Author Archives: Tyler Savage

Alternate Views: Perspectives on the American Civil War

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
May 13 – July 12, 2013

The 150th anniversary on the American Civil War is commemorated in this exhibition, which highlights the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s growing collection of nineteenth century prints.  Editorial cartoons were not published in newspapers until after the Civil War, when technology made it possible to publish them economicallyin a timely way.  Prior to that, broadsheet prints — etchings, engravings and lithographs — were the means cartoonists used for political commentary.  Popular magazines such as Harper’s Weekly relied on wood engravings to provide illustrations.

Both sides of the conflict are represented in Alternate Views.  As was true during the war, most of the materials represent the views of Union supporters.  There was only one cartoonist who published works favoring of the Confederate States of America:   Adelbert Volck, who published under the pseudonym V. Blada.  Selected examples of his etchings are included in the exhibition.

The complexity of many of the works displayed in this exhibition is striking.  Intricate visual metaphors demand close reading in order to comprehend the meaning of the cartoon.  These images were produced when the pace of life was much different.  These were intended to be read, reread, and then, perhaps, read again.  When we step back in time to consider these works, their messages are clear, passions are heated, and a complex period in our history is revealed.

Alternate Views:  Perspectives on the American Civil War can be viewed from Monday-Friday, 9am to 5 pm.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue, north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

A.B. Walker’s World

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
January 22 – April 26, 2013

Flying machines, automobiles, women’s suffrage and prohibition were hot topics when A.B. Walker cartooned in the early twentieth century.  His work appeared in Life,Harper’s Magazine, and Scribner’s, the leading magazines of the time.  This exhibit focuses on work he drew for Harper’s during the period 1909-1913. His beautiful fluid lines are the perfect medium for the graceful ladies in huge hats that he drew and his enthusiasm for automobiles and aeronautics is infectious. His gentle wry and keen observation of women, women’s suffrage and the topic of love are captivating.  This exhibit celebrates the career of a once-famous cartoonist whose work, a century later, remains funny and charming.

A.B. Walker’s World can be viewed from Monday-Friday, 9am to 5 pm..

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue, north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

National Cartoonists Society Foundation Participates in Schulz Challenge

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation has contributed $20,000 to support the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum location, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University.  This gift will be matched dollar for dollar by Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts’ creator Charles M. Schulz, giving it a $40,000 impact on the project.   Ms. Schulz promised to match donations to the new facility up to $2.5 million.

The National Cartoonists Society Foundation’s board of Directors unanimously approved this gift.  The Foundation’s mission is to support and promote the art of cartooning through scholarships, donations to museums and cartooning institutions as well as to support individual cartoonists in need. The fund was created by a generous grant from the estate of cartoonist David Pascal and the merger of previous contributions from the Herblock Foundation, the estate of Toni Mendez and the Milt Gross fund.  The Foundation is also supported by individual contributions from cartoonists, syndicates and other benefactors.

The Sullivant Hall renovation is estimated to cost $24.4 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum as well as The Ohio State University Department of Dance and the Department of Art Education. Upon completion of the Schulz Challenge, the Sullivant Hall renovation will be completely funded.

Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum was housed originally in two converted classrooms in Ohio State’s Journalism Building.  Donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands.  The Will Eisner Collection was established in 1984 and additions were received following his death.  With the 2008 addition of the International Museum of Cartoon Art’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 450,000 works of original cartoon art, 50,000 books, 61,000 serial titles, 3,000 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics material, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is currently located in the lower level of the Wexner Center for the Arts complex. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet, providing much-needed additional storage and new exhibition galleries that will allow more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public.   The tentative opening date for the library’s new home in Sullivant Hall is fall 2013.

Contact: Caitlin McGurk (614) 292-0538 or cartoons@osu.edu

Line Dancing

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
September 5-December 30, 2012

Line Dancing surveys dance in cartoon art to celebrate the renovation of Sullivant Hall, the future home of both the Department of Dance and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.  From a 1788 print of A Cotillion – the precursor to the American square dance – to modern works like a Jules Feiffer dancer and a jig from Charles Schulz’ Snoopy, these figures dance across history and across the page. Be it a literal depiction of dance as an event in time or the symbol of dance as metaphor, the works in this exhibit are moving, just like our library!

Line Dancing is part of Ohio State is Dancing, a campus-wide celebration throughout the Fall. Dance holdings from the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute will be featured in a companion exhibit, Dancing Dimensions: Movement through Time and Space, at the Thompson Library Gallery. These range from an 18th century French fan with dance scenes to a top hat from A Chorus Line; from dance in notation to dance in 3D; and from costume and set designs to costumes and scenery. Other events will include an exhibit of work at the OSU Urban Arts Space by Bebe Miller, Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences at The Ohio State University, choreographer, and dance company director, and the Department of Dance Mershon performance Dance Uptown.

Line dancing can be viewed from Monday-Friday, 9am to 5 pm, with a special viewing on Friday, November 16th in tandem with Dance Uptown at Mershon Auditorium.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue, north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Image shown:  Howie Schneider (1930-2007).  Eek and Meek (detail), January 16, 1983.  Ink on paper.  Howie Schneider Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Remembering Ding: Iconoclast in Ink

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
May 15-August, 24, 2012

Exhibit opening+book signing Thursday, May 17th
7 pm Reception+book signing
7:30 pm Lecture by Richard Samuel West

Jay N. “Ding” Darling (1876-1962) was regarded by many as America’s greatest political cartoonist during the first half of the twentieth century. A two-time Pulitzer winner, Ding repeatedly topped popularity polls throughout the Twenties and Thirties. He was also an influential conservationist and visionary founder of the National Wildlife Federation, and both conceived of and illustrated the first Federal Duck Stamp. The Jay N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida, is named in his honor. For more than four decades, he drew for the Des Moines Register and his cartoons were syndicated around the country for millions to see. Ding was a fiercely independent spirit and a progressive Republican who followed his conscience, not party dogma. This led him to take many surprising stands, such as impassioned support for the League of Nations.

