The Mighty SÕL-CON, The Brown and Black Comics Expo, roars to life for year three with its patented Friday on-campus expo, panels, and workshops. Join some of the best and brightest creators in the country in a high-energy creative atmosphere.

Free and open to the public; there will be workshops for K-12 participants.

SÕL-CON Schedule of Events

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is proud to host the first two days, September 28-29, of the third-annual Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC)! This city-wide, four-day festival brings hundreds of cartoonists from across the nation together to celebrate cartoon art at a variety of venues throughout Columbus. All events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Check here for a full schedule of CXC events! September 30-October 1, 2017 events take place at the Columbus Metropolitan Library

Join our special guest DANA SIMPSON this Thursday, September 28 from 3:00 to 3:50 pm at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Tom Spurgeon will be speaking with Dana for the first of our Skill Set series during Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC). A special thank you to GoComics for their sponsorship!  Dana will also be at the Columbus Metropolitan Library for events on Saturday and Sunday

On May 1, 1977, founding curator Lucy Shelton Caswell began work on the Milton Caniff collection, and the institution that would become The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum was born. Join us for a special celebration, exactly 40 years later!

This is an excellent chance to explore our two new exhibits, TALES FROM THE VAULT: 40 YEARS/40 STORIES and FOUNDING COLLECTIONS: 1977-1987!

Catered reception and cash bar ♦  Games and activities ♦ Raffle to support the new Lucy Shelton Caswell Research Award ♦  Photo opportunities ♦ Behind-the-scenes archive tours ♦ A curators’ tour at 5 pm with Jenny Robb, Caitlin McGurk, and Lucy Caswell ♦ Cake!

This FREE event is made possible through generous support from Eileen & Lynn Theis. We hope you will celebrate with us on May 1st!

It’s hard to imagine the field of comics being as diverse and vibrant as it is today without publisher Fantagraphics Books. Founded in 1976 by Gary Groth and Mike Catron (joined by the late Kim Thompson in 1977), Fantagraphics began by publishing the collector’s magazine Amazing Heroes before beginning to publish comics in 1979. During its existence, the company has published and championed such alternative comics greats as Dan Clowes, the Hernandez Brothers, Jessica Abel, and Charles Burns, along with reprints of classic comics and the influential The Comics Journal. In We Told You So: Comics as Art, comics historian and critic Tom Spurgeon (along with co-author Michael Dean) provide an oral history of the influential company, exploring not only the business side of the operation but the broader movement and acceptance of comics as an art form during the past 40 years. Those interviewed include a “Who’s Who” of American comics including Art Spiegelman, Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Dave Sim, Jim Shooter and more.