Ph.D. in Batman? First doctorate in comic books to be awardedOn Oct. 10, he’ll receive the world’s first fine arts doctorate in comic books, conferred by Monmouth University.
When Michael Uslan was a boy, he watched the stuff that dreams are made of literally go up in smoke.
A friend’s father, who shared the dim view of comic books most grown-ups held in the 1950s and ’60s, burned his son’s collection in his fireplace as young Michael watched in horror. Uslan estimates that the comics he saw consumed in flames that day, which included Spider-Man’s first appearance, would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today.
“There were comic book burnings in various towns,” Uslan told TODAY.com. “In postwar America, comics were blamed for juvenile delinquency and, my favorite, asthma, because comic book readers stayed indoors to read instead of playing outside in the fresh air.”
