March 17, 2011
Graphic Arts Galleries at Library of Congress Open on March 18
The Library of Congress announces the opening of the Swann Gallery and the Herblock Gallery on Friday, March 18, 2011. The galleries are two of three exhibition spaces located within the new Graphic Arts Galleries on the ground level of the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building.
The third exhibition space in the Graphic Arts Galleries will open in September 2011. The galleries will focus on the Library's cartoon collections and offer visitors a rich sampling of caricatures, comic strips, political drawings, artwork created for magazines and graphic-novel illustrations.
The galleries will be open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and admission is free.
The Herblock Gallery celebrates the work of editorial cartoonist Herbert L. Block—better known as "Herblock"— with an ongoing display of 10 original drawings, to change every six months. A four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, who spent more than 55 years at the Washington Post, Herblock took on political corruption wherever he saw it, and championed the rights of "the little guy." The inaugural exhibition, "Herblock Looks at Communism," presents a selection of his 1951 cartoons about the Korean War. A new display in September will explore the Khrushchev-Kennedy confrontation in 1961. The Herb Block Foundation donated the collection of more than 14,000 original cartoon drawings and 50,000 rough sketches, as well as manuscripts, to the Library of Congress in 2002, and has generously continued to provide funds to support ongoing programming.
The Swann Gallery introduces visitors to the fascinating world of caricatures, political cartoons, comics, animation art, graphic novels and illustrations. A permanent memorial exhibition will feature 15 facsimiles of treasured cartoons from the Swann and other cartoon collections, which represent the broad range of holdings in the Library of Congress. This exhibition is made possible by the Swann Foundation, which was established by Erwin Swann (1906–1973) in 1967 to support ongoing exhibitions, related programming, preservation and development of collections and to encourage appreciation for the dynamic, evolving field of cartoon and illustration arts.
In September 2011, the third gallery will open with a changing-exhibition program that showcases the graphic arts collections in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. Its inaugural exhibition will be "Timely and Timeless: New Comic Art Acquisitions," featuring treasures of original cartoon art that were added to the Library's collections during the past decade. On display will be political commentaries, comic-strip and comic-book drawings, New Yorker magazine illustrations and examples of graphic narratives.
The Library has a long history of exhibiting cartoon and caricature art, with the first Swann Gallery—known as the Oval Gallery—opening in 1982 in the James Madison Building. The Swann Gallery moved to the Thomas Jefferson Building in 1998 and remained open until 2004, when preparations started for construction of the Library's tunnel to the Capitol Visitors Center. In subsequent years, large-scale cartoon art exhibitions—"Humor's Edge: Cartoons by Ann Telnaes" (2004); "Enduring Outrage: Editorial Cartoons by Herblock" (2006); "Cartoon America" (2006); and "Herblock!" (2009)—were held in various exhibition spaces in the Jefferson Building.
The Library has been collecting original cartoon art for more than 140 years. It is a major center for cartoon research with holdings of more than 100,000 original cartoon drawings and prints. These works, housed in the Prints and Photographs Division, span five centuries and range from 17th-century Dutch political prints to 21st-century contemporary comic strips.
The Prints and Photographs Division holds the largest-known collection of American political prints, the finest assemblage of British satirical prints outside Great Britain and holdings of original drawings by generations of America's best cartoonists and illustrators that are unequaled in breadth and depth. Extensive runs of rare satirical and comic journals from Europe and the United States represent another distinguishing facet. The Library acquired these materials through a variety of sources including artists' gifts, donations by private collectors, selective purchases and copyright registration.
Sample images from the Swann Gallery:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/91705247/
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661676/
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96508418/
Merchandising types
The amount and types of comics merchandising are literally innumerable. Over the 100 year lifespan of comics, books, sheet music, plays, rings, greeting cards, postcards, trading cards, keychains, banks, radio shows, television shows, movies, novels, Big Little Books, buttons, watches, jewelry, children's books, dishes, toothbrushes, record albums, plates, dartboards, coloring books, T-shirts, hats, food products, puzzles, toys, games, posters, dolls, action figures, statues, busts, models, books-on-tape, cups, mugs, video games... anything that one could imagine have been made. A few major forms are worth examining.
Reprint book collections were among the first merchandise, with one of the Yellow Kid by early 1897. These book collections, now frequently called "platinum age comic books16," were very popular and even sold through the Sears, Roebuck catalogue. Major publishers such as Embee and Cupples & Leon reprinted books of most successful strips like Bringing up Father, Buster Brown, Mutt and Jeff, the Gumps, Happy Hooligan, the Katzenjammer Kids, Little Orphan Annie, and many others (Beerbohm, 1997). The practice continues today with Andrews McMeel of Kansas City being the dominant publisher. Other early forms of merchandise continue to be popular until today.
Figure 8 Postcards with holiday messages were popular in the early years of the comics as this 1904 Happy Hooligan Valentine Greetings shows.
Many types of merchandise might seem to be modern inventions, but arose around the time of the comics. Postcards and greeting cards, as common in 1900 as today, featured comics figures including Happy Hooligan, Maggie and Jiggs, Little Nemo and Buster Brown (Figure 8). Dolls and action figures date back to the Yellow Kid as well. Children in the 1940s played with a carved-wood Superman, while in the 1960s, Captain Action could be dressed as one's favorite DC or Marvel hero and in the 1970s, Mego sold poorly-dressed superheroes. But the golden age of the action figure began in the 1980s. No longer marketed as dolls, most of DC's characters were issued for their Superpowers line and Jack Kirby wrote and drew two comics miniseries promoting the toys. Marvel followed suit with a Secret Wars toy line and miniseries (DeFalco, 1992). The trend has continued in the 1990s with more than 200 different Batman figures created. Trading cards, another popular item, also date to the Yellow Kid. The first superhero card set, of Superman, was produced in 1940, two years after his creation (Wells, 1994: iv).
