Drawn to the Stacks

This is the first academic volume to examine the librarian and archival professional through the lens of sequential art. The portrayal of libraries/librarians in sequential art has a long history from the Golden Age to the present day. Libraries and archives in comics historically are seen as places of important knowledge and information.
Diving deep into a multitude of sources, these new essays show how librarians/archivists and libraries/archives are used within the comic medium to address multiculturalism, LGBTQ issues, archival practice, and even the concept of librarians as “baddies” or stewards of information unwilling to share with others. The wide breadth of material examined here includes Miyazaki’s Nausicaa, Spiegelman’s Maus, Bechdel’s Queer Dykes to Watch Out For, Marvel’s Black Panther, Nono’s Yoake No Toshokan, DC’s Batgirl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, Gaiman’s The Sandman, webcomics, Marvel’s America Chavez character, Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales and much more.

Carrye Kay Syma is an associate dean and librarian at Texas Tech University. Her research interests include graphic novels and sequential art in education, and women and self-harm. She has been published in Reference Services Review and College and Research Libraries News
Robert G. Weiner is the popular culture librarian at Texas Tech University. His work has been published in the Journal of Popular Culture, Public Library Quarterly, Journal of American Culture, International Journal of Comic Art and Popular Music and Society, and is the author/editor/coeditor of numerous books related to popular culture.
Donell Callender has been an academic faculty librarian for 21 years and is currently head of research, instruction & outreach at the Texas Tech University Libraries. Her research interests include student success and retention, and information literacy instruction.

Edited by Carrye Kay Syma, Robert G. Weiner and Donell Callender
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 207
Bibliographic Info: 13 photos, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9201-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5282-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction       Robert G. Weiner, Carrye Kay Syma, and Donell Callender 1

Part I: Archives and Archivalship
Hidden Archives: An Exploration of Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind       Jonathan Burke 13
Maus and the Archivist: Chronicling and Encountering Transformative Liminal Spaces       Rena A. MacLeod and Stephen A. Harris 22
Dykes to Watch Out For as a Queer Archive       Jade Kastel 33
Archives, Memory, and Historical Justice in HBO’s Watchmen       Bradley J. Wiles 45
Culture Forever: Libraries as a Means of Cultural Preservation       Melissa N. Thompson 55
Libraries of Cosmic Proportions in the Marvel Universe       Conrad R. Pegues 62

Part II: Libraries and Librarians
Kizuna First! Representation of Japanese Librarianship in the Manga Yoake no Toshokan       Shu Wan 73
Barbara Gordon as Information Literacy Activist in Batgirl: Son of Penguin       Ian Boucher 79
Rupert Giles: Slaying the Information Literacy Game       Renee Kiner 97
The Librarian of Limbo: Or, How to Bear the Weight of Infinity       Richard Gray 104
The Library of Your Dreams: The Concept of the Ideal Library and Librarian in the Extended Sandman Universe       Erin Sweeney Smith 112

Part III: Stereotypes, Portrayals, and Representations of the Profession of Librarianship
“Judge all you want, Miss Dominatrix von Librarian”: Webcomics Representing Library Staff Outside of Social and Gendered Norms       Amanda R. Glenn-Bradley 125
Are We the Baddies? Representations of Librarians as Agents of Evil in Comics       Andrew Barber, Angela Cole, and Michelle Gohr 134
Evolving to Embrace the Unknown: Deconstructing the Librarian Stereotype in The Sandman       Paizha Stoothoff 144
“There’s an xkcd for That”: Depictions of Libraries in the Web’s Most Relevant Comic       David Durden 152
Themes of Indigenous Epistemology and LGBTQ Information Seeking Patterns in Marvel’s America       Rachel Martinez 168
When Books Ruled the Earth: Library as Organizing Principle in Mark Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales       Tripp Reade 177
Comic Strip Humor for Librarians       Michael A. Crumpton 187

About the Contributors 195
Index 199