You may think you know Batman. But while you can read the debut story of the caped crusader in modern reprint, the effect is very different from seeing that same story in its original setting: issue #27 of a periodical called Detective Comics, which first hit newsstands in 1939. Besides being differently colored (using the old “four color” method associated with newsprint), and surrounded by historic PSAs and advertisements, Batman’s first adventure appeared alongside several other stories — spy stories, Westerns, and funny animal strips — that are rarely seen today. These contexts transform our understanding of the iconic hero, taking us back to a time when he was startlingly fresh — a new hybrid of pulp conventions that would go on to capture the imagination of the world.
Today, Detective Comics #27 is one of the most prized artifacts of 20th century popular culture, and soon a rare copy of this foundational document of modern popular culture will be available for students to examine in the Special Collections department of the Knight Library, as part of the generous bequest of UO alum Victor Flach.
Flach, born in 1929 in Portland, Oregon, learned to read with comics. He also paid close attention to their color and detail, noting and appreciating the work that went into making them. From a young age, he was selective in what he chose to read and took great care in the maintenance of his books.
Victor Flach – Vic to those who knew him – earned his BS in 1952 and MFA in 1957 at the UO’s College of Design (formerly the College of Architecture and Allied Arts). His mentor was the celebrated artist and professor Jack Wilkinson. In the words of one of his students, “anyone who knew or studied with Vic was well aware of the pivotal role of Jack Wilkinson …indeed most of us who studied with Vic at the University of Wyoming felt a kinship with the University of Oregon through a sort of intellectual ancestry.”
In his role as Professor, Flach endeavored to teach his students to think. He was not a problem solver, but rather a problem poser. As a writer, artist and professor, Flach was known for delving deep into the heart of ideas, simultaneously exploring their broader connections and fundamental elements. In his teaching of the Visual Arts, Flach encouraged his students to enlarge their interests and ideas always toward making some form.
Flach would do many things in his life, including achieving distinction and success as an artist and in academia. But arguably his life’s work was to understand the human experience and our place in nature and the universe. It was in this pursuit that Flach developed his theory of the Fourth Ethos: a grand confluence of creative and scientific concept positing a new era of humanity.
Progressing from his early love of comics, Flach built a library of more than 30,000 titles—of which 1,200 are old and rare comic books including the 1939 Detective Comics, #27. Victor’s collection reflects the multifaceted and vast scope of his intellect, including tens of thousands of titles on photography, film, art, drawing, and poetry—not to mention modern titles and a considerable contingent of periodicals. The latter includes an important collection of “Little Magazines,” a magazine genre consisting of artistic work which can be characterized as idiosyncratic and dissatisfied with the status quo. There is also much of Flach’s own manuscripts, essays, and artwork within the collection. The rarity, academic value, and potential for discovery in this collection cannot be understated.
Following his death in 2020, the UO was gifted the contents of this library, along with a cash gift, from Flach’s estate. The addition of this collection will benefit numerous programs and departments across campus, including a significant expansion of resources available to the UO’s Comic and Cartoon Studies program (the first of its kind) founded by UO English professor Ben Saunders in 2012.
The collection will take significant time and staff resources to review, organize, and catalog for public access. There is also a need to invest in maintenance of these materials to preserve their condition and support public programming around it. Thanks to the cash gift from Flach’s estate, and another anonymous donation towards this effort, the UO will have the means to fully recognize the vision behind this gift.
The UO Special Collections and University Archives will hire an archivist who, over the next three years, will organize it, transfer the materials to acid-free housing, and create a finding aid that will include biographical information on Flach and list all the materials available through the Victor H. Flach Analogue Arts Library Fund.
Flach’s gift to the UO will impact students across disciplines and spark the kind of insights born of being able to see a 1939 American pulp comic next to a folio of Shakespeare or works by Luther Burbank next to Medieval works on herbals—which is likely what he intended. He also dedicated it to the memory of his parents, Victor Hugo Flach, Sr. and Eva Huget Flach, who in Flach’s words “encouraged and stored it all first,” as well as his brother, Lewis H. Flach.