“I created this comic in collaboration with undergraduate students, master’s students and artists in order to promote the comics collection in the University of Dundee’s Archives as well as the Museum Services. It is a public information comic that tells how different collections got into the archives, how to access the items, as well as artistic responses to the pieces.”
Abstract for the Comic
This summer, I was given the opportunity to intern in the University of Dundee Archives. I focused on the huge comics collection that had been amassing since 2004. After weeks of organizing, rehousing, and cataloguing thousands of comics my time was finished. The Archives had a functional and accessible comics collection… but no one knew about it! My next mission, then, was to spread the word about the archived collections as well as the original comics art in the University’s Museum Services.
I asked fellow comics PhD students and artists in Ink Pot studios if they were interested in making comics as a result of, inspired by, and/or telling the story of various works in the comics collections. The response was overwhelmingly positive, leading me to extend the invitation to comics Master’s students as well as incoming 4th year illustration students. Once again, I was taken aback by the amount of people interested in the project. They were so passionate about the Anthology, agreeing to come into the Archives and Museum Services multiple times to find inspiration for their comics. I am grateful to everyone who has supported this idea and helped turn it into reality. It has truly been a labour of love.
Now it’s here! A Chronicle that brings together the old and the new in exciting ways. So go forth, read comics, get inspired, and read more comics!
You can access the full and final comic by clicking this link!
Hailey Austin is a PhD student in Comics at the University of Dundee. Hailey’s main research is in anthropomorphism, animal comics, and trauma. However, her other research interests include female agency, film noir and comics, music in comics, comics and the archive, and transmedia.