Celebrating 40 Years at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Explore 40 stories about fascinating collectors, groundbreaking comics, controversial cartoons, influential characters, innovative cartoonists, and more from 40 years of collecting at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. This exhibition will feature a selection of works spanning over 250 years and the tales that bring them to life. From Civil War era magic lantern slides to the underground comix women’s liberation movement, learn the stories behind the storytellers and the tales that BICLM is dedicated to preserving.

Celebrating 40 Years at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

This exhibition celebrates the story of the library’s founding and its first decade of collecting, beginning with works from its original collections, the archives of Milton Caniff, creator of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon and illustrator Jon Whitcomb. The tale continues with important national figures in the history of American cartoon art such as pioneering licensing agent Toni Mendez, and preeminent cartoonists Will Eisner, Edwina Dumm, and Walt Kelly, whose early donations helped to establish Ohio State University as the premier institutional collector of comics and cartoon art. The exhibit will also feature art and archival materials from OSU alumni, Ohio cartoonists, student cartoonists from The Lantern, and the Archives of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists and the National Cartoonists Society.

In Death Penalty We Trust by Patrick Chappatte

Windows on Death Row features over 70 works of art by famous American political cartoonists, as well as from a more unlikely source, death row inmates. Using art as a tool for social awareness, this exhibition opens a window into an often hidden part of the ongoing conversation about capital punishment – exploring the system through the eyes of the incarcerated. At a moment when our country is becoming ever more polarized regarding racial injustice and economic inequality, the questions that this exhibition raises could not be more timely. This traveling exhibit is presented by Patrick Chappatte, Anne-Frédérique Widmann, and Anne Hromadka.

Warning: Windows on Death Row contains content that may be inappropriate for children

Grimmy from Mother Goose and Grimm by Mike Peters

What a Hoot! A Mike Peters Retrospective examines the life and work of the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and creator of the King Features comic strip Mother Goose and Grimm. Between his popular strip’s host of hilarious animals and a body of editorial cartoons spanning nine presidencies, visitors will learn about Peters’ world-view as well as his fervent sense of humor.

Peters’ early work will also be featured, from his time as a student and in the Army. This retrospective celebrates the energy, intelligence, and laugh-out-loud humor that have characterized Mike Peters’ work for nearly 50 years.

Nancy (detail) by Ernie Bushmiller

Young people have a long, rich, and complicated history with comics in the United States. Many of the most beloved comic strip characters have been children. Similarly, boys and girls have also constituted one of the primary readerships of, as well as target audiences for, this artistic form. Comics and children just go together, like Nancy and Sluggo, Archie and Jughead, or Calvin and Hobbes.

Good Grief! Children and Comics examines the history, role and tensions of child characters in comic strips and comic books.