What happens to extensive comic book collections when they become too large or their owners don’t want them anymore? Selling is always an option, but anyone with any experience in these matters knows it’s far easier to buy than to sell large collections of comics.

Sometimes, collections are bequeathed to people. But not everybody may want or care to own a large collection of comic books. There is, however, another option: you can always donate your comic book collection.

As some readers of this blog may know, I live in Philadelphia. What some of you may not know is that the libraries of the University of Pennsylvania with its main campus located in University City, West Philadelphia, hold more than 6.5 million printed volumes, 3.8 million items on microform, and actively provide public access to almost 250,000 serials and 1,600 databases.

Amongst those impressive holdings is a series of special collections which includes a substantial amount of comic books, the largest grouping of which was donated by Steven Rothman.

I met with Steve at UPenn on a chilly December morning and we had a brief chat over coffee.

I asked him how he got into collecting comics and why he donated his collection.

“When I was young,” he recalled, “my father gave me a dime and said do you want a fountain soda, a candy bar or a comic book?” Realizing that candy and soda disappear quickly, Steve said, he picked the comic. That fateful purchase started a pattern that would persist for years.

Although he began by buying Archie and Disney comics (his parents didn’t allow super-hero comics early on), he eventually moved into purchasing both super-hero and underground/alternative comics too. Throughout the years, Steve also made a habit of buying reference works about comic book history and comic book culture.

A lifelong bibliophile and book collector as well, part of the reason Steve donated his comics was due to lack of space (something I’m fairly sure many collectors will easily understand and empathize with).

Steve: “My wife and I live in an apartment in the city, keeping all those comics was not feasible”. I asked him if he tried to sell them first. “I did”, he tells me, recounting how the offers he got were not very good and the logistics of shipping his collection was also a decisive factor leading to his decision to donate. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Steve decided to approach the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at his old school to see if his comics would be wanted. Penn said yes.

Fast forward to later in the day. After meeting with Steve, I meet up with Lynne Farrington, curator of printed books at Penn’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Lynne was the person who went over to Steve’s house when he decided to donate and took stock of his collection. “He donated about 20, 000 comics and thousands of graphic novels,” she tells me. Since that time, others have also donated many comics and comic book related materials.

The extent of Penn’s holdings can be seen online at the Penn Libraries homepage. A sense of the variety of the collection can be gauged by searching under the ‘Special Collections’ sub-heading and using the keyword search for ‘comic books’.

The Steven Rothman Collection of Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Novels, as a quick search will confirm, is just one of the holdings currently held by the library.

Lynne showed me the master list broken down into boxes and compiled August, 2011. On the first page alone, I see that Batman Annual #1 can be found, along with Batman Adventures #12, and that’s just in the contents of the second box on the list.

Comics are not built to last and since they are reflections of our culture and society, in the same way that newspapers and other artworks and printed materials are, it’s important that we have not only private collectors but institutions dedicated to preserving these materials.

Do you have an extensive comic book collection with rare books and are unsure about what to do with it in the long term? Donation is an option and it’s tax deductible.

In the spirit of the season, why not donate?