The comic strips chosen for this exhibition demonstrate Milton Caniff ’s tremendous impact on the newspaper adventure strip.  His work influenced numerous other cartoonists who formed what later came to be called the “School of Caniff.”  Building on his friend Noel Sickles’s artistic innovations and his own strengths as a writer and storyteller, Caniff fully developed the graphic narrative techniques and illustrative style that made his strips the ones against which all future adventure strips would be measured.

Each section of the exhibition highlights specific techniques or tools that Caniff used in his comic strips.    Early examples of Caniff’s work are featured alongside examples from other cartoonists to show how they incorporated and adapted the same elements. Caniff’s genius, and the reason he inspired so many imitators, was to make effective use of all the devices shown in this exhibit to set the mood, to build suspense and to advance the narrative of his comic strip; in short, to tell a compelling story.  He could hold the interest of the reader whether he was portraying an exciting action sequence or a simple conversation.  Many “School of Caniff” artists produced creditable adventure strips of their own, but none ever matched his command of the art form.

Milton Caniff was a saver, and he was the son of a saver.  As a result of this, the Milton Caniff Collection, which was the founding collection of The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library, is enormous—nearly 12,000 original artworks by Caniff, 85 boxes of memorabilia, and more than 450 boxes of manuscript materials, fan letters and business records.

This exhibition celebrates the richness of the Caniff Collection and provides insights into the work, friendships, and influence of one of the twentieth century’s great cartoonists. In addition to work by Caniff, several drawings of Caniff by Noel Sickles, a fan letter from Mort Walker when he was 13, and an oil painting of General George Patton by Bill Mauldin are among the items on display.

Will Annie be reunited with Daddy Warbucks? Will L’il Abner ever marry Daisy Mae? Will Pogo win the election? Find out in tomorrow’s paper! To Be Continued: Comic Strip Storytelling presents compelling continuity stories from a century of newspaper comic strips. The exhibition features ten examples of stories from the funnies that kept Americans talking, speculating, and, most importantly, buying newspapers.

Will Eisner was one of the great cartoonists of the twentieth century.  He created the comic feature The Spirit, wrote the early graphic novel A Contract with God, and taught succeeding generations of cartoonists for many years at the School of Visual Arts.  Eisner also produced two seminal works of comics theory: Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling,.  In the last decade of his life, he wrote or adapted a dozen graphic volumes, culminating with The Plot:  The Secret History of the Protocols of Zion which was published shortly before his death in 2005.

Will Eisner: Storyteller draws from the Cartoon Research Library’s Will Eisner Collection to celebrate highlights of his life and career through rare photographs and original art.  The exhibit opens with samples of Eisner’s early work and includes two complete Spirit stories from the 1940s as well as art from his recent books such as Sundiata and Last Day in Vietnam.

The sleek lines and sci-fi plots of Japanese anime have generated a large following, but until now, few comics connoisseurs have known about Korean cartoons. No more. The Korea Society presents Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames, the first substantial survey of Korean comics to be exhibited in the U.S.

The exhibition features 83 framed works by 21 of Korea’s most talented cartoonists, drawn over a period of 40 years. It includes work by artists from both South Korea and North Korea.