This collection contains the papers and original art of American cartoonist, Mel Casson. The collection includes sketches, tearsheets, proofs, newspaper and magazine articles, correspondence, and family cards.Visual materials contained within the collection include photographs of Mel Casson and other cartoonists and slides from original cartoons. Cartoon memorabilia items are also included and range from cartoon booklets to original Angel dolls.

The primary holdings of the collection are business correspondence and licensed character merchandise. Toni Mendez's business files include correspondence with writers, cartoonists, illustrators, publishers, manufacturers, foreign licensors, and film and television executives, dating from the 1940s to 2003. The merchandise spans the years 1949 to 1994, and includes samples of licensed products based on the work of cartoonists represented by Mendez; there are 547 digitized images of selected products, representing approximately one-third of the complete merchandise holdings. The collection has significant holdings of products based on Cat by B. Kliban, Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff, and Tom Corbett Space Cadet by Ray Bailey. The collection also includes syndicate proofs of comic strips, editorial features, and newspaper graphics; syndicate sales kits; memorabilia including greeting cards and photographs; and sound recordings describing Mendez's next hit cultural exchange visit to the Soviet Union in 1964.

The Correspondence series contains letters and legal documents concerning publication of books, production of merchandise based on licensed cartoon characters, and syndication of newspaper features including cartoons and written columns. Manuscript submissions, negotiations, copies of agreements, promotional materials, and brief biographical information on writers and artists are typically included in most files.

There are two correspondence subseries related to B. Kliban, as there are substantial holdings of correspondence and reference files related to Mendez's work as his licensing agent. One contains correspondence; the other contains numbered images of artwork created for products. These numbers are often referred to in correspondence about product development, so researchers using the correspondence may request to see the related image file if desired.

The Merchandise series contains 156 boxes of samples of licensed products. General descriptions of the contents of each box are provided; more detailed inventories in separate files are accessible via clickable links. Images are provided for selected, representative items. There are also proofs of various comic strips, identified by title and artist. Subseries are devoted to B. Kliban, Ray Bailey, and Milton Caniff. The former two are given detailed description. The Caniff subseries is treated with a general descriptive note, and a link to a more detailed inventory, as many of the products may be duplicated in The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum's Milton Caniff collection.

The Syndicate Promotional Materials series contains various types of syndicate products, primarily proofs and promotional materials. The proofs include both editorial and graphic features. The promotional materials include sales kits, posters, brochures, and product packages designed to sell syndicate features to newspapers. Most of the sales materials are in this series, although examples may also be found in the correspondence and merchandise series.

The Memorabilia series consists primarily of greeting cards and photographs. The greeting cards include both commercial greeting cards and hand-drawn cards inscribed to Mendez by various cartoonists. There is one box of photographs, which includes a few images of cartoonists doing Chalk Talks for the American Theater Wing in World War II. This series also contains the audiocassettes of Mendez's trip to the Soviet Union.

Original artwork is found in the correspondence, merchandise, and memorabilia subseries. For additional information, see the Separated Material note, below.

The Calvin ahd Hobbes Sunday Comics Tearsheet Collection features full comic sections from the Sunday edition of the Athen Daily News and Athens Banner Herald (Ohio). The tearsheets date, from January 1 to December 31, 1995, document the comic strip's final year Sunday strips. The newspaper pages are in full color and feature other comic strips that ran at that time such as Peanuts, Garfield, Blondie, and others. The collection may have accessions of new materials in the future.

This collection represents a lifetime of work by B. N. Duncan spanning the 1970s until the artist’s death in 2009. It contains copies of his publications as well as photocopies and originals of his art work and writing for the The Tele Times, The Telegraph Avenue Calendar and various S/M publications.

It is worth noting that a high percentage of the collection is in photocopy form. Duncan was an avid collector and he systematically copied everything he drew or wrote. He filed everything in large manila envelopes which he labeled in felt tip marker. Labels on folders listed here have been transcribed as they appeared on the envelopes.

The collection contains biographical notes, sketchbooks, notes and diaries in addition to drawings and examples of his sculpture and although it does not contain a full run of the Tele Times it has a near complete run. He corresponded widely with other underground cartoonists and the collection contains both letters he received from others working at the start of the underground comics scene and copies of his letters to them.

The collection is of interest not just for its underground comics/ zine contents but also because it offers a snapshot of life on the street for the homeless and marginalized in and around Berkeley at the end of the 20th century. There is Berkeley memorabilia, examples of street publications and eighteen boxes of Duncan’s photographs of street people, some of which featured in the ‘Telegraph Street Calendar’. There are many examples of work by Berkeley homeless artists who Duncan helped and encouraged including ‘Sparky’, ‘Cliff Mason’ and ‘Narayana’. The blown up photocopies he used for an exhibition of work by artist’s living on the margins of society called ‘Artists on the fringe’ are here. The collection also contains Duncan’s audio recordings which offer additional documentation of life on the sidelines of society in Berkeley at this time.

Duncan’s S/M cartoons were numerous and the collection contains many examples and workings and reworkings of S/M themes for publication. He had a long standing relationship with the Society of Janus and all of his cartoons for them are here.

Duncan’s publications reside in this archive but records for his publications also appear in the Ohio State Universities Library Catalog. Larger original art items have been separated and appear in the BICLM art database.

The primary holdings are extensive collections of original drawings, proofs, and tear sheets of Milton Caniff's comic strips and illustrations, audio/visual materials, correspondence files, business accounts, research files, awards, scrapbooks, and realia. The collection has significant holdings of original art and reproductions of Mister Gilfeather, The Gay Thirties, Dickie Dare, Terry and the Pirates, Male Call, Steve Canyon, and illustrations done for the Columbus Dispatch and the Associated Press.

The Correspondence series includes letters to and from Milton Caniff from fans, cartoonists, business associates, family members, and friends. Also included are correspondence and materials regarding organizations and clubs with which Milton Caniff was associated, publicity materials, and articles by and about Milton Caniff.

The Research Material series includes clipping files from magazines and newspapers, film stills and programs, model airplanes, informational publications, and military items used as reference by Caniff for his comic strips and other projects he undertook such as United States armed forces insignia designs.

The Business Records series contains bank statements, syndicate statements, income tax information, cancelled checks, check stubs, ledgers, bills, expense lists, drafts of wills, subscription notices, and household inventories.

The Photographs series includes photographs of Milton Caniff at chalk talks, in his studio, at personal appearances, at his home, and with organizations, family members, and cartoonists.

The Awards series includes awards, citations, proclamations, and certificates given to Milton Caniff from various organizations.

The Memorabilia and Merchandise series contains personal effects of Milton Caniff, Esther Parsons Caniff, and John Caniff, Milton Caniff's father; merchandise for comic strips Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon, and art and office supplies.

The Audio/Visual Material series includes promotion and personal film reels, Steve Canyon television show reels, Terry and the Pirates radio broadcasts, slides, and audio casette tapes.

The Scrapbook series contains scrapbooks with material and artwork for Milton Caniff's 75th birthday, newspaper clippings and publicity, awards and citations, personal photographs, and original artwork by Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles.

This small collection includes proofs of "Sherlocko," "Captain and the Kids," "Hawkshaw the Detective," and "Main Street." In addition to sketch and composition books by Mager, photographs, and copies of the magazine "Outdoor Life" in which Mager wrote and illustrated the column "Game Gimmicks."

Original art by Gus Mager has been separated and cataloged in the Original Art Database.

The Shel Dorf Collection includes tearsheets and clippings of daily and Sunday comic strips, interviews and correspondence with cartoonists and about San Diego Comic-Con and other conventions, articles on comics, cartoonists, and popular culture, photographs, promotional material, merchandise, and memorabilia. This collection is minimally processed and is largely in the order in which it was received from the donor. There are gaps in the box numbering due to materials that were removed by the donor.

This finding aid is a list of early 20th century cartoon ARTISTS whose work was specifically selected and separated by the collector from the entire SFACA collection.

The finding aid contains selected examples of their work, including editorial cartoons, cartoon panels, daily black and white comic strips and full page color Sunday comic strip pages.

It is worth noting that it represents only a fraction of the work by these particular artists in the whole collection. It is necessary to check the THREE finding aids that describe the collection to successfully see what the entire collection contains of their work, or of the work of any given artist. This finding aid is not a complete list of the names of all of the artists whose work can be found in the collection.

Look for more examples of these and other artists work in:

San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection: Part 1, Newspaper comic strips

and

San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection: Part 2, Newspaper ns2:titles

The Newspaper Comics section of the SFACA Collection consists of 2.5 million clippings, tearsheets, and comic sections from American newspapers, dating from 1893 to 1996. Materials in the collection include clipped comic strips, single comic pages, complete Sunday comic sections, and entire newspapers. The focus of the first two years of work on this collection, supported by grants from the Getty Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation, and the Charles D. Farber Memorial Foundation, has been to establish a chronological run of each comic feature, either by amassing a group of clippings, or by identifying each feature's location in the collection of Sunday comic sections.

The distinction between comic clippings and comic sections is significant. The collector's original intent was to establish a complete run, from beginning to end, of every comic feature to have appeared in an American newspaper. In most cases, this meant clipping examples of each feature from various newspapers, for two reasons. First, no single newspaper could have run every comic feature. Second, any given newspaper might print a feature for a certain length of time, and then drop it, either temporarily or permanently. Newspaper strikes and mail strikes could also interfere with the continuous run of a feature in a given publication.

However, some features were never clipped from the original comic sections in which they appeared. The collector recognized that many of the early comic sections, dating from the 1890s to the 1920s, were extremely rare, and should be kept intact. In addition to the comic art they contain, many feature elaborate headers, marginal illustrations, and illustrated advertisements, all forming part of the overall design of the publication. The archivist's division of the two formats into separate series is described below, under "Arrangement."

