Southeast Rhone Street is home to numerous tiny libraries. They’re called Sidewalk Joy by Rachael Harm Mahlandt who created the PDX Dinorama and the Dino Exchange and Grant Brady who created the PDX Free Little Art Gallery. They even put together a little map in case you were in the Portland-area and wanted to pay them a visit.
There are book and seed libraries, a rubber duck exchange, the aforementioned tiny art gallery that encourages swapping art and the dino themed ones, Lego mini figurines swaps and now a library that celebrates sequential art in all its forms.
Sequential art can be seen in everything from single issue comics to the funny pages in the Sunday Oregonian. It is a term coined by famed comics artist Will Eisner to explain the specific use of images in sequence to tell a story.
Rebecca Marrall was an academic librarian at Western Washington University, so she knows that sequential art, like comic books, is one of the most accessible formats out there for people to read.
But she’s a fan herself, too.
“I think a lot of people, when they think about sequential art, they think perhaps of like, a simple single-issue comic that they might have read as a kid,” she said. “Today, we’re living in the Eden of graphic novels and sequential art. It’s incredibly complex, it’s beautiful.”
Marrall wanted to share her love of sequential art with her neighborhood. She’s only lived there for a year or so, but she said the other tiny librarians welcomed her with open arms when she pitched her tiny library idea.
And so she set to work.
Repurposing an old ballot box, she glued superheroes to the top and filled it with gifts to spread nerd joy and even put a roof on it, to keep it dry in the Portland rain. The Comics Cottage officially opened on March 6.
Marrall said her true appreciation for comics started in her early 30s, but she remembered reading “Watchmen,” the comic series by Alan Moore, and how incredible it was in her teens.
Rebecca Marrall has created a tiny library in Portland to celebrate all forms of sequential art.
“And that was just a game changer. That was, your mind blown, could not believe – it’s the gateway drug,” she joked.
When she was older, the stories from Image Comics caught her attention. While superheroes are typically the allure of both DC and Marvel, their close competitors Image Comics, based in Portland, and Darkhorse Comics, based in Milwaukie, are known for stories just as fantastical just not centered around your Captain Americas or Batmans.
She recalled picking up both “Pretty Deadly” and “Bitch Planet” by local (and international) comics icon Kelly Sue DeConnick.
“I mean that’s like just, chef’s kiss amazing,” she said. “It just became an obsession in the best way possible.”
And as a former actual librarian and now a tiny librarian, Marrall feels passionate that a library should not just be a repository of things.
“It really should be for people,” she said.
Marrall’s tiny library is on Southeast Rhone Street between 56th and 57th avenues. She said she accepts donations for the box but they’re not necessary. There are pins and nail wraps, superhero masks and all sorts of nerd things inside the library that are free for anyone to take and enjoy.
She encourages people to stop by and take a comic even if it’s something you might not usually read.
“Enjoy your curiosity more than anything. Just keep reading and keep enjoying what’s out there because you’re going to find your authors, your artists – enjoy the process of finding your favorite people,” she said.
Because there are comics for everyone.
Destiny Johnson | djohnson@oregonian.com | @hello_destiny
