How does the initial spark of an idea for a work of art transform into a printed page? Write It Down, Draw It Out: The Comics Art of Carol Tyler celebrates the origins, working process, and the finished art of autobiographical cartoonist Carol Tyler. This show provides a rare look at the creative mind and masterful hand of one of the comics medium’s most accomplished artists. The exhibition is on view in the Robinson Family Gallery at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & Library from May 24 to November 9, 2025, and is free and open to the public.

Over her 40-year comics career, Carol Tyler has crafted stories that are powerful, sometimes humorous, often heartbreaking, and always honest. Write It Down, Draw It Out features many representative examples, from published pieces to never before seen works from Tyler’s archive. On display are familiar stories from 1980s anthologies like Weirdo and Wimmins Comics, to pages from solo books like The Job Thing (2001), Late Bloomer (2005) and the highly acclaimed Soldier’s Heart: A The Campaign to Understand My WWII Veteran Father: A Daughter’s Memoir (2015), which started out as the groundbreaking three volume masterpiece You’ll Never Know (2009, 2010, 2012). Also on view, fan favorite Fab4 Mania (2018), a memoir about Tyler’s joyful obsession with the Beatles as a young girl in the 1960s. The exhibit also features selections from Tyler’s newest and most ambitious project to date: The Ephemerata: Shaping Grief (2025), an intense meditation on loss.

This is no ordinary exhibit. In addition to dozens of pages of original artwork, Write It Down, Draw it Out includes extensive examples of initial diary entries, sketches, notes, rare artifacts, scraps of paper and other personal materials that fueled the inspiration and led to the development of her story making style. Throughout the exhibit space, several narrative statements by Tyler further support and explain her creative process.

“A show like this–I don’t think it should be called a retrospective, even though, of course, I know it is,” Tyler said. “Rather, I like thinking of it as a mid-point review because I feel like I’m just getting started. To me, everything I see on display here brings into focus how much more I’ve got to do. And improve upon. I’m in my 70s, and yet always, I feel the need to up my game to make sure that the reader gets their money’s worth.”

Taking on the tough stuff and maneuvering through complex topics like parenting, economic hardships, health woes, spousal betrayal, and the death of loved ones is not easy, but Tyler has found over the decades that making comics about these things has been an effective way to navigate life’s difficulties. Delving into her career with Write It Down, Draw it Out makes it clear that Carol Tyler is one of comics’ most important voices. There is a staggering depth to this exhibit. Visitors are bound to come away inspired, appreciative, and encouraged by this singular artist’s body of work.

Curated by Julia Green with additional exhibition labels written by John Kelly