Category Archives: Library Events

Call for Cartoon Library Volunteers for June 8th!

Original editorial cartoon by Arnold Roth. From the Arnold Roth Deposit Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Original editorial cartoon by Arnold Roth. From the Arnold Roth Deposit Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Our Volunteer Day in April was such a huge success, that we’re ready and raring to go for round two!
Join us as we uncover hidden comic strip treasures from the United Media Syndicate Archives, as part of our preparation of the collections for our big move this summer. We need assistance unpacking, discarding acidic packing materials, sorting, and re-housing 300 boxes of proofs in new acid-free containers before our expansion into Sullivant Hall.  This collection contains thousands of comic strip proofs straight from the syndicate, ranging from the 1930s through 2000!

No experience necessary.  Training will be provided before we get started.  Don’t miss this chance to be a part of preserving the world of comics!
…And to get a free lunch!

When: Saturday, June 8th, 2013
               10am-4pm

 Where: Ackerman Special Collections Storage Area
               610 Ackerman Rd.
               Columbus, OH 43202
               *Parking and lunch will be provided

Hope to see you there!
To sign up to volunteer, contact Wendy Pflug or Susan Liberator: 614-292-0538 or cartoons@osu.edu
Be a Cartoon Library hero.

Call for Cartoon Library Volunteers!

Original editorial cartoon by Arnold Roth. From the Arnold Roth Deposit Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Original editorial cartoon by Arnold Roth. From the Arnold Roth Deposit Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Calling all Cartoon Library friends and fans!
We need your help!

Join us as we uncover hidden comic strip treasures from the United Media Syndicate Archives, as part of our preparation of the collections for our big move this summer. We need assistance unpacking, discarding acidic packing materials, sorting, and re-housing 300 boxes of proofs in new acid-free containers before our expansion into Sullivant Hall.  This collection contains thousands of comic strip proofs straight from the syndicate, ranging from the 1930s through 2000!

No experience necessary.  Training will be provided before we get started.  Don’t miss this chance to be a part of preserving the world of comics!
…And to get a free lunch!

When: Saturday, April 27, 2013
               10am-4pm

 Where: Ackerman Special Collections Storage Area
               610 Ackerman Rd.
               Columbus, OH 43202
               *Parking and lunch will be provided

Hope to see you there!
To sign up to volunteer, contact Wendy Pflug or Susan Liberator: 614-292-0538 or cartoons@osu.edu
Be a Cartoon Library hero.

OPEN HOUSE at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

museum of art

Please join us this Friday, April 12th from 5-7pm at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum where we will be opening up our doors to the public for a free open-house event to coincide with the 2013 Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (SPACE).

Enjoy the gallery exhibition A. B. Walker’s World, along with behind-the-scenes tours of the library stacks and a display of treasures from our collection, including original art from Jeff Smith’s “Bone”, Winsor McCay’s “Little Nemo in Slumberland”, Bill Watterson’s “Calvin and Hobbes”, Frank Miller’s “Daredevil”, Jack Kirby, Walt Kelly, P. Craig Russell, George Herriman, and so many more!

This will be the last chance for a backstage look at our current facility before our big move into Sullivant Hall this summer. Hope to see you there!

For information on parking and locating the Cartoon Library, please see our Visit Us page.

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

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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

Narrative Medicine: A Film & Comix Series

Over the next month, the Cartoon Library is thrilled to be cosponsoring the Wexner Center’s: Narrative Medicine: A Film & Comix Series

Narrative Medicine

Find out why medical students and practitioners are turning to the humanities (especially narrative studies of literature, film, and comix), and see how the arts and humanities have often honed in on stories of patients, doctors, and other health care practitioners. This series of screenings and events illuminates an exciting new “narrative medicine” movement based on the premise that narrative competence enhances medical competence even as medical experiences reshape narrative forms. The series complements a two-day multidisciplinary conference.

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On March 28th at 7pm in the Wexner Film & Video Center, join us for Ezra Claytan Daniels‘ presentation of Upgrade Soul:UpgradeSoulPromoEzra Claytan Daniels’s new digital comic Upgrade Soul tells the story of Hank and Molly Nonnar, wealthy science buffs who decide to fund a risky, experimental genetic therapy to rejuvenate the human body.There’s only one condition: They must be first in line to receive it. When dangerous complications develop, a battle for psychological dominance begins.

In this event, Daniels presents a live, interactive version of his format-busting comic with live musical accompaniment by Alexis Gideon, who performed with his own animated work at the Wexner Center last October. (app. 70 mins., digital projection)

For more information, or to buy tickets in advance, visit the Wexner Center website:
http://wexarts.org/fv/index.php?eventid=6889

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On Thursday, April 4th at 4pm in the Wexner Film & Video Center, we’re honored to bring in David Small, cartoonist and author of Stitches:
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Join David Small as he discusses his award-winning graphic novel Stitches (2009), a harrowing memoir of the botched childhood surgery that left him virtually mute. Stitches follows Small’s journey from the upsetting circumstances that necessitated the surgery, through adolescent hell, to the unbelievable recovery he achieved through his art.