Newly-created media use old cartoon standbys for inspiration. When video games became popular in the 1980s, Atari produced a Spider-Man version, and linked with DC to have five Atari Force comic books (1982-1983) which were given away with the games. The story began in the miniature comic book and continued in the game -- a new hybrid form of entertainment17. Video games remain popular, although usually tied in with a movie such as Batman & Robin. Acclaim has failed three times as a comic book publisher, but their Turok game was a hit while the comic was cancelled.
As with video games, a new sport or hobby brings new opportunities for licensing tie-ins. Since NASCAR racing has grown in popularity, comics characters have been applied to race cars. Batman, Joker, Alfred E. Neuman and four Superman cars are circling race tracks18 ("Nine", 1999). 
Figure 9 Superman did not actually appear at the Palisades Amusement Park, but one can find many comics characters in amusement parks now. From World's Finest #161, DC Comics, October, 1966.
Theme parks based on cartoon characters date at least to the establishment of Disneyland in 1955. In the 1990s, these parks have proliferated (Figure 9). Six Flags amusement parks have Batman and Superman rollercoasters. Spider-Man and Popyeye rides opened in 1999 as did Camp Snoopy at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. The Ripley's Believe It or Not! strip spawned twenty-six "museums" in the U.S., Korea, Australia, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Thailand, Mexico, the Philippines, Denmark and England (Ripley's, 1999). Metreon - "A Sony Entertainment Center" opening in San Francisco has a game area designed by Moebius based on his Airtight Garage (Metreon, 1999).
Comics' penetration of culture means that characters sometimes become more than just a licensing opportunity and become part of society, an example being composer Michael Daugherty's Metropolis Symphony (1996), based on the Superman mythos. Charles Schulz recounted one of his experiences with people wishing to use his characters in a non-commercial way:
[NASA's] Al Chop came to me and they had just had that tragic fire where the astronauts were killed and so they wanted to start a new safety program and he had an idea to build the program around a cartoon character and he asked me if Snoopy could be the character and I said, "Sure, I'm very flattered." So they made posters and all sorts of things. They made beautiful little metal things which were really nice pieces of jewelry and if a person on the assembly line has a good safety record, one of the astronauts would present him or her with the pin and of course, those pins were taken to the moon and the moon landing" (Marschall & Groth, 1992: 22).
Superman was the subject of a Smithsonian Institution exhibit, Superman: Many Lives, Many Worlds, on his fiftieth anniversary in 1987 (Patton, 1987) and in 1999, he appeared on a postage stamp in the USPS's Celebrate the Century series as one of the 15 major highlights of the 1930s19. The United States was a latecomer in honoring cartoon characters on stamps, as Canada had an earlier Superman stamp and many other countries have pictured their native characters. (Rhode, 1999).
Jane Gaines (1991: 208-227) has theorized, especially in regard to Superman, that the high levels of popularity will eventually work against the ownership of popular characters as they will move into the public domain through their universality, as the term "aspirin" did. Given the spirited defense of copyright and trademarks mounted by major companies, this seems doubtful, but may be possible. Copyright is limited, although it now lasts longer partly due to lobbying by Disney which had feared Mickey Mouse cartoons would enter the public domain in 2003, although Mickey would still have had trademark protection. Chairman Michael Eisner's appearance on Capitol Hill helped convince Congress to extend copyright's duration (McAllister, 1998). Metropolitan Life's website includes the warning, "No part of the PEANUTS materials may be copied, reproduced, used or performed in any form (graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems) for any purpose without the express written permission of United Feature Syndicate, Inc.," which would seem to ignore the fair use clause in copyright law. In contrast, a trademark can last forever as long as it is actually being used. Expansion of both copyright and trademark to protect intellectual property has benefited the owners of cartoon characters, creating a very different situation from what Outcault encountered.
Some comics characters are undoubtedly created to be merchandised in a more lucrative medium. Rom, Spaceknight hit the toy and comic book stores simultaneously, but the comic survived the toy by years. Oddly enough, there is an example of a cartoonist being created and then merchandised - television's Caroline in the City. Cartoonist Bonnie Timmons provided the artwork purportedly done by Caroline on the show, and a line of Caroline greeting cards soon followed.
Commercialism of comics is certainly not unique to the United States. Mauricio de Sousa in Brazil has built a multi-million dollar business based on his character Monica (Vergueiro, 1999: 178-181) and in Europe, Tintin and Asterix are icons in a manner perhaps surprising when one realizes how few graphic novels of each were published. (There were only 23 Tintin graphic novels, the last new one in 1976). Asterix, recently the star of a live-action movie, has had a theme park outside of Paris since 1989 (White, 1995; Tagliabue, 1995). Merchandise based on the Tintin and Asterix is so prevalent that specialty stores have opened in the United States in San Francisco, New York and most recently, in Washington, D.C.
