Comix Stolen in Tallahassee
5,000 rare items disappeared
Thousands of comics have been stolen from Florida State University (FSU) Robert M. Ervin Jr. Collection. The collection consists of monographs and serials related to science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comic books, including both original publications and secondary works offering commentary and critique. Publications stolen include those by Marvel Comics, DC Comics, underground comix publishers, foreign language titles and pulp magazines. 1
The FSU Police Department says the theft is an ongoing active investigation. The Tallahassee Democrat made a public records request Friday for the theft report.2
“FSU Libraries immediately alerted the Florida State University Police Department and opened an investigation,” the university said in response questions from the Democrat. “Procedures in place at the time of the theft resulted in quick response and turnaround times on information to aid the investigation. FSU Libraries is conducting an additional internal audit (based on professional practices for Special Collections and Archives) of security protocols and practices to improve the integrity of collections areas and help protect against future theft.”“We really want to get these items back. We’re disclosing this information now with the hope that it produces some credible leads that can help us recover these valuable materials for research and teaching purposes,” FSU Dean of University Libraries Gale Etschmaier said in an email.3
Benne, Susan (2021). Items Stolen from Florida State University’s Robert M. Ervin Jr. Collection. The New Antiquarian (September 14).
Dobson, Byron (2021). Florida State confirms theft of nearly 5,000 rare items from special collection at Strozier Library. Tallahassee Democrat. (Sept. 20).
Ibid.
I have few visual skills, and the appeal of "graphic novels" is a complete mystery to me. I outgrew Comic Books more than sixty-five years ago. But I know a great deal about security. And almost everybody gets it wrong. Security has almost nothing to do with technology; it's all about behavior.
The objective needs to be to promote secure behavior and discourage non-secure behavior. No number of alarms or surveillance devices makes anything secure. Libraries need to forget about relying on surveillance cameras and alarms and focus on what people are doing when they steal. I suggest a national association begin paying thieves to tell what they're doing as they steal, how they decide what to steal and when, how they prepare to conduct the theft, all the questions that a decent researcher knows to ask.
Build a profile of the thief. Behavior-based profiling is perfectly legitimate, and profiling gets a bad rap because of racial profiling. There is no need to do race-based profiling. In fact, that can get in the way. If you look closer at the individuals you will find that they share things other than race, which are beyond legitimate to use as part of a profile. I'll be happy to volunteer my time to talk over the phone about how to get started. I just don't have the time or energy to work on something written.
You have convinced me since I began subscribing to your column that protecting the memories and history of civilizations is crucial to humankind. I'm happy to help.
This almost seems recursive; stealing rare comic books is an exquisitely apropos activity for a comic-book supervillain. The Joker got away.
Maybe it was this guy. https://drawnandquarterly.com/wimbledon-green