Month: March 2013 (page 1 of 3)

Girl Scouts of the USA – Troop 303 Hastings Middle School!

Happy Friday, beloved Cartoon Library blog followers! You may have noticed that our blog has a new look — we’d love to get your feedback on it in the comments section.

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Our gift to you this weekend is even more eternally-inspiration photos of our most recent visit from the Girl Scouts of the USA! Troop 303 of the Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland Council came by from Hastings Middle School to earn their Cadette Comic Artist Badge by learning all about women in comics, methods of self-publishing, re-purposing materials, and storytelling techniques. As usual, the afternoon culminated in each Junior Girl Scout producing an amazing 8 page comic out of one sheet of paper. To learn more about our involvement with the Girl Scouts of America in the Cartoon Library, visit our past posts here and here.

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The Girls poured over dozens of mini-comics, Stephenny Godfrey’s epic fold-out comic Panorama being an especially big hit with this group. Click to enlarge the images below!

Reeling with ideas, they set to work on their comics, some girls even finishing two or three during our session!

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Congratulations to the awesome cartoonists of Troop 303 on their first self published works!

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For information about starting a small-press collection at your library, or bringing a Girl Scout troop into our library, please contact Caitlin McGurk at mcgurk.17@osu.edu

Found in the Collection: Jiji Manga, February 1921

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library is home to one of the largest Japanese-language manga collections outside of Japan, amounting to over 18,000 manga items. This includes an incredible 500+ issue run of Jiji Manga, a weekly supplement that was added to the Jiji-Shinpo newspapers in 1900. This would be the first time that the word manga appeared in the title of a publication, inaugurating it’s popular use.

The image below is from the front cover of the February 11th, 1921 issue of Jiji Manga, a beautifully designed cartoon piece on Japanese women’s liberation.

Jiji Manga, February 11th, 1921. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

“Jiji Manga”, February 11th, 1921. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

With the help of our amazing manga cataloger, Misty Alvaro, we were able to decipher the meaning of some of the kanji, while other archaic characters are unknown to us for the time being. If any readers would like to offer their expertise, feel free to comment!

The first bubble that the woman is blowing depicts a Japanese woman cutting off the long, restrictive sleeves of her traditional kimono, a rebellious act, while the next image refers to labor reform for women. The definite meaning of the third bubble is still unknown to us. The fourth bubble is about sexual freedom and STDs, and the fifth represents the reform of childbirth laws. The sixth bubble deals with women’s suffrage, and the seventh is for choosing your own partner based on love: marriage freedom.

Below, scans of the inside pages of this time-faded issue:

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“Jiji Manga”, February 21, 1921. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

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“Jiji Manga”, February 21, 1921. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

To learn more about our manga collection, you can view our collection development policy here.

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