Japan has taken the commercialism trend to its highest level, as Schodt (1986: 147) noted:
In 1980, there were over 150 'animation' and 'comics' albums released in Japan. Records linked with comics in Japan can be music or poems composed or performed by popular comic artists; dramatizations or musical interpretations of popular comic stories; or theme songs and background music from television animation, theatrical feature animation, and live action films based on comics.
Presumably the number has only increased since then, and Japan's experience has been repeated throughout Southeast Asia. Lent (1998: 33) reporting on Korea, said, "Dai Won is the dominant part of a five-pronged corporation by the same name, which specializes in the production of animation, comics, video and 'fancy' (cartoon-related merchandise) ...Comics magazines appear first, which are spun off into comic books and animation, and later, video" (Lent, 1998: 33). Elsewhere Russia has recently seen the opening of a restaurant based on Andrei Bilzho's strip character Petrovich (Kaiser, 1999). Frequently, European and Asian companies try to export their characters to the U.S.; Peyo's Smurfs was one of the most successful in this regard, although its popularity in the 1980s was a result of an animated television show, and not the original comics albums. Not all attempts by foreign companies to breach the American market are successful though; for example, the attempt by DIC Productions to bring Sailor Moon to the U.S. failed (Grigsby, 1998). In the other direction, Disney recently was unsuccessful in marketing Franquin's comic strip Marsupilami in America and lost almost 10 million dollars in court decisions based on that failure (Deutsch, 1999; "Disney", 1999).
It is worth noting that merchandising probably cannot sustain a company without new original material. In 1982, Disney was widely believed to be moribund, while it moved to making three-fourths of its income on merchandising and theme parks instead of films and animation (Mills, 1982: 53). With the revival of its animation tradition and the success of The Little Mermaid, the company grew prodigiously but recent experiences suggest that it might need to review its merchandising policies (Bates and Eller, 1999).
Comics have been used for advertising and licensed and sold as merchandise since their creation in the last century. An uncountable number and types of products linked to comics have been sold, and some adaptations have proved artistically fruitful. The commercialization of comics has been historically extensive and probably will not lessen in the foreseeable future.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my wife, Cathy Hunter, both for letting me collect the materials that this paper is built on, and then editing it for me Also, my colleagues Anne Clair Goodman, Charles Hatfield, Gene Kannenberg, Heather Lindsay and Robert Montgomery for suggesting ideas, providing technical assistance and editing the final draft.
References
-Baker, Donald P. 1999. "A Memorial Rises to City's Sacrifice: Bedford, Va, Which Lost 23 on D-Day, Gains Monument," Washington Post (May 31): B1, 5.
-Bates, James and Claudia Eller. 1999. "Disney Frets as the Mouse Ears Wear Thin at Its Retail Stores." Los Angeles Times (June 15).
-Beerbohm, Robert L. 1997. "The American Comic Book: 1897-1932. The Beginning: The Platinum Age," in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 27th ed. by Robert M. Overstreet, New York: Avon Books and Timonium, MD: Gemstone Publishing: 1-15.
-Beerbohm, Robert L. and Richard D. Olson. 1999. "The American Comic Book: 1933-Present. The Golden Age & Beyond: The Origin of the Modern Comic Book" in The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, 29th ed. by Robert M. Overstreet, New York: Avon Books and Timonium, MD: Gemstone Publishing: 226-233.
-Beerbohm, Robert L. 1999. "Re: GCD Chat - Ditko, Spider-Man & licensing." Posting to GCD (Grand Comics Database) Chat List (May 5).
-Bernstein, Adam. 1997. "Calvin's Unauthorized Leak: Stock Car Fans Misuse Comics Character." Washington Post (July 17): B9.
-Chapman, Bob. 1994. Graphitti Designs Paraphernalia October 1994 Releases, Graphitti Designs.
-Chapman, Bob. 1995. Graphitti Designs Paraphernalia #77 September 1995 Releases, Graphitti Designs.
-Collins, Amy Fine. 1998. "Madeline's Papa." Vanity Fair (July): 116-130.
-"Comic Book Publisher Marvel Emerges from Bankruptcy." 1998. Los Angeles Times (October 2).
-Dean, Michael. 1999. "Character Conflicts: Marvel Wins Back Spider-Man; Wolfman Sues for Blade." The Comics Journal (212; May): 7-8.
-DeFalco, Tom. 1992. "Introduction" in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck and Bob Layton, New York: Marvel Comics.
-Deutsch, Linda (Associated Press). 1999. "Is it Character Assassination? Suit Claims Disney Bought Rights to Marsupilami, Left Him to Die of Neglect." San Jose Mercury News (March 3).
-Diehl, Digby. 1996. Tales From The Crypt. New York: St. Martin's Press.
-"Disney Must Pay $9.3M Judgment." 1999. Associated Press (March 26).
-Dotz, Warren and Jim Morton. 1996. What a Character! 20th Century American Advertising Icons. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
-"First-Ever Product Placement Within a Comic Book Plot Line to Debut On Nov. 6 in Chaos! Comics." 1998. Entertainment Wire (November 4).
-Gaines, Jane M. 1991. "Superman, Television, and the Protective Strength of the Trademark," chapter in Contested Culture: The Image, the Voice, and the Law. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press: 208-227.
-Ginsberg, Steven. 1997. "When Dilbert Speaks on Ethics, Lockheed Martin Listens: Defense Contractor Employs the Comics-Page Character to Train Employees to Handle Tough Questions of Conduct." Washington Post (April 13): H5.
