The Archives of the Impossible and The Comic Art Teaching and Study Workshop Collection are now the repository of the work of pioneering comic artist Jack Katz. Held at Rice University’s Woodson Research Center, the Caroline Gold and Jack Katz collection includes over 1,800 pages of drawings, notably the original art for his influential 24-volume work, The First Kingdom, hailed as the first modern graphic novel. It also features unpublished works and correspondence with notable artists.

We thank Caroline Gold for preserving this collection for over 50 years, enabling future research on the graphic novel. Inspired by visionary experiences, Katz’s drawings align with the Archives of the Impossible.

A small exhibition of Katz’s work will be held at the Moody Center for the Arts during the Comics Sans Frontières conference on March 20, 2025, with a public reception at 5 p.m. before a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman at 7 p.m. For more details, visit cats.rice.edu