Please join us Thursday, May 17th at 7 pm, in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum to celebrate the opening of Remembering Ding, an exhibition celebrating the life and legacy of Jay N. “Ding” Darling. This event will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of Ding Darling’s death, and celebrate the release of Richard Samuel West’s new book Iconoclast in Ink:  The Political Cartoons of Jay N. “Ding” Darling (which will be available for the first time at this event.) Join West at 7:30 pm that evening as he shares some of his favorite Ding cartoons and discusses the qualities in Ding’s work that made it so extraordinary. Iconoclast in Ink is a profusely illustrated volume celebrating Ding, published by The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Come spend an hour learning about Ding’s wonderful work, in all its antic and powerful glory.

Contact:  Jenny Robb
The Ohio State University
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1343
(614)292-0538
cartoons@osu.edu

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday-Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. It is free and open to the public. See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue , north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance. Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Hershey Foundation Answers Schulz Challenge

The Ohio State University Libraries is thrilled to announce that The Hershey Foundation of Northeast Ohio has answered the Schulz Challenge with a multi-year grant of $100,000 to support the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM) facility, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at OSU.  The Hershey Foundation gift will be matched dollar for dollar by Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts’ creator Charles M. Schulz, giving it a $200,000 impact on the project. Schulz has pledged to match all donations to the new facility up to $2.5 million.  This generous grant from the Hershey Foundation brings the total raised or pledged for the Schulz Challenge to $2,380,000.

In recognition of this gift, the new BICLM office and cataloging suite will be named in honor of Peter Guren.  Guren is a cartoonist and creator of the syndicated comic strip Ask Shagg, an educational feature in which his character Shagg E. Dawg answers reader’s questions about animals.  Guren’s strip runs in 150 newspapers, and has provided a platform for raising awareness on environmental topics and encouraging children’s curiosity in the animal kingdom.  As the husband of Debra Hershey Guren, the President and CEO of The Hershey Foundation, Guren has been the foundation’s creative force and designer for over 22 years as well as serving as their IT technician.

Since 1986, The Hershey Foundation has provided Northeast Ohio with support for children’s programming in schools, museums, and other institutions that work to enhance learning and improve the quality of children’s lives from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.  To learn more, visit the The Hershey Foundation website.

“The Hershey Foundation is pleased to support the capital campaign for the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in honor of Peter Guren, my cartoonist husband, who created a cartoon strip for children of all ages,” said Debra Hershey Guren, President of The Hershey Foundation.  “As The Hershey Foundation supports projects that benefit children in Ohio, we know the Cartoon Library will be a great way to connect school and youth groups to the wonderful world of cartooning.”

The Sullivant Hall renovation is estimated to cost $26 million and will be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, the Department of Dance and the Department of Art Education.  Upon completion of the Schulz Challenge, the Sullivant Hall renovation will be completely funded.

About the BICLM: Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Cartoon Library & Museum was housed originally in two converted classrooms in Ohio State’s Journalism Building. Since then, thousands of donors have contributed to the collection with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands.  The Cartoon Library & Museum now houses more than 450,000 works of original cartoon art, 45,000 books, 67,000 serials (including 29,000 comic books), 3,000 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics material, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is currently located in the lower level of the Wexner Center for the Arts complex.  Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from 6,808 square feet to 30,000 square feet, providing much-needed additional storage and new exhibition galleries that will allow more of the collection to be displayed and made accessible to the public.  For more information, see http://cartoons.osu.edu.

Contact: Jenny Robb
The Ohio State University
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1343
614-292-0538
cartoons@osu.edu

Lucy Shelton Caswell Awarded Silver T-Square by NCS

 

Professor emerita Lucy Shelton Caswell received the Silver T-Square Award from the National Cartoonists Society (NCS), the world’s largest organization of professional cartoonists.  The Silver T-Square is awarded to persons who have demonstrated outstanding dedication or service to the NCS or the cartooning profession. Caswell recently retired as Curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, the largest academic research collection of cartoon and comics material in the world. She is the founding curator of the special collection, which began when cartoonist Milton Caniff donated his papers and art to Ohio State in 1977.

Jeff Keane, President of the NCS, presented the award to Caswell at the group’s 65th annual Reuben Award dinner and ceremony in Boston, Massachusetts on May 28, 2011. In bestowing the award, Keane noted Caswell’s extraordinary efforts to collect and preserve cartoon materials throughout her career, spanning more than 30 years. He concluded that “the benefit to our cartoon world from Lucy’s efforts is incalculable.” Congratulations to Lucy for this special honor.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  Seehttps://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue, north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union Garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Contact:   Jenny Robb
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
023L Wexner, 27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538   cartoons@osu.edu
www.cartoons.osu.edu

Roy Doty: Inspired Lines

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
September 19-December 30, 2011

The only artwork Roy Doty really cares about is the work that is currently on his drawing board.  This is not to say that he does not enjoy looking at finished work.  He takes great pride in what he has done.  The fact is, however, that the act of creating now, in the present, brings him such pleasure and satisfaction that he cannot imagine doing anything else.

Doty’s work cannot be pigeonholed.  The cartoonist’s society did not think he was a cartoonist and the illustrators did not think he was an illustrator.  In fact, he is both—and much more.  Since 1946 he has been a successful free lance artist who never had an agent.  He had his own television show, drew a comic strip for three years and won awards for his greeting card art.  His advertising clients have included Ford, Macy’s, Perrier and Texas Instruments.  At age 89 he has recently completed a book contract that requires more than 130 full-page, four-color illustrations.  He draws a home improvement feature for a monthly magazine and a quarterly cartoon for a British children’s magazine.  What has kept his art fresh is his clean line and flawless sense of design.  Although much of Doty’s work was published in black and white, when he has the opportunity to use color, he excels.

Columbus resident Roy Doty is a graduate of the Columbus College of Art and Design.
Most of the works included in Roy Doty:  Inspired Lines  are from his personal collection and have not been exhibited previously.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue, north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Dick Tracy: Chester Gould’s Blueprint Expressionism

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
May 2, 2011-August 19, 2011

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Chester Gould’s celebrated comic strip, Dick Tracy.  From 1931 to 1977, Gould (1900-1985) wrote and drew the popular continuity strip about a tough, intelligent, and incorruptible police detective who battles a parade of increasingly strange and grotesque villains.

