A Comic Book Guide to Archives for Artists and Makers

A Comic Book Guide to Archives
for Artists and Makers

In 2017, the Providence Public Library published a comic book called Lizard Ramone in Hot Pursuit: A Guide to Archives for Artists and Makers. Written and illustrated by Jeremy Ferris, it forms the core of a simple toolkit for archivists.

The comic book familiarizes artists with research methods and advocates for collections using tailored outreach. It is general enough to be of use throughout the United States, and was distributed in Providence with an illustrated, half-page insert with information about local repositories. 

Read the comic book online here, or download it as a PDF here. Anyone who wants a print-ready PDF can contact PPL’s Special Collections at special_collections@provlib.org. Archivists who wish to distribute the comic book to researchers, students, research fellows, etc. are encouraged to create their own place-specific inserts using a simple template on the Lizard Ramone webpage.

The comic book resonates with Providence Public Library’s ethos of the public library as an “open and supportive teaching and learning place,” with the library as a facilitator and active collaborator. The library’s Special Collections work closely with the local arts and design community, facilitating non-linear research paths and encouraging immersive research and spontaneous discovery.

Comic book artist Jeremy Ferris is the Digital Content Manager at Providence Public Library; he is also an artist and illustrator whose practice spreads across visual information, phenomenology, underground sci-fi comix, and the ghosts and reverberations that live in the overgrown abandoned farmlands of New England and upstate New York, his first home. Visit jeremyferris.info and jsferris.tumblr.com to see more of his work.

Resource contributed by Angela DiVeglia, Research and Outreach Librarian for Special Collections, Providence Public Library.