For more information, or to buy tickets in advance, visit the Wexner Center website:
http://wexarts.org/fv/index.php?eventid=6891

CFP: The Third Triennial Academic Conference at the Festival of Cartoon Art

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As some of you know, we are deep into the planning of our 2013 Grand Opening Festival of Cartoon Art, scheduled for November 14th-17th, 2013. We can’t reveal all of the details just yet–but put it on your calendars now–we promise this years festival is not to be missed!

Starting off the Festival weekend early on November 14th and 15th, there will be a two day comics academic pre-conference featuring the great Henry Jenkins as the keynote speaker. Below, details on the conference and a Call For Papers. We hope you’ll submit, see you there!
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CFP: The Third Triennial Academic Conference at the Festival of Cartoon Art

Beginning in 2007, the triennial Festival of Cartoon Art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University added a one-day academic conference ahead of the weekend’s festivities. This year, 2013, the Billy Ireland will be hosting a special Festival to celebrate the Grand Opening of its glorious new home with a weekend of speakers, events and exhibitions. In honor of this momentous occasion, the academic conference this year will be a two-day event on Thursday and Friday, November 14th and 15th, leading up to the kickoff of the official opening festivities on Friday evening.

In honor of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, we will be organizing sessions focusing on some of the strengths and special features of the Library’s unparalleled collection. Toward this end we are inviting academic papers in comics studies, with a special interest in papers focusing on topics that connect with the Library’s collections and mission. (For information on the resources and collections at the Library, visit: http://cartoons.osu.edu). Some potential topics might include:

  • 18th- and 19th-Century Cartoon art
  • Editorial cartoons
  • Newspaper Comic Strips
  • Minicomics
  • Underground Comics
  • Walt Kelly and Pogo 
  • Charles Schulz and Peanuts
  • Will Eisner
  • Jeff Smith and Bone

We will also be celebrating the ongoing partnerships between the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum and the pre-con’s co-sponsors, Project Narrative, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and Popular Culture Studies. Toward that end, we are also soliciting papers on:

  • Graphic Narrative & Narrative Theory
  • Comics and Contemporary Art
  • Comics and Popular Culture

And last, but certainly not least, to honor the Billy Ireland’s teaching mission as part of Ohio State University, we are soliciting papers on “Teaching with Comics.”

Finally, we are delighted to announce that our keynote speaker for the academic pre-conference will be the one and only Henry Jenkins!

To be considered for the panels, please send a 250-500 word abstract and a one-page vita to gardner.236@osu.edu. The deadline for abstracts is July 1, 2013.

 

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: http://cartoons.osu.edu
Project Narrative: http://projectnarrative.osu.edu
The Wexner Center for the Arts: http://wexarts.org
Popular Culture Studies @ OSU: http://popularculturestudies.osu.edu

Artists’ Books and Comics Open House – February 20th

In collaboration with the Fine Arts Library, The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is excited to invite you to the Artists’ Books and Comics Open House! Come join us to explore some of the incredible handmade items from our Dylan Williams Collection of small press and self-published works.

Untitled by Austin English, The Dylan Williams Collection, The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Untitled by Austin English, The Dylan Williams Collection, The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

The OSU Fine Arts Library had a great response from the Fall semester Artists’ Books Open House. And so, by popular demand, we’re bringing it back this semester! Come see work by Marina Abramovic and Ulay, John Baldessari, Johanna Drucker, Fluxus, General Idea, The Guerrilla Girls, Hans Haacke, Nancy Holt, Douglas Huebler, Barbara Kruger, Sol LeWitt, George Maciunas, Ed Ruscha, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Weiner, Xu Bing, and many more. The Artists’ Books Open House will take place on Wednesday, the 20th of February, from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm in Thompson Library room 150.

This semester we’re also thrilled to include a selection from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum’s Dylan Williams Collection of small press and self-published mini-comics, which showcase unique formats and binding techniques from underground cartoonists to contemporary self-publishers. If you are interested in homemade comics or the art of the book, this is a unique opportunity to examine these objects up close and to really understand how they’re made. The Cartoon Library curator Caitlin McGurk will also be available during the open house to discuss the materials and their construction.

We will provide gloves so that you can study the works. Because of the sensitive nature of the materials (such as their designs, paper qualities, and fragility), we will ask that no backpacks or portfolios, food, drink, or wet media be brought into the room with them. Pencils and paper are recommended for note-taking and sketching.

Free and open to the public!

Please let us know if you have any questions about this event: cartoons@osu.edu

Making Comics with Girl Scouts of the USA Troop 2687 (Photoset)

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On Thursday, February 7th, Girl Scouts of the USA Troop 2687 visited the Cartoon Library to learn all about DIY book binding, women in comics, and how to make their own 8-page comic out of one sheet of paper. We’re always thrilled to work with the Girls, and Troop 2687 cranked out the most mini-comics of any crew we’ve hosted yet!

