Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) is a FREE, city-wide, four-day arts festival hosted every year by people and places with a passion for cartoon arts. CXC connects the global family of cartoon storytellers, comic makers, and animators with the people who love and are inspired by their art at a variety of venues throughout Columbus. Events include films, talks, book signings, panels, and workshops, and the Comics Expo and Marketplace. This year, CXC’s ambitious special guest list includes Lynn Johnston, Brian Michael Bendis, Sally Cruikshank, Darrin Bell, Kazu Kibuishi, Jeff Smith, and many more! The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s participation in CXC is proudly supported by a donation from Mary F. Gau and Kevin Wolf. We are proud to be hosting CXC special guests Darrin Bell, Lynn Johnston, and Annie Koyama. 

Quasi at the Quackadero by Sally Cruikshank. Courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.

As part of the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) festivities, the Wexner Center for the Arts presents Sally Cruikshank, animator and illustrator. With a career spanning nearly five decades, Los Angeles–based animator and illustrator Sally Cruikshank explores the boundaries of animated space with a distinctive, cartoony, and often psychedelic style that’s infused with an outlandish sense of humor. Her best-known film, the highly regarded Quasi at the Quackadero (1975), was named to the National Film Registry in 2009. In addition to her independently produced projects, Cruikshank has also created animations for Sesame Street, television commercials, and for Hollywood films, including sequences in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and Ruthless People (1986). Her work has screened at museums, festivals, and art houses all over the world.

Billy Ireland, the cartoonist for the Columbus Dispatch from 1898 until his death in 1935, had a weekly illustrated Sunday commentary page titled “The Passing Show,” which both reflected and influenced public opinion in our community. Lucy Shelton Caswell, Ireland’s biographer and founding curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, will show examples of “The Passing Show” from 1914-18 that document life in Columbus during World War I.

The event, which is being co-sponsored by Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), is FREE but registration is required.

Calling all collectors, book worms, scholars and fans!

The Billy Ireland will hold its first-ever book sale, where hundreds of duplicate items from our collection will be available for the public to purchase. We will be accepting both cash and credit card, and all proceeds will be used to help process our collections. We are keeping the prices low and the quality high! Don’t miss out! The galleries will be open until 7 pm during the sale. 

This 2-day workshop will introduce teachers to the history of French-language comics and vocabulary needed for textual analysis, as well as address how to create language learning activities based in this kind of authentic text content so as to respect the artistic medium and the goals of the language classroom. Activities are designed to enrich language teaching from the beginning through advanced levels, including attention to AP and IB themes. The workshop will take place in the reading room and classrooms of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, and all materials (books) and lunches will be provided. The majority of sessions will be conducted in French. The workshop will be facilitated by Ohio State University faculty and staff.