-Gordon, Ian. 1998. Comic Strips and Consumer Culture, 1890-1945. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
-Grigsby, Mary. 1998. "Sailormoon Manga (Comics) and Anime (Cartoons) Superheroine meets Barbie: Global Entertainment Commodity comes to the United States." Journal of Popular Culture 32 (1; Summer).
-Groth, Gary. 1997. "Schulz at 3 O'clock in the Morning." The Comics Journal (200; December): 1-48.
-Grunwald, Michael. 1999. "He's Having a Ball, for $3 Million; Comics Mogul Is Anonymous Buyer of McGuire's 70th." Washington Post (February 9): A1, 8.
-Harmetz, Aljean. 1981. "The Life and Exceedingly Hard Times of Superman." New York Times (June 14).
-Harmetz, Aljean. 1981. "The Marketing of Superman and His Paraphernalia." New York Times (June 21).
-Harvey, R.C. 1994. The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
-Heide, Robert and John Gilman. 1994. Disneyana: Classic Collectibles, 1928-1958. New York: Hyperion.
-Howard, Patricia. 1996. "Names & Faces: Playing His Toon." Washington Post (October 28): D3.
-Johnson, Beth. 1998. "Tales of the Kitty." Entertainment Weekly (June 19): 88.
-Kaiser, Robert G. 1999. "Letter from Russia: in the Throes of an Identity Crisis." Washington Post (May 22): C1, 9.
-Lent, John A. 1998. "The Multi-tiered Korean Comics." The Comics Journal (207; September): 31-34.
-Lowe, Jim. 1997. "Mr. Wrigley Goes to the Comics Pages." Retro (Nov): http://www.retroactive.com/nov97/pkwrigley.html
-Marschall, Rick & Gary Groth. 1992. "Charles Schulz Interview." Nemo (31, January): 5-24.
-Marvel Enterprises, Inc. "Marvel Enterprises, Inc. Announces First Quarter Results." PRNewswire (May 4)
-McAllister, Bill. 1998. "Special Interests: Mouse Droppings." Washington Post (October 15): A21.
-Metreon. 1999. Airtight Garage. http://www.metreon.com/metreon/airtight.html.
-Mills, Bart. 1982. "Disney Looks for a Happy Ending to its Grim Fairy Tale." American Film (July-August): 52-56.
-"Nine Motorsports Champions Unveil Superman Race Cars." 1999. BW SportsWire (April 20).
-O'Hearn, Martin. 1995-1998 . "Comics Novelizations." APA-I #72-84.
-Patton, Scott. 1987. "Superman, Fit and Almost 50: Smithsonian Honors The Man of Steel." Washington Post (June 24).
-Pollack, Joel. 1999. Personal communication (June 9).
-Reidelbach, Maria. 1991. Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine. Boston: Little, Brown.
-Rhode, Michael G. 1999. Cartoonists & US Postage Stamps (Comics Stuff #2).
http://www.wraithspace.com/Bibliographies/HTML/Rhode/rhode_stamps_us.html.
-Rhode, Michael G. 1999. Cartoonists & World Postage Stamps (Comics Stuff #3).
http://www.wraithspace.com/Bibliographies/HTML/Rhode/rhode_stamps_world.html.
-Richter, Carl. 1995. Crumb-ology: The Works of R.Crumb 1981-1994. Sudbury, MA: Water Row Press.
-Riley, John. 1997. "Keeping the Kitchen Sink Afloat." Daily Hampshire Gazette (July 7).
-Ripley's... Believe It or Not! Official Website. 1999. http://www.ripleys.com.
-Schodt, Frederik L. 1986. Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. New York: Kodansha America.
-Shepherd, Chuck and Jim Sweeney. 1998. News of the Weird. Washington City Paper (October 16): 20.
-Sherwood, John. 1975. "It's a Super Settlement for Superman Creators; $20,000 Pension, $10,000 Cash and a Byline." Washington Star (December 23).
-Smith, Bruce. 1982. The History of Little Orphan Annie. New York: Ballantine Books.
-Spiegelman, Art. 1994. "Birth of the Comics." The New Yorker (December 24-January 2): 106-107.
-Spurgeon, Tom. 1998. "Viva la Comix! Happy Birthday, Garfield!" The Comics Journal (207; September): 10-11.
-Spurgeon, Tom. 1998. "Industry Rocked By Changes." The Comics Journal (208; November): 5-8.
-Spurgeon, Whit. 1999. "Signal to Noise Benefit Highlights CBLDF Fundraising Weekend." The Comics Journal (210; February): 18-19.
-Steinberg, Brian. 1999. "'Dilbert' Creator Turns Boss Himself of a Nutrient-Rich Burrito Business." Wall Street Journal (May 17): B13C
-Sturm, James and Art Baxter. 1999. "A Response to Chapter Nine: Build a Beach Head." The Comics Journal (211; April): 93-99.
-Tagliabue, John. 1995. "A Comic-strip Gaul Valiantly Battles Disney." New York Times (August 15).
-Theroux, Alexander. 1999. The Enigma of Al Capp, Seattle: Fantagraphics Books.
-Tollin, Anthony. 1997. Superman on Radio. Schiller Park, IL: Radio Spirits, Inc and Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
-Tumbusch, Tom. 1989. Illustrated Radio Premium Catalog and Price Guide. Dayton: Tomart Publications.
