During my first visit to the Local History Group at Southwark Pensioners' Centre, to share memories of Old London Road through using our photograph collections, I mentioned that the UAL Archives held a number of comic collections. One of the members asked me to return with a selection of these items, to share with the group.
I was happy to do so, but I doubt if any of us imagined how it would be achieved! Following lockdown in mid-March, we all scuttled away from our collections and workplaces, to the safety of our homes, and engaged in the adventures of the online world. Whether your age is under 20 or over 60, the virtual world welcomes all, so Sally Lynes, Group Organiser, kindly arranged for us to continue to deliver this session online.
Rather than just giving a presentation about the comics we decided we wanted to encourage conversations and reminiscence through comics. Using archival collections in this way can encourage active participation, and reduce the feelings of isolation particularly during lockdown.
The first challenge was separation from the physical comic collections – how could I bring a selection of these collections to directly engage with participants in a virtual way? Answer – through ‘a PowerPoint I prepared earlier’, including a range of illustrations that reflect the diversity of our collections. Second answer – what do we have at home? Ann, one of the archivists from the Archives and Special Collections Centre team, has her own personal collection of items that can also be found in the Les Coleman Collection at UAL. Ann very kindly shared items from her collection through a video, which was streamed during the presentation. This included a copy of RAW magazine edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, works by Posy Simmonds and Daniel Clowes.
Ann gave context to the items, and linked it back to the UAL collections. As she talked about each item, she turned the pages, and it gave a sense of seeing them as physical objects rather than as two-dimensional items on a computer screen.
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While some of our collections represent humour and super-heroes, a strength of our collection is its ability to address personal issues through graphic narrative. One of our researchers Dr John Miers, who undertook a residency at our archive, kindly agreed to join us to talk about his exploration of the meaning of metaphor in the collections, focusing on his own experience of receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and his engagement with graphic medicine in his own work as a cartoonist. Hearing his experiences of using the collections to produce his own work hopefully gave participants a different perspective of our collection and comic making.
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John Miers, comic illustration. © John Miers.
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John Miers, comic illustration. © John Miers.
The second part of the session was participant led. Members were invited to come along to their screens with examples of their own comics and to talk about their own memories through comics more generally.
The conversations around comics were wide ranging. Some participants were surprised by the diversity in our collections, while others also had publications that represent the more activist, and counter cultural aspects of our collections, such as work by Spiegelman and Robert Crumb.
The diversity of material which was shared caused members to reflect on the meaning of ‘comics’; not all are humorous, some represent political commentary which reflect 18th Century satire, rather than 20th Century gender studies.
UAL doesn’t specialize in Manga, but some members came with their copies. Graphic medicine was understood and represented, along with material from late 1960’s counter cultural events such as the Chicago National Convention.
The feedback from members was generous, indicating that they found the discussion totally immersive and engaging, even if it was not what some had initially expected.
For our part, Ann, John and I enjoyed spending the afternoon in the company of lively minds and interesting content; what better way to work in lockdown!
We are delighted with Southwark pensioners local history group’s interest in our collections, and when we are ‘un-locked’ we will welcome them and others to the Archives and Special Collections Centre for a look at the real thing.
The Comic Book Collection and the Les Coleman Collection can be accessed by appointment in the Archives and Special Collections Centre (please note that physical access to the collections is suspended until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Keep in touch via our Twitter and Instagram, or email us directly: archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk