Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

For Immediate Release: October 16th, 2012

Tom Spurgeon Donates Foundational Gift to The Dylan Williams Collection

Tom Spurgeon, multiple Eisner and Harvey award-winning writer and editor of the Comics Reporter and previously the Managing and Executive Editor of The Comics Journal, has recently donated his personal collection of small press and self-published comics to The Dylan Williams Collection at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Spurgeon’s generous donation contains roughly 1,300 mini-comics, definitively capturing the essence and trends of the 1990s and 2000s small press environment. As a result of Spurgeon’s vital involvement in the comics community through journalism and reviews, the collection contains early works of cartoonists including Julie Doucet, Ivan Brunetti, Lewis Trondheim, Tom Hart, Rachel Hartman, Craig Thompson, Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale and Leslie Stein.

As soon as The Dylan Williams Collection was announced, Spurgeon answered the call for donations. “I admired Dylan Williams personally and professionally. I think The Dylan Williams Collection is a fantastic way to honor his memory, and will come to provide a deeply valuable service to the creative communities Dylan cared about” says Spurgeon. “Institutions like the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum help maintain comics history in the most precious way imaginable: the direct archiving of the art form. I’m honored they would accept my modest collection as one of the first donations.” Spurgeon’s contribution gives direct substance to the scope of this one-month-old collection, and provides a strong foundation that will enhance its impact and importance.

“We were delighted when Tom offered us his incredible collection” says Curator Jenny Robb, “We would not have been able to acquire such a comprehensive representation without the help of someone so deeply rooted in the community.”

Since the bequest of the Jay Kennedy Collection of underground comix in 2008, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has become a leading resource for alternative, small press and self-published materials. The establishment of The Dylan Williams Collection furthers our mission to serve as the premier center for the preservation and study of cartoons and comics in the United States. To learn more, visit The Dylan Williams Collection Development Policy.

Spurgeon stated: “I urge all of my friends and all readers of The Comics Reporter with access to handmade and small press comics of the kind Dylan made, published, and promoted, to consider seeing if they might be of use donated to the Dylan Williams Collection.”

For more information please contact: Caitlin McGurk

mcgurk.17@osu.edu – 614-292-0538

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Visiting Curator Caitlin McGurk, sorting and re-housing Tom Spurgeon’s donation.