-Vergueiro, Waldomiro C.S. 1999. "Children's Comics in Brazil: from Chicquinho to Mônica, a Difficult Journey." International Journal of Comic Art 1 (1; Spring/Summer): 171-186.
-"Warner Bros. and DC Comics Awarded $3.6 Million Judgement Against Toy Counterfeiters." 1999. Business Wire (May 11).
-Watterson, Bill. 1989. "The Cheapening of the Comics." Festival of Cartoon Art, Ohio State University (October 27): http://www.teleport.com/~ennead/ampersand/watterson.html#ppkk.
-Wells, Stuart W. III. 1994. Comic Cards and Their Prices. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead.
-White, Andrew W. 1995. "Parc Asterix: A Comic Kingdom." Washington Post (April 23): E2.
-Winchester, Mark D. 1993. "Cartoon Theatricals: a Chronology." Theatre Studies 38: 67-92. An updated listing is available at http://www.yellowkid.com/Cartoon/CT/default.html.
-Winchester, Mark D. 1995. "Litigation and Early Comic Strips: the Lawsuits of Outcault, Dirks and Fisher." Inks 2(2; May): 16-25. Also available at http://www.yellowkid.com/Cartoon/CL/default.html
-Witek, Joseph. 1999. "Comics Criticism in the United States: a Brief Historical Survey." International Journal of Comic Art 1 (1; Spring/Summer): 4-16.
-Worcester, Kent. 1998. "Bob Fingerman," The Comics Journal (207; September): 69-106.
Bibliography
-Armour, Robert A. 1987. "Comic Strips, Theatre, and Early Narrative Films: 1895-1904." Studies in Popular Culture 10(1):14-26.
-Bifulco, Michael. 1989. Heroes and Villains: Movie Serial Classics. Woodland Hills, CA: Bifulco Books.
-Borden, Bill. 1997. The Big Book of Big Little Books. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
-Braun, Debra S. 1998. Garfield Collectibles. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Bruegman, Bill. 1996. Superhero Collectibles: A Pictorial Price Guide. Akron: Toy Scouts, Inc.
-Crouch, William and Lawrence Doucet. 1990. The Authorized Guide to Dick Tracy Collectibles. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead.
-Daniels, Les and Chip Kidd. 1998. Superman, the Complete History: The Life and Times of the Man of Steel. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.
-de Klerk, L. Ronald. 1999. Record Covers Drawn by Comic Artists. http://people.a2000.nl/ldeklerk/index2.html.
-Dini, Paul & Chip Kidd. 1998. Batman: Animated. New York: HarperCollins.
-Geissman, Grant. 1995. Collectibly Mad: The Mad and EC Collectibles Guide. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press.
-Grandinetti, Fred. 1990. Popeye the Collectible. Iola, WI: Krause Publications.
-Grossman, Gary. 1976. Superman: Serial To Cereal. New York: Popular.
-Hake, Ted. 1993. Hake's Guide to Comic Character Collectibles: An Illustrated Price Guide to 100 Years of Comic Strip Characters. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead.
-Hake, Ted. 1996. Hake's Price Guide to Character Toy Premiums. Timonium, MD: Gemstone Publishing.
-Hershenson, Bruce. 1998? Cartoon Movie Posters. West Plains, MO: Bruce Hershenson.
-Hofstede, David. 1991. Hollywood and the Comics. Zanne-3.
-Jacobs, Larry. 1996. Big Little Books : A Collector's Reference & Value Guide. Collector Books.
-Kidd, Chip. 1996. Batman Collected. Boston: Bulfinch Press.
-Lesser, Robert. 1975. A Celebration of Comic Art and Memorabilia. New York: Hawthorn Books.
-Lindenberger, Jan. 1998. More Smurf Collectibles: An Unauthorized Handbook & Price Guide. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Lindenberger, Jan. 1998. The Unauthorized Guide to Snoopy Collectibles, revised edition. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Lindenberger, Jan and Cher Porges. 1997. More Snoopy Collectibles: An Unauthorized Guide. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Lindenberger, Jan and Cher Porges. 1998. Peanuts Gang Collectibles: An Unauthorized Handbook and Price Guide. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Lindenberger, Jan and Cher Porges. 1999. More Peanuts Gang Collectibles. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Lindenberger, Jan and Joel Martone. 1996. Smurf Collectibles: A Handbook & Price Guide. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.
-Markowski, Carol and Gene. 1990. Tomart's Price Guide to Character and Promotional Glasses. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead.
-Margolin, Freddi and Sandra Cramer. 1997. The Ultimate Peanuts Price Guide [foreword by Charles M. Schulz]. Landmark Specialty Publications.
-Matetsky, Harry and Amanda Murrah Matetsky. 1988. The Adventures of Superman Collecting. West Plains, MO: Russ Cochran.
-Nicholson, Susan Brown. 1994. Encyclopedia of Antique Postcards. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead.
-Overstreet, Robert M. 1996. The Overstreeet Toy Ring Price Guide, 2nd ed. Timonium, MD: Gemstone Publishing.
-Reiley, Sean. 1999. Seanbaby's Hostess Fruit Pie Page. http://www.oldmanmurray.com/seanbaby/hostess.htm.
-Roberts, Garyn G. 1993. Dick Tracy and American Culture: Morality and Mythology, Text and Context. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
-Santi, Steve. 1998. Collecting Little Golden Books : A Collector's Identification and Price Guide, 3rd edition. Iola, WI: Krause Publications.