The items in the exhibition were chosen by artist and author Art Spiegelman, a Wexner Center Residency Award recipient, with Jenny Robb, curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.  According to Spiegelman, Dick Tracy “brought the front-page violence of the prohibition-era tabloids to the back of the newspaper. In today’s blood-soaked entertainment culture it’s hard to realize just how extravagantly brutal the original Dick Tracy must have seemed to its tens of millions of daily readers in the 1930s and 40s. It was The Sopranos of its day, but without the moral ambiguity.”

Spiegelman’s selections highlight Gould’s unique graphic style.  He explains that “Gould coupled the precision of blueprints to the emotional intensity of the German Expressionist art taking place on the other side of the Atlantic… and he created a kind of Blueprint Expressionism.”  Spiegelman will discuss Gould and his iconic creation within the greater context of comics’ history on Thursday, May 19 at 4:00 pm in the Wexner Film/Video Theater.  See http://www.wexarts.org/get_involved/osu/?eventid=5621 for more information.

Dick Tracy: Chester Gould’s Blueprint Expressionism is on display from May 2 – August 19, 2011 and includes original comic strip art from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection and vintage newspaper pages and clippings from the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection. Examples of knock-offs, spoofs, and homages to Dick Tracy will also be featured including Al Capp’s character Fearless Fosdick, who appeared in L’il Abner.

About Art Spiegelman: Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his graphic novel Maus.  He also co-founded the avant-garde comics magazine RAW in 1980 and worked as staff artist and writer for the New Yorker from 1993-2003.  Recently, McSweeney’s published a collection of his notebooks called Be A Nose and he co-edited A Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, both released in 2009.  In the fall of 2011, Pantheon will publish Meta Maus, a companion to The Complete Maus. See http://www.barclayagency.com/spiegelman.html for more information.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue just north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance. Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.
Contact: Jenny E. Rob
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
023L Wexner, 27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538
cartoons@osu.edu
cartoons.osu.edu

Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation Participates in Schulz Challenge

The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation has pledged $250,000 over five years to support the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum facility, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University.  In recognition of this gift, the library’s seminar room will be named in honor of Will Eisner. The Eisner Family Foundation gift will be matched dollar for dollar by Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts’ creator Charles M. Schulz, giving it a $500,000 impact on the project. Ms. Schulz has promised to match donations to the new facility up to $2.5 million.

Creator of The Spirit, Will Eisner (1917-2005) is noted as the father of the graphic novel for his ground-breaking book, A Contract with God.  He was also an early and influential analyst of sequential graphic narrative with his book Comics and Sequential Art. In addition to his eight decade career as a cartoonist, Eisner taught for many years at the School of Visual Arts.

“We are very grateful for the support of the Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation.  Their generous gift brings us much closer to meeting the total Schulz Challenge of $2.5 million,” said Lucy Shelton Caswell, professor and curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. “It is particularly appropriate to name the seminar room in honor of Will Eisner because he was a gifted teacher who genuinely cared about his students.”

The Sullivant Hall renovation is estimated to cost $24.4 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum as well as The Ohio State University Department of Dance and the Department of Art Education. Upon completion of the Schulz Challenge, the Sullivant Hall renovation will be completely funded.

Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum was housed originally in two converted classrooms in Ohio State’s Journalism Building.  Donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands.  The Will Eisner Collection was established in 1984 and additions were received following his death.  With the 2008 addition of the International Museum of Cartoon Art’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 450,000 works of original cartoon art, 50,000 books, 61,000 serial titles, 3,000 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics material, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is currently located in the lower level of the Wexner Center for the Arts complex. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet, providing much-needed additional storage and new exhibition galleries that will allow more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public. For more information, see http://cartoons.osu.edu.

A Gallery of Rogues: Cartoonists’ Self-caricatures

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
January 15-April 15, 2011

Mark J. Cohen, 1942-1999, started collecting cartoons when he was fourteen.  His interest in self-caricatures by cartoonists grew from the chance discovery of an exhibition catalogue of artists’ self-portraits in a used book store.  The collection of cartoonists’ self-caricatures that resulted, thought to be the largest collection of its kind, was bequeathed to The Ohio State University by Cohen.

For many years, portions of Cohen’s self-caricature collection toured in three different national exhibitions, including one organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.  In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue for The Face Behind the Laugh, Cohen wrote, “Some of the cartoonists’ self-caricatures offer an interesting glimpse into how they see themselves relating to their work.”  Visitors to this exhibit are encouraged to look carefully to find these connections in the self-caricatures that are displayed.  Among the cartoonists whose self-caricatures are included are Charles Schulz (Peanuts), Jim Borgman (Zits), and underground cartoonist R. Crumb.

The title for this exhibit was provided by Milton Caniff in a letter to Cohen after he had seen an exhibit of the self-caricatures in 1976: “I greatly enjoyed my look at the self-portraits.  All of us rogues in one gallery!”

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue just north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Contact: Jenny E, Robb
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
023L Wexner, 27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538
cartoons@osu.edu

Registration for the 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art Opens June 1

Registration for the 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art organized by The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will open on June 1, 2010.  The Festival, which is a celebration of cartoons and comics, will take place October 14-17.  Online registration, along with a complete schedule of all Festival events, is now available at the new 2010 Festival website: https://cartoons.osu.edu/fca2010

The registration fee will be $125, with an early bird discount of $20 (must register by August 1, 2010).  Members of the National Cartoonists Society and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists will be able to register at the reduced rate of $100 (early bird discount will also apply).  The registration fee for students and senior citizens aged 65 and over will be $25 (ID will be required; early bird discount will not apply).

About the Festival:
This is the tenth triennial Festival organized by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (formerly the Cartoon Research Library).  An academic symposium will once again kick-off the Festival events.   Humor, Play and Indentity: Academic Perspectives will take place on Thursday, October 14 at the Ohio Union and will end with a keynote address on George Herriman by author Michal Tisserand.  That evening, all Festival participants are invited to celebrate the 100th birthday of Krazy Kat at a special exhibition reception and birthday party.

