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Comic books are an interest for Dr. Andrew King, LSU communication studies professor, sparked during the Great Depression and World War II. Now, they’ve evolved into a borderline obsession. “At my house, each kid was allowed two comics every Saturday,” King says. They only cost a dime and gave children a dose of hope and fantasy in the midst of hardship and war. King didn’t have to collect the books; he already had them around his house. “In the 1950s, comics were considered trashy and immoral. In the past 10 years, they’ve become scholarly things. They are a way to interpret culture.”

Dr. King’s rare comics:

More Fun Comics (Jan. 1937). It was transformed into Action comics the following year, and the first publication of the company that would become DC Comics, which featured Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Classic Comics, first issue (Jan. 1941). It was a 68-page edition of Tom Brown at Rugby.

All-American Comics (Sept. 1940). This was the first to show The Green Lantern.

Wonder Woman Comics (1940s). These early editions are of great interest to feminists. Wonder Woman’s adventures foreshadowed the feminist movement in the 1940s.

Whiz Comics starring Peter Porkchops in the late 1940s and ’50s, which brought the dying conventions of stage comedy and vaudeville to kids. It represents the revival of a dying art form in pulps.

Strange Adventure Comics, which chronicled our hopes and deepest fears about advancing science and technology.