-Schoell, William. 1991. Comic Book Heroes of the Screen. New York: Citadel Press.
-Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc. 1998. McFarlane Toys 1998 Catalog.
-Todd McFarlane Productions, Inc. 1999. McFarlane Toys Catalog.
-Wells, Stuart W. III and Alex G. Malloy. 1996. Comics Collectible and Their Values. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead.
-Wiater, Stanley. 1991. The Official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Treasury. New York: Villard Books.
16. In 1997, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide began listing "platinum" age comic strip collections and is probably the best single bibliography for them.
17. DC also published a newsstand issue Atari Force comic book.
18. Of course, the NASCAR promotion leads to additional licensing including a comic book. "To commemorate the drivers, their vehicles and the unique Superman-themed promotion, DC Comics created a custom comic book featuring all nine drivers as characters in an action adventure story with Superman. The limited-edition custom comic will be sold exclusively by Kmart in its mass retail stores. Action will design, market and distribute a variety of exclusively designed collectible die-cast replica cars, adult and children's apparel items and other merchandise to fans and collectors. Superman Racing memorabilia will be available trackside and through Action's established distribution channels. Related Hasbro Winner's Circle (R) products will be available through mass retail outlets" ("Nine", 1999).
19. There was, of course, merchandise besides the postage stamp available from the U.S. Post Office. It included a magnet ($5.99), magnetic greeting card ($2.99), puzzle postcard ($2.49), key chain ($4.99), pin ($4.99), memo pad ($3.99), shipping labels ($2.99), gift tag/magnet ($3.99), foil notecards ($6.99), color clings ($2.49), shipping envelope ($2.99), gift bag ($3.99) and a limited-edition reprint of Action Comics #1 with a first day cancellation. The Post Office and DC Comics also issued ten comic books, one for each decade, featuring characters explaining the significance of the stamps.
Breakfast of Champions: With the Oatmeal, Matthew Inman has created the ultimate morning time-waster.
Kristen Page-Kirby
[Washington Post] Express March 15, 2011, p. 31.
online at http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2011/03/breakfast-of-champions-matthew-inman.php
A horror thriller that could only come from the imagination of Smith, RED STATE stars Tarantino and Rodriguez favorite Michael Parks ("From Dusk Till Dawn", "Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2"), Oscar Nominee for Best Actress Melissa Leo ("The Fighter," "Frozen River") and John Goodman, Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner and Nicholas Braun.
RED STATE premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and will be released in theaters in 2011.
Comic Books
The comic book itself was originally a form of merchandising comic strips. Early magazine-style comic books, such as Proctor & Gamble's premium Funnies on Parade in 1933 and Famous Funnies in 1934, reprinted comic strips. Gulf Comics Weekly, a tabloid-sized oil company premium had begun publishing original comics in 1933 and the rest of the industry eventually followed (Beerbohm and Olson, 1999: 229). There are thousands of free promotional comic books. Giveaway comics are usually created to educate about or promote a company or cause. Examples include Marvel and the American Cancer Society's Spider-Man, Storm and Powerman (1996); Disney and Exxon's Mickey and Goofy Explore the Universe of Energy (1985) and Field Enterprises and the Union Fork and Hoe Company's Miss Peach Tells You How to Grow Flowers, Vegetables and Weeds (1969).
Comic book licensing has occurred at least since the creation of the first superhero, Superman. All of the major companies like DC, Marvel, Fawcett, Archie, Malibu and many minor ones like Cartoon Books, the publisher of Bone, have merchandising and licensing. Some companies, like Dell were the merchandising, as they produced comics mostly based on characters and stories licensed from other media. A modern counterpart exists in Dark Horse Comics which publishes an extensive Star Wars line among other licensed properties. Gladstone Publishing, which, like Dell, relied totally on producing comics based on licensing, shut down in 1998. Gladstone's owner, Bruce Hamilton, described the occasional difficulty of using licensed characters, "[Disney] keep[s] coming up with licenses that have tougher and tougher and more unreasonable demands in their boiler-plate language to the point where I have decided I am just not willing to negotiate any new licenses with them" (Spurgeon, 1998: 8). Hamilton's experience with Disney may reflect both the current financial value and also the changing legal definitions of intellectual property, but it is the reader of comics that has lost the pleasure of these classics11. Games such as Dungeons and Dragons and toys like the Micronauts have also become successful comic book series.
Of the major comic book companies, DC Comics has been among the most successful in selling their characters. DC has been licensed so successfully that its characters are household words, rivaled only by Disney and a few other major properties such as Tarzan. 
Figure 5 Batman's world-wide popularity during the television show is demonstrated by this US Army Intelligence copy of a bootleg image on a Vietnamese nasal decongestant. Courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Washington, D,C. (Vietnam War Collection).