Creators scheduled to present at the Festival on Friday, October 15 and Saturday, October 16 are Steve Breen, Roz Chast, Tony Cochran, Jan Eliot, Matt Groening and Tom Gammill, Dave Kellett, Paul Levitz, Dan Piraro, Jen Sorensen, James Sturm, and Gene Luen Yang.  The Festival will also feature a special tribute panel to Jay Kennedy, the late Editor in Chief of King Features Syndicate.  Kennedy was a collector and scholar who bequeathed his extraordinary collection of underground comics to the library.  Panelists include Brendan Burford, Bill Griffith, Matt Groening, and Patrick McDonnell.

In addition to these events, Wexner Residency Award Recipient Art Spiegelman will give a special presentation on Sunday, October 17.

Two cartoon exhibitions will be on display during the Festival.  Ireland of the Dispatch, a retrospective of the work of Billy Ireland, will be held in the Exhibition Gallery of the spectacular and newly-renovated Thompson Library.  Scenes of My Infint-hood: Celebrating the Birth of Krazy Kat will be exhibited in the Cartoon Library & Museum Reading Room Gallery.

The 2010 Festival is co-sponsored by the Wexner Center for the Arts.  It is also made possible by the generous support of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, King Features Syndicate, the Milton Caniff Endowment, the Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel Endowment, United Features Syndicate and Mary F. Gau and Kevin Wolf.  Thursday’s Academic Perspectives symposium is co-sponsored by Project Narrative of The Ohio State University Department of English and the Popular Culture Program of the College of Arts and Sciences.   Thursday night’s exhibition reception will be co-sponsored by the Great Lakes Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

For further information, see https://cartoons.osu.edu/fca2010 or email us at cartoons@osu.edu or 614-292-0538.

Ireland of the Dispatch

An Exhibition at The Ohio State University Thompson Library Gallery
1858 Neil Avenue
September 4, 2010-January 2, 2011

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, cartoonist Billy Ireland enjoyed a national readership from his home base at the Columbus Dispatch.  He was known both for his editorial cartoons and for “The Passing Show,” an illustrated full-page color Sunday commentary on current events.  Ireland supported environmental concerns before being “green” was in vogue and he was influential in the development of what is now Civic Center Drive in Columbus.  Another major contribution was his generous mentoring of young cartoonists such as Milton Caniff.  This exhibit documents Ireland’s career through original cartoon art, photographs, correspondence and related materials.

In 2009 the Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation gave $7 million to The Ohio State University in honor of Billy Ireland.  In recognition of this generous gift, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum was established, expanding the mission of the facility that was created when Milton Caniff donated his papers to create a research library devoted to cartoon art.  With this exhibition we celebrate the life and work of Billy Ireland, one of the nation’s most creative and productive cartoonists.

This exhibit is free and open to the public. Thompson Library Gallery hours are Monday-Wednesday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday noon-5 p.m.   Public parking for Thompson Library is available in the Neil Avenue Garage or the Ohio Union Garage.

Additional information about Billy Ireland may be found at http://www.wosu.org/artzine-video/?date=03/16/2009&id=0

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  It is free and open to the public.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue, north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance.  Parking is available at the Ohio Union Garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Contact:   Lucy Shelton Caswell
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
023L Wexner, 27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538   cartoons@osu.edu
www.cartoons.osu.edu

The 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art | October 14-17, 2010

The 2010 Festival of Cartoon Art
October 14-17, 2010

The tenth triennial Festival of Cartoon Art will take place at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH October 14-17, 2010. The Festival is a unique celebration of cartoons and comics, and their creators. We are pleased to announce this year’s line-up of presenters:
•    Steve Breen
•    Roz Chast
•    Tony Cochran
•    Jan Eliot
•    Matt Groening and Tom Gammill
•    Dave Kellett
•    Paul Levitz
•    Dan Piraro
•    Jen Sorensen
•    James Sturm
•    Michael Tisserand
•    Gene Luen Yang

The Festival will also feature a special tribute panel to Jay Kennedy, the late Editor in Chief of King Features Syndicate. Kennedy was a comics collector and scholar who bequeathed his extraordinary collection of underground comics to the library. Panelists include:
•    Brendan Burford
•    Bill Griffith
•    Matt Groening
•    Patrick McDonnell

In addition, a special event with Art Spiegelman will take place on Sunday, October 17, as part of his residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Two cartoon exhibitions will be on display during the Festival. A retrospective of the work of Billy Ireland, Columbus Dispatch cartoonist from 1898-1935, will be held in the Exhibition Gallery of the spectacular and newly-renovated Thompson Library. Scenes of My Infint-hood: Celebrating the Birth of Krazy Kat will be exhibited in the Cartoon Library & Museum Reading Room Gallery.

The Festival will once again include an academic pre-conference co-sponsored by Project Narrative of The Ohio State University Department of English and the Popular Culture Program of the College of Arts and Sciences. The pre-conference will take place on Thursday, October 14 at the Ohio Union. That evening, all Festival participants are invited to celebrate the 100th birthday of Krazy Kat at a special exhibition reception and birthday party.  The reception will be co-sponsored by the Great Lakes Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society.

The Festival is limited to 275 participants. Registration will open on June 1, 2010 and will be available online for the first time. The registration fee will be $125, with an early bird discount of $20 (must register by August 1, 2010). Members of the National Cartoonists Society and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists will be able to register at the reduced rate of $100 (early bird discount will also apply). The registration fee for students and senior citizens aged 65 and over will be $25 (ID will be required, early bird discount will not apply). The registration fee includes admission to the academic pre-conference, all Festival of Cartoon Art Forum presentations, receptions and special events, complimentary copies of the catalogues for the Billy Ireland and Krazy Kat exhibitions, morning refreshments on both Forum days, and a souvenir tote bag.

The Festival will be co-sponsored by the Wexner Center for the Arts. It is also made possible by the generous support of the National Cartoonists Society Foundation, King Features Syndicate, Milton Caniff Endowment, Mark J. Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel Endowment, and Mary F. Gau and Kevin Wolf.

Due to the Festival, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will not be open for researchers October 14, 15, 16. It will be open by appointment only on Monday, October 18 and Tuesday, October 19. Regular hours will resume on October 20.  
For further information, see https://cartoons.osu.edu/fca2010 or contact us at cartoons@osu.edu or 614-292-0538.

