Librarian and Chief Honcho of Government Comics

Richard Graham, assistant professor and media services librarian at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, runs the UNL Libraries’ Government Comics Collection, an online database of scanned copies of informational comic books produced by government agencies.

The idea for the database started with a display about government-made comics at Northwestern University and the U.S. military’s decision to make new comics for its operations in Iraq. This created a renewed interest in government comics among comic book scholars, which inspired Graham to begin researching them.
Here’s the collection website.
From News Nebraska : “Comic books have become a more mainstream art form They’ve began to receive more attention from literary and cultural critics.”

Although they’ve often been ignored because of their perceived simplicity, Graham said works like the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Maus” show comics can hold up to literary criticism.

“There’s always been a prejudice against comics because it’s pop culture,” said Graham. “But people are slowly starting to look at comics as alternative texts and neglected texts.”