The 1966 Batman television show (Figure 5) demonstrated how successful marketing could be in the increasingly prosperous and consumer-oriented America. About the same time, Marvel Comics began merchandising its characters after the successes of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk. Steve Ditko, the co-creator of Spider-Man, reportedly left the company when he did not receive a share of the licensing (Beerbohm, 1999). Like most companies, Marvel pursued licensing and had a wide variety of products and tie-ins with its characters including television shows, Slurpee cups, Pez dispensers, toys, and other products. In the 1990s, Marvel, after becoming a publicly-held company traded on the New York Stock Market, began aggressively seeking commercialization of its characters, and expanded its domain by purchasing sticker and trading cards companies. Its core business of comic books also grew because of "speculators" buying multiple copies of comics for long-term investments. When all three of these collectibles became less popular, Marvel was left in poor financial condition ("Comic Book Publisher", 1998). After declaring bankruptcy in 1996 and being taken over by its licensing partner, ToyBiz, in 1998, the reorganized company reported, "This [year's first quarter] increase [in sales over 1998's first quarter] was largely attributable to the inclusion of approximately $15.3 million in sales from the Licensing division and approximately $10.4 million in sales from the Publishing division, which were acquired as part of the Company's acquisition of Marvel Entertainment Group in October, 1998" (Marvel Enterprises, 1999). In other words, the licensing, on a strict accounting level, was more profitable than publishing the comic books, but both parts of the business, which is still based on comic characters, had multi-million dollar sales.
At times, the characters themselves become merchandise. The survival of comic strips far beyond the life of their creator is too well known to discuss here, although a quote from the Ripley's... Believe It or Not! website is instructive: "Almost 50 years after [Ripley's] death, the Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoon is still wildly popular; printed daily in 147 papers worldwide, in 38 countries and in 10 different languages" (Ripley's, 1999). A similar, although less frequent, occurrence happens with comic books when a successful company purchases the creations of an unsuccessful rival. DC Comics has been especially active in purchasing characters, including Blackhawk from Quality and Captain Marvel from Fawcett, both of which were "seamlessly" integrated into what is currently known as the DC Universe. For a short time in the 1990s, DC licensed and published Archie Comics' superheroes from the 1960s under their Impact! imprint. This trend towards the commodification of characters in comic books can also work in favor of some creators who, since the 1980s, have been able to own their characters12. Many characters have now been published by multiple companies who essentially licensed the character from the creator. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, perhaps the ultimate self-published merchandising success story13, has recently been published by Archie and Image companies.
Even unlikely sources lead to licensing empires. EC's 1950's horror comics were licensed extensively 45 years after their creation due to the success of the television series, Tales from the Crypt in 1989. These are the same comics that were originally considered so gruesome that they were indicted in the anti-comics movement (Diehl, 1996). EC's Mad Magazine, putatively an anti-establishment, anti-commercialization comic, at least based on its editorial stance, resisted the trend for years, but eventually succumbed. As William Gaines said, "A lot of people have one way of looking at [merchandising Mad]: like 'Peanuts' is merchandised to its eyeballs...I don't object to that, except that a magazine like Mad, which makes fun of people who do that -- it doesn't seem proper for us to do it ourselves" (Reidelbach, 1991: 174). Mad's long-term drop in circulation eventually led them to licensing. With Gaines' death and Mad's complete incorporation into the Time-Warner conglomerate, the process has accelerated with Alfred E. Neuman and Spy vs. Spy action figures now available in comic book stores.
Figure 6 Kitchen Sink's candy bar illustrated by Crumb's Devil Girl proved surprisingly popular and was followed by more underground candy.
Possibly the most unlikely source, underground comix creator Robert Crumb has been heavily merchandised in recent years (Richter, 1995). Crumb, as a counter-culture icon, had seen his "Keep on Truckin" image appropriated without any compensation nearly three decades ago. In the 1990s, and especially with the release of the movie Crumb, Kitchen Sink Press extensively used his oeuvre in ways not entirely expected, such as the Devil Girl candybar (Figure 6). Kitchen Sink, on the other hand, barely survived over-extending itself on merchandise for the second Crow movie in 1996 and in 1999 found itself taken over by the candy side of its business (Riley, 1997).
In recent years, due to the direct market, comic book publishers, readers, and store owners have concentrated more on the collectibility aspect of comics and companies have been formed to take advantage of that niche. Graphitti Designs, whose motto is "Quality Licensed Products Since 1982," exists solely to merchandise existing characters from other companies. In 1994 they were producing "screen-printed shirts, limited edition books and prints, sculpted statues and busts, cloisonne and sculpted pins, compact discs, and embroidered caps"; among these were a $195 Vault-Keeper Statue (from Tales from the Crypt), three Batman T-shirts, 2 Superman T-shirts, a Rocketeer Club pin, a Vampirella T-shirt and three Akira books priced at $49.95 each (Chapman, 1994). Graphitti Designs advertises itself as vital to a comics retailer: "Many comics consumers do want more than just the comics. Ancillary products have the ability to also attract a clientele beyond the traditional comics reader. People will walk into a comics store displaying cool media-related shirts or other peripheral products even though they don't read comics" (Chapman, 1995). This positive view is affirmed by Big Planet Comics store owner, Joel Pollack, who said, "I think overall [merchandising] is a good thing. It's a great way to publicize the characters." Big Planet Comics, in Bethesda, Maryland has been in business for 13 years, weathering several downturns in the comic book market so Pollack's opinion is indicative of business realities (Pollack, 1999).
