Thief who robbed comics from Florida university receives 18 month sentencing

In an update to this story from a few weeks ago, FS View now reports the thief who stole 5000 back issues from the Strozier Library in Florida will go to prison for 18 months after he plead guilty:

Former Florida State University Libraries head of security, Todd Peak, was sentenced for the grand theft of nearly 5,000 comics from the special collections archive at Strozier Library on Feb. 27. Court records indicate an estimated lost value from the stolen books to be between $250,000 and $500,000.

Peak pleaded guilty with no contest, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 10 years of probation, and must pay $70,000 in restitution. Of that amount, $50,000 will be paid to FSU in $250 monthly payments upon his release, according to court records.

Peak stole 4,996 valuable, rare comics and related literature, the majority dating from the 1950s to 70s, from the Robert M. Ervin, Jr. Collection starting as early as March 17, 2020. The Robert M. Ervin, Jr. collection was donated to the university by the late esteemed Tallahassee couple, Robert M. Ervin and Frances Ervin, in 1981, and is named after their son, who collected the books as a child. [...]

Those who worked at the library at the time of the theft were affected by Peak’s disregard for the protection of the valuable research materials.

"This was a difficult experience for those who knew and trusted Todd Peak … and those who have responsibility for stewardship of special collections,” Cooper said.

Riley Kasprzyk, the president of the 2099 Comic Book Club, told the FSView that many were shocked by the theft and were happy with the sentencing. Kasprzyk also saw the incident as indicative of a broader issue in the “speculator” market of comic books, where Hollywood’s big-budget adaptations shift prices dramatically.

“In some ways, I think their theft and sale represent a big problem facing the way people view comics,” Kasprzyk said. “People often think of comics in terms of how much they're worth to resellers, instead of the craft and art that they are … too many people view comics as IP, and that in turn has fueled a somewhat nasty speculator market and scalping. We need to remember that comics are an art form, and like any other art form, the passion and talent behind them are breathtaking.”

Ava Sears, an English major and member of the 2099 Comic Book Club at FSU, found the theft frustrating and a hit to the preservation of a once disposable literature.

“It's a massive loss to the public accessibility of the medium,” Sears said to the FSView. “With comic books, preservation is super important due to low print quality and a lack of early preservation tactics … The fact that someone stole thousands of publicly available and preserved copies of some of the oldest pulps and comics still around for profit on the private market is absolutely maddening to me.”

To ensure the preservation of these materials, University Libraries took measures to improve security and safeguard them for future researchers.

And this is another reason why I find the speculator market so reprehensible. What if some back issues circulating on the speculator market were stolen from archives, public or private? And all by people who solely care about dollar signs, not entertainment value? Unfortunately, few speculators are likely to be convinced by this news to stop making a mockery of the medium and donate to museums and other preservation archives instead. Nor will they buy paintings of various comics characters to hang on the wall of a household, even though that's a more tasteful alternative. But perhaps this news will prompt some archivists to express some rightful resentment of the speculator market, due to the bad influence it's had, and I hope some professional archivists will speak out against said market in the near future and how it's made a joke of how everyone perceives the whole medium.

This is also why I firmly believe the pamphlet format has to be phased out, and a shift made to paperback/hardcover formats instead. With any luck, will any archivists at museums and universities take note of my appeal to them to do whatver possible to convince people not to invest in the speculator market and stop making perceptions of the medium look so absurd? It's about time already, and might serve as a good way to persuade publishers to stop sticking so tight with a now outmoded format for comicdom.