To get a full run down on what kind of activities we do with the Girl Scouts for them to earn their Drawing Badge or Comic Artist Badge, hop over to our post from this Fall on our time with Troop 1320.

After a whirlwind introduction to the great women in comics history, the group went over a wide variety of exciting and eccentric ways to print and bind comics, much to their astonished delight. Fully inspired and raring to go, they then sat down to put it all out on paper.

Giggles rang throughout the Cartoon Library as we contemplated the various hilarious roles for a hamster to play as the main character in our individual comics, which served as a muse for many of them. At the end of our hour-and-a-half session, the Girls slapped their comic onto the copy machine, emerging as official self-published cartoonists with copies of their debut work ready for the world!

Congratulations to the great cartoonists of Troop 2687! Girls rule forever.

Upcoming Cartoon Library Events

We have just returned from the Small Press Expo, where we debuted the Dylan Williams Collection and were able to chat with a lot of blog readers and general Cartoon Library enthusiasts- we love you all! Thank you to everyone who donated to the collection, attended the Institution Building and Comics panel, and made time to speak with us about our institution. It was a wonderfully successful convention, and we’re thrilled to have been a part of it. Thank you, SPX!

We’ve got a lot of great events coming up, in and outside of the Cartoon Library that we hope you’ll join us for:

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Pittsburgh Zine Fair – Saturday, September 22nd

Rangos Hall at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA

http://pghzinefair.com/scheduled/

The Cartoon Library will be featured at the beginning of the programming for the day, and the end as well with the following two panels:

1-2pm: Columbus is home to the world’s largest collection of comics and cartoon art! Visiting Curator of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Caitlin McGurk, will give a presentation on the history of the Cartoon Library, what they do, some of the incredible gems they have, how comics impact our lives and what the future holds for the museum. In 2013 the Cartoon Library will be expanding their physical space from a 6,800 sq-ft basement to a glorious 30,000 sq-ft home at the gateway to OSU’s campus, solidifying it as a top destination in America for all things comics.

6-7pm: Cartoonist Jim Rugg and Jason Lex and do a podcast called Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, where they interview artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and others about their non-traditional careers and creative experiences. They’re eager to talk to Caitlin about her work as a librarian and comics historian, the future of libraries now that every shred of human history is accessible from our phones, preserving paper, the Center for Cartoon Studies, creative fulfillment, and what drew her to the field of library science!

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Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Open House      

In Celebration of the CCAD MIX 2012 Festival         

October 4th, 5-7pm — Open to the public

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will be opening up their doors to the public from 5-7pm on Thursday, October 4th for a free open-house event to coincide with CCAD’s Mix 2012: Comics Symposium. Enjoy the Reading Room Gallery Exhibition Line Dancing, a survey of dance in cartoon art, along with a behind-the-scenes peek of the library stacks and a display of treasures from our collection, including original Bone art by Jeff Smith, original Little Nemo in Slumberland art from Winsor McCay, original Calvin and Hobbes art by Bill Watterson, and original art by P. Craig Russell, acclaimed illustrator of The Sandman, Hellboy, and Coraline.

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MIX 2012 – CCAD’s Celebration of Comics – October 3rd-6th  http://www.ccad.edu/events-2012/mix2012

A celebration of and investigation into the art of the comic book, MIX 2012 includes a keybote event and original artwork from Chris Ware, a symposium with roundtables and workshops, a comic-book-creation marathon for teams of college and university students, and an exhibition of original work by Chris Ware.

On Friday, October 5th Caitlin McGurk of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum will moderate the following roundtable:

4:15-5:30pm
Indie Comix Spotlight
The “mainstream” isn’t what it used to be, in part because independent publishing now consistently offers alternative voices and stories with substance and frequency enough to be a sizable “stream” of its own. This loose and laid-back mega-roundtable, featuring notable local and regional artists who have worked independently on their own titles and in collaboration, will focus on the ups and downs of the DIY ethic. Moderator: Caitlin McGurk, Visiting Curator at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. Featuring: Tom Williams (Satanic Paperboy); Michael Neno (The Signifiers); James Moore and Joel Jackson (Two-Headed Monster); Katie Valeska (Next Year’s Girl); Lora Innes (The Dreamer); Ken Eppstein (Nix Comics Quarterly); Bob Corby (SPACE); Max Ink (Blink); Rafael Rosado (Giants Beware!)

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The Intergalactic Nemesis  – Book One: Target Earth

Live Action Graphic Novel

Friday, October 12th – 7pm – Mershon Auditorium

Details and ticket information on the Wexner Center website

Sponsored by the Wexner Center, The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and The Ohio State University Libraries

Upcoming Cartoon Library Event! Nick Anderson on Humor and Opinion: The Art of the Political Cartoon

This event is open to the public. Non-OSU affiliates can register by calling 1-800-762-5646.

This event has been made possible in collaboration with the Ohio State University Alumni Association, The Humanities Institute, and the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. Sponsored in part by the Mark J. Cohen and Rosie Marie McDaniel Endowment, and Liberty Mutual Insurance.