A comic artist himself, Sam Orchard is the newly appointed curator for the New Zealand Cartoon and Comics Archive at the National Library. Originally founded in 1992 as The Comics Archive, the original intent was to document editorial cartoons thereby preserving a range of social, cultural, and political perspectives published in our newspapers over the decades.
As well as maintaining the 60,000-odd items already in the archive, Orchard is working to expand its scope to include some overlooked classic comic titles, as well as the new breed of comics coming out via digital platforms.
Orchard is also one of the organisers of ComicFest 2021 which is taking place on Saturday 21 August at the National Library in Wellington.
