Swooping in to save the day

Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four might rule today’s box office, but when it comes to the sales of their monthly comic books, they don’t hold a candle compared with Golden Age heroes such as Captain Marvel, who boasted sales of more than a million copies per issue. That’s just one of the many comic book-related pieces of trivia that visitors will discover at “Celebrating Comic Books: An American Tradition,” the current exhibition at Cal State Northridge’s Oviatt Library.

The show, which features original art, comic books and letters donated to the university by collector David Somerville and Chase Craig, a former editor at comic book publisher Western Printing and Lithography, follows the uniquely American art form from its comic strip compilation roots in the 1930s through the growing popularity of contemporary graphic novels. In between, it touches on topics including how comic books are made and the 1950s self-censorship prompted by Dr. Fredric Wertham’s book “Seduction of the Innocent.”

And while the exhibition also includes plenty of Batman and Superman comics, the real treasures are the handwritten letters to Craig: one from Popeye creator Elzie Crisler Segar, which features a drawing of a character later used in a comic strip, and two from legendary Disney artist Carl Barks.

“The Barks letters are interesting because they show how Barks dealt with his career and how much demand for his artwork changed,” says Tony Gardner, CSUN’s curator of special collections. “While his artwork is very valuable today, he used to give it away when he was alive, and in fact, one of the letters notes that he was offered just $5 each for his original pages.”

“Celebrating Comics Books: An American Tradition,” Oviatt Library at Cal State Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. 7:45 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 7:45 to 5 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays. Ends Aug. 3. (818) 677-2285, library.csun.edu.