The Ohio State University Press Announces Studies in Comics and Cartoons Series

Edited by Lucy Shelton Caswell and Jared Gardner

The OSU Press is adding a new series to its literature and literary studies publications. Studies in Comics and Cartoons will be edited by Lucy Shelton Caswell and Jared Gardner. Comics studies is the epitome of a growing scholarly pursuit that is continually gaining both public and critical attention. Complicating the long-standing assumption that a fusion of image and text is not a serious work of either literature or art, academic institutions are giving comics and cartoons more attention than ever before. Despite a number of important individual books published by university presses in the field, this burgeoning area of study does not yet have its own series at any press. OSUP, with its affiliation to Ohio State’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and focus on literary studies, is well-suited to publish such a series.

Lucy Shelton Caswell is the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum’s founding curator. Jared Gardner is associate professor in the Department of English.

Books published in Studies in Comics and Cartoons will focus exclusively on comics and graphic literature, highlighting their relation to literary studies. It will include monographs and edited collections that cover the history of comics and cartoons from the editorial cartoon and early sequential comics of the nineteenth century through webcomics of the twenty-first. Studies that focus on international comics will also be considered.

Inquiries should be directed to Sandy Crooms (sandy.crooms@osupress.org) at The Ohio State University Press.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Recent Additions to the Collection the Subject of Exhibition at OSU’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

What’s New?  A Sampler of Recent Acquisitions
An Exhibition at the Reading Room Gallery
April 26, 2010 – August 20, 2010

From an 1806 James Gillray engraving to an editorial cartoon that helped Nick Anderson win the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the range of materials added to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum during the past five years is remarkable. Selected examples are celebrated in the exhibition What’s New? A Sampler of Recent Acquisitions on view at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum from April 26-August 20.

“In recent years we have acquired an astonishing assortment of rare and interesting materials,” said Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor and Curator of the library. “Gifts, bequests, and deposit collections have enriched our holdings considerably. We have also been fortunate to make several outstanding purchases with the assistance of the William J. Studer Endowment, which honors the retired Director of University Libraries. Visitors will enjoy the variety of more than two centuries of cartoon-related materials that are showcased in this exhibit.”

The cartoonists whose work is exhibited are a who’s who of cartooning. Among those included are Lynda Barry, Eldon Dedini, derf, Will Eisner, Lee Lorenz, Trina Robbins, Jeff Smith, Garry Trudeau, and Bill Watterson, as well as older work by artists such as Richard Felton Outcault and James Montgomery Flagg.

Parental discretion is advised when visiting this exhibit as some of the materials are adult-oriented.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm. It is free and open to the public. See http://cartoons.osu.edu for further information. The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue just north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance. Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Contact: Lucy Shelton Caswell
 Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
 023L Wexner Center, 27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
 Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538
 cartoons@osu.edu
http://cartoons.osu.edu

Sports Cartoons the Subject of Exhibition at OSU’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Let the Games Begin:  A Century of Sports Cartoons
An Exhibition at the Reading Room Gallery
January 15 – April 9, 2010

More than 50 sports cartoons will be on display as part of the exhibition Let the Games Begin:  A Century of Sports Cartoons, on view at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum from January 15 – April 9. The exhibition features original drawings by some of the most prolific and influential cartoon artists of the past century and includes likenesses of a wide variety of sports figures including Jack Dempsey, Dizzy Dean, Ted Williams, Willie Shoemaker, as well Ohio State athletics.

Editorial cartoons have a long history but the sports cartoon, as we know it now, evolved as a fixture on the sports page as athletic endeavors became more and more of a ubiquitous form of popular entertainment.  Before television and higher-speed photography, sports cartoons were an important way for a commentator to communicate to the public the personalities on the field or to sum up an achievement or brewing controversy.

The cartoons featured in Let the Games Begin:  A Century of Sports Cartoons span the twentieth century from a time when boxing and horse racing captured the nation’s undivided attention to the end of the century and beyond, long after any remaining shreds of purity and innocence had been stripped from the public’s collective perception of the athletes it followed and admired. Drawn from several of the Cartoon Library’s collections, the works featured in this exhibit were published in newspapers from all over the United States. Artists featured in the exhibition include Willard Mullin, Arnold Roth, William Summers, Karl Hubenthal, the Columbus Dispatch’s Jeff Stahler, and more.

“Historic sports cartoon provide a wonderful window into the past. We are fortunate to have such rich holdings of these works in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum,” stated Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor and Curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Let the Games Begin:  A Century of Sports Cartoons was co-curated by Caswell and David Filipi, Curator of Film/Video, at the Wexner Center for the Arts. The exhibition was funded in part by the operating endowment of The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. A free exhibit brochure featuring an essay by David Filipi is available upon request. Caswell and Filipi co-curated the exhibition Jeff Smith:  Bone and Beyond at the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2008.

Let the Games Begin:  A Century of Sports Cartoons is in conjunction with Hard Targets, an exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts from January 30 through April 11, 2010.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm. It is free and open to the public. See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information. The Billy IrelandCartoon Library & Museum is located at 27 W. 17th Avenue just north of the Wexner Center’s main entrance. Parking is available at the Ohio Union garage.

Contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Contact: Lucy Shelton Caswell
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
023L Wexner Center, 27 W. 17th Avenue Mall
Columbus OH 43210-1393
614-292-0538   cartoons@osu.edu
http://cartoons.osu.edu

Bil Keane Family Answers Schulz Challenge

World-renowned cartoonist Bil Keane and his family have answered the Schulz Challenge with a $50,000 gift to support the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum facility, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University. The Keane Family gift will be matched dollar for dollar by Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts’ creator Charles M. Schulz, giving it a $100,000 impact on the project. Schulz has promised to match all donations to the new facility up to $2.5 million.

“This donation is our way of thanking Ohio State for their great support of the cartoon art form. This library and museum will give future generations the opportunity to enjoy the original art of cartoons that have graced refrigerators, cubicles and classroom walls for years.” said Jeff Keane, Bil Keane’s son and collaborator.

Bil Keane is the creator of the cartoon panel The Family Circus, which first appeared in 1960 and soon grew to become the most widely syndicated panel in America.   Keane looked to his own family including wife Thelma and their five children, Gayle, Neal, Glen, Christopher and Jeff, for ideas for the cartoon.  Youngest son Jeff, the inspiration for the character “Little Jeffy,” now assists his father in creating the strip and serves as President of the National Cartoonists Society.

