Please join us for a reception and program to celebrate the opening of the new exhibition Drawn to Presidents: Portraits and Satiric Drawings by Drew Friedman at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Illustrators Drew Friedman and C.F. Payne will discuss, in a visual conversation, Friedman’s latest book of portraits All The Presidents (Fantagraphics, 2019), as well as their artistic influences, from MAD magazine artists Mort Drucker and Jack Davis, to David Levine and Robert Grossman. They will also discuss creating politically-themed artwork over the years for publications ranging from SPY to TIME, to The New York Observer and The New Yorker.

4:30–5:00 pm: Tour of the exhibition led by Drew Friedman
5:00–6:00 pm: Program “Spotlight on Drew Friedman—In conversation with C.F. Payne”
6:00–7:30 pm: Reception and book signing for All the Presidents. Books will be available for purchase on site from the Wexner Center Store. Light refreshments and beverages will be served.

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Speaker Biographies:

Drew Friedman
Award-winning artist Drew Friedman’s comics and illustrations have appeared in RAW, Weirdo, Heavy Metal, National Lampoon, SPY, MAD, Time, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New York Observer and many other publications, as well as on numerous book, CD and DVD covers. In his New York Times book review of Old Jewish Comedians, Steven Heller wrote: “A festival of drawing virtuosity and fabulous craggy faces. Drew Friedman might very well be the Vermeer of the Borscht Belt.” The Society of Illustrators hosted a two-floor main gallery showing of all of Friedman’s Old Jewish Comedians drawings in 2014. Filmmaker Kevin Dougherty is preparing a documentary, “Vermeer of the Borscht Belt” covering Friedman’s career.

Friedman has had six anthologies of his work published. His latest book is All The Presidents (Fantagraphics Books, 2019) with a foreword by public radio host Kurt Andersen.
Drew Friedman and his wife Kathy Bidus live in rural PA with their rescue beagle Gunther.

C.F. Payne
Born 1954 in Cincinnati, OH, C.F. Payne’s illustrations have appeared in magazines, advertisements, and children’s books for more than 35 years. After graduating from Miami University with a BFA and the Illustrators Workshop he started his freelance career in Dallas, TX in 1980. He has taught illustration for more than 30 years. Prior to joining the Hartford Art School in 2016 as Director of the MFA in Illustration program, he taught at Columbus College of Art and Design for nineteen years. His art has been exhibited in numerous museums and university galleries including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the Norman Rockwell Museum, Huntington Art Museum, the Baseball Hall of Fame and more. Payne’s art has appeared on the covers of Time Magazine, MAD Magazine, Der Spiegel, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic, and Reader’s Digest. C.F. Payne has illustrated 20 children’s books including, “The Remarkable Farkle McBride” by actor John Lithgow, “Mousetronaut” by astronaut Mark Kelly, Mark Twain’s classic, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and most recently “Miss Mary Reporting”. In 2018 he was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. C.F. Payne and his wife Paula currently resides in Lebanon, OH.

Join us on Sunday, October 13 at 3:00 pm for a speaking event and reception for our current exhibition, Front Line: Editorial Cartoonists and the First Amendment, on display through October 20, 2019 at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. This FREE event begins at 2:30 pm with a tour of the exhibition, a lecture by Floyd Abrams begins at 3:00 pm,  followed by a reception and book signing. Books will be available for purchase on site from Gramercy Books.

This event is a collaboration between the John Glenn College of Public Affairs and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

This may be the most joyful two hours in North American convention-going! Happy comics-makers and just-as-happy patrons of the comics art form gather together at the beautiful Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum enjoying light refreshments, a cash bar, great conversation, wonderful exhibits, and even an awards announcement or two…

With support provided by Mary F. Gau and Kevin Wolf.

You’ve seen the astounding Billy Ireland exhibit Drawing Blood: Comics And Medicine, curated by Jared Gardner: now see and listen to some of the best practioners of this exciting area of comics expression as talk about what they do and why do it. Gardner moderates a trio of stellar cartoonists: M.K. Czerwiec (Graphic Medicine Manifesto), Georgia Webber (Dumb) and Rachel Lindsay (RX), about their groundbreaking work.

What’s Clip Studio Paint got that Photoshop doesn’t? Jerzy Drozd (The Warren Commission Report, Science Comics: Rockets) will lead a demonstration on the basic tools of Clip Studio Paint and explore some of the unique ways it solves the problems of making comics digitally.

Part of the Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) 2019 events. FREE and open to the public.