Tag Archives: Mara Thacker

academic, controversy, from the Internet

UPDATE: Two Universities Vie for Largest Collection of Indian Comics in U.S.

Illinois vs. MichiganLast October, Sacred and Sequential reported that the the largest collection of Indian comics in the U.S. resides at the University of Illinois under the care of curator Mara Thacker. In December, however, we received the following e-mail from Professor Siddharth Chandra, excerpted below:

Subject: Largest collection of Indian comics in a US library
Message Body:
Dear Mr. David,

A small correction to your article titled “THE U.S.’S LARGEST INDIAN COMICS COLLECTION IN IS IN ILLINOIS.” ‘Illinois’ should read ‘Michigan.’ For more information, please see https://magic.msu.edu/search~S39?/dIndian+comic+books%2C+strips%2C+etc./dindian+comic+books+strips+etc/-3%2C-1%2C0%2CB/exact&FF=dindian+comic+books+strips+etc&1%2C1763%2C .

This link leads to a partial listing of Indian comics in Michigan State University’s comic arts collection. There are hundreds of additional volumes in the process of being cataloged.

Kind regards,
Siddharth Chandra

After following the link and reading its contents, I caught the gist of his message and responded:

Actually, you’re saying that the premise of the article is incorrect — that the largest one ISN’T in Illinois, as stated by the article, but at MSU?

And his reply was polite and clear (as were his bona fides):

Yes, I believe so.

Siddharth Chandra
Director, Asian Studies Center
Professor of Economics, James Madison College and
Professor (by courtesy), Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Michigan State University

Continue reading UPDATE: Two Universities Vie for Largest Collection of Indian Comics in U.S. →

academic

The U.S.’s Largest Indian Comics Collection in Is in Illinois

Above: From Indrajal Comics Online

For the largest collection of Indian comics in the U.S., including those about Hindu myth, lore, and religion, one would want to travel to the University of Illinois where Mara Thacker, librarian and professor in South Asian studies, has curated a collection along with reference services librarian David Ward.

“The uniqueness is one of the things we first thought about,” Ward said. “It’s an area that’s not being collected heavily elsewhere in the United States, which provides the opportunity to have this unique collection.”

Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

In addition to compiling the collection, cataloguing it has been its own “beast,” reports Nicole Ream-Sotomayor, foreign language cataloging specialist. “The comics proved to be the hardest material she has ever had to catalog,” reports Stephanie Kim of The Daily Illini.

The inspiration for such a collection, reports Jodi Heckel of The Illinois News Bureau, came from the library’s initial collection of comics and graphic novels as well as its push for foreign-language material. Spinning out of a workshop of he Committee on South Asian Libraries and Documentation, Thacker engaged in the task.

Along with the comics themselves, the library offers useful online LibGuide for research and popular resources on the topic, along with a go-to bibliography.

Tacker can be followed on Twitter as @marathacker.