‘I’ve got three divisions at the Library of Congress that can’t wait for me to die’ – A journey into Warren Bernard’s comics wonderland

Warren Bernard in his home library If you’ve been fortunate enough to attend the Small Press Expo any year since 2011, you’ve likely seen Warren Bernard zipping by, talking to staff, exhibitors, guests, and show regulars. As Executive Director of the longest-running North American indie comics show, Bernard has been instrumental in keeping the organization afloat year after year, even when the pandemic threatened to shut things down for good. I’ve certainly made it a point to seek him out every year for a chat, and every time I have, he’s mentioned that like me, he’s local to the DMV area, and by the way, if I ever want to check out his extensive collection of stuff, to give him a call. It took me a few years, but I did finally take him up on that offer, and reader, I was not prepared for what awaited me. Warren Bernard’s collection is quite frankly, astonishing. It contains, as you might expect, large numbers of mini comics from SPX contributors, but there’s so much more. He has a massive collection of publications with early illustration work by Theodore “Dr. Seuss” Giessel. He has stacks of Sunday comics inserts, and tear sheets of comics going back to the earliest days of the m...