Hot Pursuit
A Guide to archives for artists and makers
Lizard Ramone in Hot Pursuit is a comic book conceived of and printed by the Providence Public Library in Providence, RI, working in collaboration with artist Jeremy Ferris, who created the storyline, illustrations, and text.
Providence describes itself as the “Creative Capital”, and we work with a great number of artists and designers at our library. Many of our creative researchers (and researchers in general) are intimidated by the process of finding things in our Special Collections. Archives have their own vocabularies and rules, and it can be a scary world for the uninitiated. This comic book was developed as a guide to demystify archival research for artists and other makers. We wanted it to be specific enough that it could help our users, but general enough to be applicable to collections across the country.
Librarians and archivists enjoy helping people and want their collections to be more accessible, but don’t always know how to reach or work with creative researchers. We’re hoping that this comic book can be a bridge helping artists and archivists to find each other and get down to the fun and messy work of research!
About The Artist
All text and illustrations by Jeremy Ferris. Rhode Island informational insert by O. Horvath.
Jeremy Ferris is a librarian and artist based in Providence, RI.
O. Horvath is a Providence-based library worker and cold attic witch. They make comics, prints, paper toys, freaky little dolls, loud sounds, and drawings of girls with complicated hair (among other things). In 2011 they received the Xeric Award for Comic Self Publishing for their comic “Tiny Bangs.”
Read The Comic
Print and Share the Comic
If you would like to make more print copies of Hot Pursuit to share, you can take this file to your local print shop. The pages are laid out so that they read correctly when printed out and folded (the version to read on a screen is available at the top of this page). Distribute print copies freely, but please don’t alter it, and please keep the attribution information.
Contact us to inquire about a print copy of the book.
(We have a limited number!)
We distributed the book in Rhode Island with a single-page, illustrated insert describing local archives and historical collections. We encourage colleagues in other places to work with local artists to create your own place-specific inserts!
