the works of modern sequential artists, this collection will contain more than 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform.”
Available now, Snappy Sammy Smoot, Love & Rockets, Wimmen’s Comics, Brat Pack and many more groundbreaking, heartbreaking and breathtaking examples of comics history. The site is having a free preview until May 21st, prior to changing to a subscription service model.
Consultants listed for the site include Karen Green, Denis Kitchen, Jim Danky and Gary Groth. According to the About page, the site only posts stories for which they have permission from the rights holders. So…it is legit! Browse and subscribe and learn of our glorious Comics Heritage.
http://comx.alexanderstreet.com/help/view/terms_of_use
6. DELIVERY / ACCESS: The Product(s) will be stored at one or more locations in digital form. If the Customer has paid for an annual Web subscription, Authorized Users will be granted access to these location(s). If the Customer has purchased perpetual access to the Product(s), ASP will provide the Customer with the data contained in the Product(s) on a CD-ROM or magnetic tape, which the Customer can either archive or load onto a local server to be accessed by the Customer’s search and retrieval software.
And… from the catalog (p.24):
Early British and American Comic Strips – NEW!
This groundbreaking online collection growing to more than 300,000 strips, panels, and images from the Golden Age of newspaper comics focuses on the works that established graphic fiction as an independent art form. Under the guidance of comics scholar and author Richard Marschall, this collection includes both well-known works such as Little Nemo in Slumberland, Krazy Kat, and Gasoline Alley, and more obscure—but no less important—comics that established the conventions still visible in the works of modern graphic novelists. Important as literature, popular art, and historical records of daily life among the working classes, the comic strips in this collection will see wide use across the curriculum. More than 10,000 additional pages of critical essays and journal articles highlight the importance of this material for academic study.
If you’re travelling near Ames, Iowa, visit the Underground Comix Collection at the Iowa State University library!
Hmmm… $500 to become a “friend” of the Columbia University Libraries, or I take a few courses (tax deductible) and get a student ID…
I tried to access the books but they ask for a username and password, and I was unable to find a place to create one.
Found this on the Kleefeld site for the sneak peek:
username: comics
password: sneakpeek
I’m the editor of Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels, and I can confirm that this is indeed legit! We’ve spent the past 2+ years on a massive licensing campaign (which is still ongoing), and thanks to the help of folks like Denis Kitchen, Jim Danky, and Gary Groth, we’ve now got hundreds of artists on board, all of whom earn royalties every time we sell the collection to a library.
The materials you see on the site now represent only about 20% of the final collection. We’ll be adding new comics and new books about comics until we reach our final goal of 100,000 pages.
The “sneak peak” campaign only runs through this Friday, but if you need access for a longer period, in order to write a review or something, just write me directly at [email protected] and I’ll see what I can do.
Finally had to check it out (thanks for clueing me in to the username/password, Carol!), and it looks good. Wonder how much access will cost when it becomes a pay site.
Pretty nice site. Hope this works out, and publishers and creators get some cash.
It would be worth establishing a base rate for access to this resource and letting people know about it.
i would pay for this
Let us send you our PREVIEW for our recent release -> the 20th Anniversary Edition of A HISTORY OF UNDERGROUND COMICS.
Interested in reviewing it on your site?
Beverly Potter
Publisher
RONIN Publishing
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