As the museum’s curatorial department for the book, the National Art Library (NAL) at V&A South Kensington has long acquired books for their visual design. No study collection showing examples of illustration and page layout would be complete without the comic strip. Here, the pictures lead rather than follow the text, the colours set the mood, and the panels’ arrangement sets the pacing.
Our holdings are intended as a study collection of print comics and graphic novels, and are representative rather than exhaustive.
History of collecting
The term comics, initially used to describe periodicals that were humorous, was coined only in the latter half of the 19th century, so it is unsurprising that the form didn't explicitly feature in the Library’s early collecting programme. However, illustrated books and children's books were actively collected and some of the classic precursors of modern comics found their way into the collections: books such as Rodolphe Töpffer's Histoire de Mr. Jabot (Geneva, 1833), Adolf Schrödter's Herrn Piepmeyer (Frankfurt, 1848), several 19th-century editions of Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter and Wilhelm Busch's Max und Moritz.
Individual items continued to be acquired into the 20th century, including a large quantity of comics and cartoons published within magazines like The Glasgow Looking Glass (1825), La Caricature (1830), Punch (1841) and Assiette au beurre (1901). This trend continued into the 20th century with the wordless woodcut stories of Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward.
The collections
The acquisition of several collections acquired from private collectors in the later 20th century gave our historical holdings a further boost. We have provided a link to where you can explore all the titles held within each collection.
The Renier Collection of Historic and Contemporary Publications for Children
This collection was put together by Anne and Fernand Renier, who donated it to the museum in portions from 1970 to 1988. The primary focus is on children’s books, many telling stories using pictures. There are around 70 children's comics titles present, mainly post-war British favourites such as Bunty and Buster, but also some earlier examples from further afield.
The Krazy Kat Arkive of Twentieth Century Popular Culture
In 1986, the museum acquired the Krazy Kat Arkive of Twentieth Century Popular Culture, named in honour of George Herriman's cartoon strip. The Arkive consists of nearly 41,000 items amassed from the 1950s onwards by and for the artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. It served as inspiration for his own work, reflecting his interest in popular culture, the image of the hero and the iconography of the machine age. The Krazy Kat Arkive includes about 4,200 comics: 255 titles from the United States, 157 from Britain, and a handful from Europe and Japan. The great majority of titles are from the 1960s and 1970s including, strikingly, pop art’s influence on Marvel comic book covers.
The Rakoff Collection of Comics and Graphic Novels
Another major acquisition was made in 1990, when the Library purchased the Rakoff Collection of Comics, some 17,000 items amassed by the film writer and editor Ian Rakoff. This collection provides a comprehensive tapestry of 20th-century comics, charting their growth from the newspaper strips of the first years of this century to the New Wave comics of the 1980s. The collection consists predominantly of ‘4-color’ American comic books, but examples of other formats and 'national schools' are also represented. Most of the items are original, though some reprints are also included.
Ian continued to work with the museum on publicising his collection after his comics entered the building. You can read episodes from Ian’s collecting memoirs Confessions of Collector – Misdemeanours of a Comic Book Addiction on the V&A Blog.
The Rakoff Romance Collection
A further cache of around 1,500 items focusing on the depiction of women in comics was purchased from Ian in 2007. The collection is particularly strong on the most popular years of American, pre-Comics Code, romance comic books of the 1940s and 50s.
The Andy Roberts Memorial Collection of Comics and Fanzines
Artist and musician Andy Roberts was an active member and populariser of the British small press comics scene. His collection of around 7,000 items was a bequest to the museum after his premature death in 2005. Andy collected comics throughout his life. His collection features mainstream superhero comics from the 1960s and 1970s, examples from the emergence of underground comix and the boom in comics and graphic novels produced primarily for adults in the 1980s as well as zines and indie comics from his contemporaries in the 1990s and early 2000s. You can watch a sample of these being unboxed on our YouTube channel.
The Clarvis Collection
Another important bequest was the Clarvis Collection – around 1,500 comics assembled by David Clarvis, a professional artist and animator, which came to the museum in 2003. David was particularly interested in output licensed by Disney. The collection includes interpretations of Disney characters from a range of countries, with strong holdings of the published work of renowned Donald Duck artist, Carl Barks.
Contemporary collecting
Alongside the acquisition of the Krazy Kat Arkive and Rakoff Collection, the National Art Library formally began selecting contemporary examples in the late 1980s. Our contemporary collecting programme has continued ever since.
We source works from specialist library and comics suppliers as well as direct from independent comics creators and publishers. Inevitably, this means a bias of our acquisitions toward the readily available: work produced for the major publishers of North America, Japan and Western Europe. We offset this as much as possible by also targeting examples from further afield. We look to add titles that evoke contemporary life both through their subject and visual style, and seek to feature a range of voices and protagonists.
As an art and design collection, we are interested in innovative layout and visuals. Comics are increasingly used to tell stories about fine and applied artists and art movements, so we try to keep up with these too. In parallel, we collect material detailing the history of comics and how the medium works and evolves.
Access
In common with other National Art Library material, our comics are available for consultation to all on becoming a Library member. Our holdings are detailed on the Library catalogue and can be consulted in our reading rooms at V&A South Kensington and V&A Storehouse.