The goal of the SFACA project has been to present complete listings of comic strip holdings to interested researchers. To achieve an integrated presentation, a tabular format for Series I was designed in the form of spreadsheets, each representing one year and containing a month-and-date grid, created in Excel and presented on the Web in PDF. Researchers can use the spreadsheets, in PDF form, to ascertain whether the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum has holdings of a comic feature for particular dates. However, our collection is not comprehensive, but as time passes more material will be processed. In these spreadsheets, each cell value is a letter-and-number combination, which represent the item's physical location in the library, and is used by staff to retrieve materials.

Series 1, Comic Features, includes the comic features clipped from newspapers by the collector. Series 2, Comic Sections, includes the entire Sunday comic sections kept intact by the collector. Series 3, Individual Artists, includes boxes and files of tearsheets and clippings assembled by the collector, focusing on particular artists. The records in Series 1 will be most useful to researchers focusing on a particular comic feature. Those in Series 2 will be of use primarily to those who want to study a chronological run of Sunday sections from a particular newspaper or syndicate. Series 3 will be useful to those researching a particular artist; frequently there is early work that is difficult to find elsewhere.

This collecton contains original newspaper clippings of the comic strip Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller ranging from January 1992 to December 2017. The collection also contains some personal correspondence, newspaper articles, and selected original sketches and artwork by Wiley Miller.

This collection contains the work of cartoonist, freelance illustrator, and graphic designer, Steve Spencer. Spencer's work in this collection includes clippings, newspaper articles, story illustrations, and comic strip clippings from his work feature in the Ohio State University newspaper publication, The Lantern. Along with these material, outlines and newspaper articles are contained in the collection relating to his controversial comic strip, "I Phelta Thi."

The collection consists of original art, in a variety of media, and includes tearsheets, proofs, posters, mechanicals and photographs of Eisner's works; general papers; business correspondence; fan mail; educational materials developed by Eisner, such as the series Grammarfun; comic books; examples of his commercial products; books illustrated by Eisner; scrapbooks; magazine articles by or about Will Eisner; merchandise, mostly from The Spirit; memorabilia. Also included are works by artists who worked for Eisner, such as Jules Feiffer, Andre LeBlanc, Klaus Nordling and Fred Schwab. Numerous works by Eisner, including PS, are cataloged separately in the library catalog.

This finding aid contains a listing of clipped newspaper COMIC STRIPS in the collection.

The collector set out to establish a complete run, from beginning to end, of every comic strip to have appeared in an American newspaper. Recorded here are the runs as we are discovering them. Links to spreadsheets are provided to help with identifying our holdings for particular dates.

The collector often used clippings from various newspapers to compile the runs of a particular strip title. This was for two reasons: Firstly no single newspaper could have run every comic feature; Secondly, any given newspaper might drop a feature they had previously printed, either temporarily or permanently. Newspaper strikes and mail strikes could have also interfered with the continuous run of a feature in a given publication.

Sunday comic sections and the strips they contain are not listed here. They were not clipped by the collector as he recognized that many of the early comic sections, dating from the 1890s to the 1920s, were extremely rare and should be kept in tact. We list the Sunday comic sections under the newspaper title they appeared in.

The following finding aid lists the newspaper titles in the collection:

San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection: Part 2, Newspaper ns2:titles

and

Also check for more comic strip ns2:titles where the collector gathered examples by artist in: San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection: Part 3, Artists

This finding aid is an inventory of SELECTED newspaper pages saved by the collector for their cartoon, comics or illustrative content.

It contains daily and Sunday newspaper pages, supplements and sections arranged alphabetically by NEWSPAPER TITLE.

Date ranges of holdings for each title and the names of artists and illustrators as we have found them, plus the names of any comic strips or features appearing on the pages, are recorded.

Whole Sunday comic sections are listed under the title of the newspaper in which they appeared. Sections were not clipped but were kept whole by the collector. He recognized that many of the early comic sections, dating from the 1890s to the 1920s, were extremely rare, and should be kept intact as in addition to the comic art they contain, many feature elaborate headers, marginal illustrations, and illustrated advertisements, all forming part of the overall design of the publication.

For a complete view of comic strip holdings in the entire collection it is necessary to also search:

San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection: Part 1, Clipped newspaper comic strips

and

San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection: Part 3, Artists

A note on SELECTED PAGES and date spans: It is important to stress that this finding aid describes only SELECTED pages from the newspaper titles listed. Date spans given are for pages selected by the collector for their cartoon, comic art or illustrative content. The collection does not have every page for the given dates for the newspapers listed here. Without looking at a particular folder it is not possible to ascertain which exact pages the collection contains. Date spans are given as a guide to the range of dates within a folder.