Adaptations in other media
It is possible to draw a difference between adaptations in other media and the plain licensing of a character for a toy or food. Superman is a prime example having been adapted into a comic strip (thus recapitulating his original creation); a novel -- Superman by George Lowther (1940); a radio show (1940-1951); an animated movie short series by the Fleisher Brothers (1941-1943); movie serials14 (1948 and 1950); a live action television series (1953-1957); a Broadway play -- It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman (1966); an animated television series (1966-1969); a hit movie and sequels (1979-1987); a second animated television series (1988-1989); another live action television series -- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993-1996); and most recently, a third animated television series (1996-1999). Any of these adaptations could be successful and enjoyed by an audience that did not read Superman comic books. Adaptation of Superman to other media became a necessity by the 1990s when the comic book's sales figures were regularly below 100,000 copies sold. Adaptations can frequently inject new life into a property as seen by the introduction of Perry White, Jimmy Olsen and Inspector Henderson and the invention of kryptonite in the Superman radio show (Tollin, 1997: 1-2), Superman and Lois Lane's marriage in Lois & Clark, and the arrival of a new successor to Bruce Wayne as Batman in Batman Beyond.
Successful comic strips are turned into comic books . Literally dozens of strips, such as Flash Gordon, Popeye, Dick Tracy and the Phantom have had original stories published in comic books. Batman, Superman, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Marvel's version of Conan are among those that have been made into strips, some multiple times.
Theater adaptations began almost immediately after the creation of the comic strip. They continue to the present day. Winchester's studies of plays show that many were produced from 1894-1930 including multiple, different road shows of the Brownies, the Yellow Kid, the Katzenjammer Kids, Happy Hooligan, Buster Brown, Mutt and Jeff, and Bringing Up Father. This was followed by a lull when most adaptations were done as radio shows or films. The three decades from the 1950s to the 1980s saw major adaptations such as You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Annie. In recent years, smaller shows adapting unconventional work such as Crumb's have predominated (Winchester, 1993). 
Figure 7 Kudzu: A Southern Musical is one of the latest in a long line of plays adapted from the comics.
Doug Marlette's Kudzu was produced in Ford's Theatre in 1998, while being advertised in his comic strip (Figure 7). Neil Gaiman's work is frequently adapted and a version of Signal To Noise has been staged in Chicago as a fund-raiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (Spurgeon, 1999).
Adapting comics into prose has been popular whether in Little Golden Books (children's books with simple prose and large illustrations), Big Little Books (alternating text and drawings), or adult novelizations. Hundreds of prose works featuring dozens of characters have been created. Most novelizations are made from movie adaptations of comics, but Marvel Comics currently has a successful original novel series (O'Hearn, 1998).
Radio, as a popular medium, arose concurrently with comic books and the two shared a cast of characters. Comics characters with radio shows included Batman, Buster Brown, Dick Tracy, the Green Lama, Hop Harrigan, Little Orphan Annie, Mandrake the Magician, Red Ryder, Skippy, Superman, Terry and the Pirates, and certainly others (Tumbusch, 1989). Most adaptations were between the 1930s and early 1950s, but from 1995 to 1996 National Public Radio aired Ben Katchor's Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Most radio shows were not perceived as having long-term value and some were permanently lost, but The Adventures of Superman is currently being reissued by the Smithsonian (Tollin, 1997). Radio shows generated a vast amount of "secondary" merchandise - premiums or giveaways based on a character's adapted version, and not the original comics creation15. As Smith (1982: 40-41) noted:
Ovaltine gave away more premiums on its radio shows, Orphan Annie and Captain Midnight, than any other radio sponsor. Entire warehouses of paraphernalia -- shake-up mugs that made 'a picnic out of every meal,' identification tags 'like real soldiers and aviators wear,' buttons, photos, games, masks, pins, rings, badges, bandannas, booklets, bracelets, coins, cutouts and maps - were shipped out to listeners..."
Literally hundreds of movies -- thousands if one includes animated shorts -- have been made from the comics. The seven live-action Happy Hooligan shorts done in 1900 by director J. Stuart Blackton are probably the first. Most adaptations were made into series of shorts or serials; Blondie starred in twenty-eight B-movies from 1938 to 1950. Television usurped this role in the 1950s when Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, Joe Palooka and Dennis the Menace began appearing. Movies like the 1966 Batman starring the television cast were still made, but usually with larger budgets than television could afford. Superman (1979) and Superman II (1981), which were essentially filmed at the same time, became the model for licensing. Both movies together had 200 licensees, including Warner Publishing, producing 1,200 products. Superman made $140 million dollars in film rentals for Warner Bros. which distributed the movie. Superman II had already sold $100 million worth of overseas tickets before the movie opened in the United States. The initial movie also galvanized support for creators' rights, becoming the lever which shamed the company into giving Joe Siegel and Jerry Shuster, the Superman creators who had signed away their rights to Superman for less than $200, a lifetime pension of initially $20,000, a "gift" of $10,000, and lifetime medical coverage. The two also received a credit line on future uses of Superman (Harmetz, 1981; Sherwood, 1975).
12. Due to both a creators' rights movement that began in the 1970s and an increase in the number of publishers, some characters are owned by their creators. Creators who design new characters that are firmly a part of the companies' "universe" are usually compensated for them now. Marv Wolfman's current lawsuit against Marvel Comics reveals past practices (Dean, 1999).
13. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird self-financed the publication of their black & white first issue in May 1984. They issued a press release that was picked up by UPI and they quickly sold out their first issue. Eventually the Turtles had "more than five hundred licensees in some thirty countries producing more than nine hundred Turtle products," including an animated television series, three movies, and toys (Wiater, 1991: xv-xix). To their credit, they put some of their licensing money back into comics through Tundra, the Words & Pictures Museum and Xeric grants.
14. Tollin (1997: 2) notes that the serials "were adapted from the Superman radio program broadcast on the Mutual Network" and not the comic book.