We are grateful for the Keane Family’s support of the library in general and of this renovation project in particular. Their generous gift brings us even closer to meeting the total Schulz Challenge of $2.5 million,” said Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

The Sullivant Hall renovation is estimated to cost $20.6 million and will be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house both the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum and The Ohio State University Department of Dance. Upon completion of the Schulz Challenge, the Sullivant Hall renovation will be completely funded.

Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Cartoon Library & Museum was housed originally in two converted classrooms in Ohio State’s Journalism Building. Since then, Caswell has built it into a widely renowned special collection that is a destination for both cartoon researchers and fans from around the world.

Thousands of donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands. With the recent addition of the International Museum of Cartoon Art’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 450,000 works of original cartoon art, 36,000 books, 51,000 serial titles, 3,000 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics material, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is currently located in the lower level of the Wexner Center for the Arts complex. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet, providing much-needed additional storage and new exhibition galleries that will allow more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public.   For more information, see http://cartoons.osu.edu.

Contact:  Jane Carroll
(614) 292-2550 or carroll.296@osu.edu

Monday, December 21, 2009

Ohio State Names Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in honor of $7 million gift

The Ohio State University Board of Trustees today approved the naming of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in recognition of a $7 million gift from the Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation to support the renovation of Sullivant Hall, an historic building located at a main gateway to the university’s campus. The project is estimated to cost $20.6 million and will be completed in 2013, at which time Sullivant Hall will house both the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum and The Ohio State University Department of Dance.

The project has also received a donation from Jean Schulz of up to $3.5 million, in the form of a $ 1 million gift and a special challenge grant: Mrs. Schulz will match dollar for dollar any additional donations to the project up to $2.5 million. The Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation gift was made prior to the Schulz Challenge, so it will not count toward it. Donations may be made here for the Schulz Challenge.

“The Graves Foundation has made a critical investment to enhance the learning environment for students, faculty, and visitors from around the world,” said President E. Gordon Gee. “The revitalized Sullivant Hall will be a fitting home to two university treasures – the top-ranked Department of Dance and the world-renowned Cartoon Library and Museum. Naming the latter in Billy Ireland’s honor is a fitting tribute to a remarkable Ohioan.”

The Elizabeth Ireland Graves Foundation is managed by Billy Ireland’s granddaughter, Sayre Graves, and is based out of Bremo Bluff, Va.

The Columbus Dispatch hired Ireland, a native of Chillicothe, Ohio, shortly after his high school graduation in 1898. A self-taught cartoonist, he worked for the Dispatch until his death in 1935 and was known both for his editorial cartoons and for his Sunday feature The Passing Show.

An exhibition of Ireland’s work will be held at Ohio State in the fall 2010.

“Billy Ireland was a Columbus celebrity during his lifetime,” according to Lucy Shelton Caswell, the cartoon library and museum’s founding curator. “He enjoyed a national reputation and his work is still delightful to read. This is a fitting honor for a great cartoonist. We look forward to sharing his work with a new generation of readers.”

Established in 1977 with a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum was housed in two converted classrooms in the Ohio State’s Journalism Building. Since then, Caswell has built it into a widely renowned collection that is a destination for both cartoon researchers and fans from around the world.

Thousands of donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands. With the recent addition of the International Museum of Cartoon Art’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 400,000 works of original cartoon art, 35,000 books, 51,000 serial titles, 2,800 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages.

Now the world’s largest collection of cartoon art and comics, the Cartoon Library and Museum is currently located in the basement of the Wexner Center for the Arts https://cartoons.osu.edu/. Its new, permanent home in Sullivant Hall will expand its space from its current 6,808 square feet to more than 40,000 gross square feet of space storage and exhibit space allowing more of the collection to be displayed and accessible to the public.

Sullivant Hall also will provide greatly enhanced facilities for Ohio State’s top-ranked dance program, including state-of-the-art dance facilities, upgraded administrative offices, and an upgrade of the existing auditorium.

 

Contact: Jane Carroll

(614) 292-2550 or carroll.296@osu.edu

Friday, September 18, 2009

Winsor McCay: Legendary Cartoonist

An Exhibition at the Cartoon Library & Museum’s Reading Room Gallery
September 15 – December 31, 2009

Winsor McCay was an unusually prolific cartoonist. More than thirty comic strip titles and ten animated films are credited to him. The decade between 1903 and 1913 was his most creative period. His biographer, John Canemaker, states, “…when the American comic strip was in its infancy, McCay became the first master of the form with two unsurpassed works of genius, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend…and Little Nemo in Slumberland.” In addition, McCay was an important pioneer animator and a popular vaudeville performer.

The date and place of McCay’s birth are unknown. He grew up in Michigan and was self-taught. He created his first comic strip, A Tale of the Jungle Imps by Felix Fiddle, for the Cincinnati Enquirer in 1903. McCay soon left for New York City where he worked for James Gordon Bennett and later for William Randolph Hearst. Although his comic strips were formulaic, the sureness of his hand and the beauty of his drawings continue to delight. McCay’s interest in depicting movement is apparent throughout his comic strips, so it is not surprising that he found the new medium of animation intriguing.

In 1913, William Randolph Hearst ordered McCay to draw nothing but editorial illustrations. This constraint leaves contemporary students of McCay’s work puzzled. What might he have accomplished if he had devoted the last twenty years of his life to animation or comic strips? Winsor McCay:  Legendary Cartoonist invites visitors to consider this question as they enjoy superb examples of McCay’s work that span his career.

About the Cartoon Library and Museum: Our primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm. See http://cartoons.osu.edu for further information.

Contact the Cartoon Library and Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Celebrating the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection

Two new exhibitions at The Ohio State University celebrate the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, which was recently transferred to OSU’s Cartoon Library and Museum (formerly the Cartoon Research Library). The union of these two institutions created the largest collection of original cartoon art in the world. The exhibitions showcase the treasures of the collection including original art from editorial cartoons, comic strips, animation and comic books. Fan favorites Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, Blondie, Dick Tracy, Mickey Mouse, For Better or For Worse, Doonesbury, Spider-Man, Beetle Bailey and Family Circus will all be on display. The characters and images depicted may be familiar, but taken out of their traditional context in print and on screen, cartoons can be examined and appreciated as works of art; triumphs of design and craftsmanship. The originals reveal the method behind the magic, offering visitors an opportunity to look at the popular culture icons and images so prevalent in their everyday lives in new and different ways. These exhibitions will engage and delight audiences of all ages.

