Crowdsourcing The Dylan Williams Collection

Congratulations to Cartoon Library volunteers Joe Miller and Caitlin Naber for their milestone accomplishment in cataloging the Tom Spurgeon donation to The Dylan Williams Collection! This early donation, which arrived soon after the The Dylan Williams Collection was announced in September, totaled to 1,419 mini-comics and is one of the largest installments that we’ve received so far. Items from the collection are being entered into a finding aid, which will be made available through our catalog after our move into Sullivant Hall.

JoeAndCaitlin

Proud Cartoon Library volunteers Joe Miller and Caitlin Naber, amid the cataloged portions of The Dylan Williams Collection!

Joe and Caitlin are diving into the other donations and trucking right along, but we thought we would take pause in this moment of great achievement and pose some questions to the audience. Out of the hundreds and hundreds of items that they have cataloged so far, we’ve stumbled upon a mere few that have us stuck for bibliographic information. Although the beauty of mini-comics can be their departure from the structure of formally published books, and working anonymously has its perks, we want to be able to give all of the creators represented in our collection their due credit and are therefor turning a few unidentified items over to you, dear readers!

If any of the works below look familiar, we’d love for you to help us identify the creators or titles where necessary, as well as any other information you may have about them:

Ramsden McEllroy

Cover and title page of “Ramsden”, cartoonist unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

**UPDATE: “Ramsden” cartoonist has been identified as Sammy Harkham! Thanks to readers Neil Brideau and Robin McConnell**

DWCUnknownUntitled

Inside pages, cartoonist and title unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

**UPDATE: The above mini-comic “Jessica” was done by Jason Overby. Thanks to readers Robin McConnell, Derik Badman, and Chuck Forsman.**

Cover and inside page from “Things Are Bigger in Texas -or- The Misfortune of Betsy the Cow”, cartoonist unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

DWCunknownDigital

Cover page, cartoonist and title unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Cover of "Herzog Watusi", cartoonist unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Cover of “Herzog Watusi”, cartoonist unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Cover and inside pages of "Como Vacas Mirando el Tren No. 2", cartoonist unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Cover and inside pages of “Como Vacas Mirando el Tren No. 2”, cartoonist unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

DWCunknownBrownPaperMouse

Inside pages, cartoonist and title unknown. Donated by Tom Spurgeon, forms part of The Dylan Williams Collection. The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

**UPDATE: The cartoonist for the untitled comic above has been identified as Chris Ware! Made while he was still in school at UT to be sold in a vending machine. This comic was later reprinted in Quimby The Mouse. Thanks to reader Neil Brideau!**

If you can identify any of the creators of the mini-comics above, leave a note in our comments section or send us an email at cartoons@osu.edu!

5 Comments

  1. The second one is Jason Overby’s Jessica.

  2. p.s. Must be an unusual version as mine has title and author on the cover.

    p.p.s. PDF version here: http://disguisekit.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/readjessica.pdf

  3. Caitlin McGurk

    June 28, 2013 at 1:04 pm

    Thanks, Derik! Is your copy stapled inside-out as well?

  4. Nope, mine is fairly normal binding (i.e. a couple staples). A very thick brown cardstock cover with stamped on lettering:
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/546651/2013-06-28%2013.13.28.jpg
    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/546651/2013-06-28%2013.13.34.jpg

    Also, it is an excellent comic. Read it before you shelf it!

  5. Caitlin McGurk

    June 28, 2013 at 1:19 pm

    Thanks so much for this info, Derik! Looks like our copy is missing the cover. It’s also stapled inside-out for some reason, which we kind of like. But we wouldn’t have known better without your help!

    And we agree- it’s a really, really good one.

Comments are closed.