  • From Yellow Kid to Conan: American Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection will be held at the Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor from June 28-August 7, 2009. The exhibition is open weekdays from 10:30 am-4:30 pm and is located at 128 North Oval Mall.
  • Hogarth and Beyond: Global Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection will be held at the Cartoon Library and Museum’s Reading Room gallery from June 10-August 31, 2009. The exhibition is open weekdays from 9:00 am-5:00 pm and is located at 27 W. 17th Ave.  Mall (entrance near Wexner Center, north of Mershon Auditorium)

Admission to both exhibitions is free.

A series of events on June 27-28, 2009 has been scheduled to celebrate the opening of the exhibitions:

June 27, 2009, 7:00 pm, Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Theater
101 Dalmations (1961) proceeded by animated shorts, Brave Little Tailor(1938) and Leprechaun’s Gold (1949). Introduction by animation historian Jerry Beck. Visit wexarts.org or call 614-292-3535 for tickets. $7 ($5 for members, students, and senior citizens).

June 28, 2009, Grand Lounge, The Ohio State University Faculty Club, 181 South Oval Drive.
1:00 pm   Milestones of the International Museum of Cartoon Art. Panel discussion with former trustees Brian Walker, Mort Walker, and Arnold Roth moderated by Dr. Jared Gardner, Dept. of English.
2:15 pm   Keynote Speaker – Jim Borgman, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and co-creator of the comic strip Zits.

3:30-5:00 pm   Exhibition  opening reception at the Hopkins Hall Gallery + Corridor. Refreshments will be served.

All June 28 events are free and open to the public.

The following additional programs are scheduled:

July 14, 2009, 7:00-9:00 pm, 162 Hopkins Hall, 128 North Oval Mall. Free.
“A Whirlwind History of American Comics” by Dr, Jared Gardner and gallery talk by Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of From the Yellow Kid to Conan.

July 19, 2009, Free family programs.
12:00-4:30 pm   From the Yellow Kid to Conan: American Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection at Hopkins Gallery + Corridor.
1:00 pm   The Secret of N.I.M.H. (1982) Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Theater.
2:30-4:00 pm   Special events at the Hopkins Gallery + Corridor. Enjoy lemonade and cookies! Print a comic strip with Bob Tauber, Logan Elm Press and Book Arts Program! Make an authentic newspaper printer’s hat!

About the International Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA): IMCA was established in 1973 by Mort Walker, the creative force behind Beetle Bailey, as the first museum dedicated to collecting and exhibiting cartoons. IMCA’s collection consists of approximately 200,000 works, including original drawings from all genres of cartoon art (comic strips, comic books, animation, editorial, advertising, collectibles, and works on film and tape, CD’s and DVD’s.

IMCA’s operating history spanned nearly thirty years and three locations. Unfortunately, in 2002, after six years of highly successful operation in Boca Raton, Florida and the expectation ofa long and similarly successful future, financial difficulties forced the museum to close. The entire collection was transferred to OSU in 2008.

About the Cartoon Library and Museum: The library’s primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday-Friday 9 am to 5 pm. See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information.

Contact the Cartoon Library and Museum for an image to accompany this release.

Jean Schulz, Widow of “Peanuts” Creator Charles M. Schulz, Gives $1 Million to Cartoon Library & Museum Move

Promises to match an additional $2.5 million in a “challenge” to others

Columbus OH – The Ohio State University received a gift of $1 million from Jean Schulz, the widow of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, to support the renovation of Sullivant Hall, the future home of the world’s most comprehensive academic research facility dedicated to documenting printed cartoon art.

Along with her generous gift, Mrs. Schulz issued a challenge:  she will provide an additional matching gift of $2.5 million if Ohio State raises the same amount from other sources, making the total impact of her gift $6 million.

“By helping to underwrite a state-of-the-art facility for the University’s renowned Cartoon Library and Museum, Jean Schulz advances the work of students, faculty, and scholars, and deepens our understanding of the importance of the genre,” said Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee. “Her gift is an especially fitting way to honor the remarkable creative legacy of her late husband, Charles.”

Located at a highly visible location along High Street and adjacent to the Wexner Center for the Arts, the historic Sullivant Hall is in dire need of repair. The planned renovation will provide 40,000 gross square feet of space for the new Cartoon Library and Museum that will include a spacious reading room for researchers, three museum-quality galleries, and expanded storage with state-of-the-art environmental and security controls. A dedicated ground-level entry will allow for easy access to the new facility. The addition of exhibition galleries dedicated to cartoon art will facilitate public display of the Library’s extraordinary collection.

When asked what inspired her to give to the Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State, Jean Schulz said, “Lucy Caswell has done a marvelous job in collecting and preserving works in the cartoon medium. I was pleased at the opportunity to help provide a fitting home for this important collection and to recognize her contribution in the field.”

The Sullivant renovation will also provide new spaces for the Department of Dance and the Music/Dance Library, and an upgraded auditorium, which will be used for numerous community, academic, and performance purposes.

Total renovation cost is estimated at $ 20.6 million, with architectural design to take 12 months, followed by 6 months for bidding and contracts, and 24 months for construction.

Due to its outstanding reputation, growing collection and a surge of scholarly interest in comics and cartoons, the Cartoon Library and Museum — formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library — is a destination location for researchers from around the world.

With a founding gift of the Milton Caniff Collection, Ohio State’s Cartoon Library and Museum was established in 1977 in two converted classrooms in the University’s Journalism Building. From this small beginning, founding curator Lucy Shelton Caswell has spent more than thirty years building the Library into the widely renowned facility it is today.

The Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State is one of the most admired and sought-after caretakers of legacy collections. Thousands of donors have contributed to the collection, with gifts ranging from one item to tens of thousands. In 1992, the Robert Roy Metz Collection of 83,034 original cartoons by 113 cartoonists was donated by United Media, and in 2007, the entire collection of the International Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA), numbering more than 200,000 originals, was transferred to the Cartoon Library and Museum.

With the addition of the IMCA’s extensive permanent collection, the Cartoon Library and Museum now houses more than 400,000 works of original cartoon and comic art, 35,000 books, 51,000 serial titles, 2,800 linear feet of manuscript materials, and 2.5 million comic strip clippings and newspaper pages. Moving into its new home from its current location, a 6,800-square-foot basement north of Mershon Auditorium, will allow more of the collection to be displayed and readily accessible.

“We are very grateful to Jean Schulz for her generous gift and for her challenge which will encourage everyone who cares about cartoon art to become involved in our project,” said Lucy Shelton Caswell. “The new Cartoon Library and Museum will be a place of learning and enjoyment for the public and scholars alike.”

Join the Schulz Challenge and Support the Sullivant Hall Renovation
http://giveto.osu.edu/schulzchallenge

 

Contact:  Jane Carroll, Public Relations Manager
Development Communications, The Ohio State University
(614) 292-2550 or carroll.296@osu.edu

Bud Blake Collection

The estate of Bud Blake donated a substantial collection of his work to The Ohio State University Cartoon Library and Museum. Blake, who died at age 87 in 2005, began his career as a paste-up boy for the Kudner Advertising Agency in New York and worked his way up to Executive Director of the agency. By 1954 he was disillusioned with the corporate world, so he quit his job to become a freelance cartoonist. King Features syndicated Blake’s panel cartoon Ever Happen to You? from 1958 to 1965.

During the mid-1960s, King Features turned down more than fifty “kid strips” before Blake submitted samples of Tiger, his charming strip about a little boy and his pals. Tiger was distributed by King Features from May 3, 1965 until Blake’s death. One critic described the comic strip as “expressively drawn in a distinctive and deceptively simple style…it is among the most attractively executed humor strips in the field.”  Blake received the National Cartoonists Society’s Best Humor Strip Award 1970, 1978, and 2001.

The Bud Blake Collection includes more than 5,800 original Ever Happen to You? panels and approximately 10,000 daily and Sunday Tiger originals as well as related materials. Work on organizing the collection to make it available is underway. “We are honored and delighted to have such a substantial collection of Bud Blake’s work here at the Cartoon Library and Museum,” stated its curator, Professor Lucy Shelton Caswell. “Tiger is a remarkable comic strip about normal kids and the extraordinary observations that they, like real children, make.”

Contact the Cartoon Research Library for an image to accompany this release

 

About the Cartoon Library & Museum: The Cartoon Library and Museum’s mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections. The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information.

Light: A Forgotten 19th Century Humor Magazine

An Exhibition at the Cartoon Library & Museum’s Reading Room Gallery
April 9, 2009 – May 31, 2009

Light was by far the most important of lithographic comic weekly to be published outside of New York or San Francisco during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.  It provided the first or early employment to a host of talented cartoonists, illustrators, and at least one writer who would later go on to successful careers.  Those who contributed to Light included Will H. Bradley, W. W. Denslow, Frank Ladendorf, Ferand Lungren, Hy Mayer, Peter Newell, T. E. Powers, C. S. Rigby, and Horace Taylor.  It also published the works of prominent New York cartoonists, such as Eugene Zimmerman and F. M. Howarth.

During its bumpy two-and-a-half year existence, the magazine’s one constant was change: it changed its name, its place of publication, its size and appearance, and its owners, editors, and chief cartoonists.  It began in Columbus in March 1889 as The Owl.  It changed its name to Light in June and suspended publication in September.  It was revived in Chicago in February of 1890, went full-color in May, increased its page size in September, and published its final issue in June 1891.

Why Light is unknown today is due to its rarity.  Until recently, the Library of Congress held the only set and it is incomplete. For more than a century, the objects in this exhibition languished in the basement of the Chicago-area home owned by Philo C. Darrow, the magazine’s art director and editor.  The current owners of the home decided to sell the archive in early 2008 and the library acquired it shortly thereafter.  While some of the objects may be a bit worse for wear, the quality of both the original cartoons and the magazine itself is without question.

On April 9, the Cartoon Library & Museum will partner with the Aldus Society, a Central Ohio group devoted to books and the printed arts, to sponsor a lecture about Light by Richard Samuel West, an independent scholar and historian who is an expert in the history of nineteenth century American editorial cartoons.  The program will be Thursday, April 9, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. at The Thurber Center, 91 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, OH.  The event is free and open to the public.  Socializing begins at 7:00 p.m. and allows members and guests the opportunity to discuss among themselves their book interests and latest finds.

The exhibition Light:  A Forgotten 19th Century Humor Magazine is co-curated by Richard West and Lucy Shelton Caswell, Professor and Curator of the Cartoon Library & Museum. 

 

About the Cartoon Library & Museum: The Cartoon Library and Museum’s primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  See https://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information.

Ronald Searle: Satirist

An exhibition at the Cartoon Library & Museum’s Reading Room Gallery
January 15-March 31, 2009

Ronald Searle:  Satirist showcases examples of this great British cartoonist’s work at the height of his career as a graphic reporter during the 1950s and 1960s.  Born March 3, 1920 to a working class family in Cambridge, Searle quit art school to join the Territorial Army as an Architectural Draughtsman in 1939.  He was shipped to Singapore in October 1941, and was captured by the Japanese a month after his arrival.  He spent the remainder of World War II in a prisoner of war camp.  Searle began cartooning for Punch in 1946 and was so successful there that he became a member of Mr. Punch’s Table, a very high honor, only a decade later.  During this time, Searle also worked frequently for American magazines such as Holiday and Life.  In 1960 he was the first non-American artist to receive the National Cartoonists Society ‘s Reuben Award, its highest honor.

In the early 1960s Searle moved to France and began cartooning less and painting more.  He created several limited edition prints over the last forty years.  Searle collaborated on numerous book projects, as documented by the eighty-four titles associated with him that are held in this library.

The Cartoon Library and Museum was fortunate to purchase a collection of almost fifty pieces by Searle in 1995.  Most of the works in this exhibition are selected from this purchase.

About the Cartoon Library and Museum:  The Cartoon Library and Museum’s primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collecton of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The library is open Monday-Friday 9am to 5pm.   See http://cartoons.osu.edu for further information.