Category: Library News (page 38 of 47)

Preparing Our Offsite Collections for the Move

If you are among the lucky who have set foot behind the scenes of the current location of the Cartoon Library, you know that our massive collection holdings cannot be contained to just this space. For many years, the Cartoon Library has occupied two offsite storage facilities for housing proofs, merchandise, and many of our bound volumes, as seen in the images below.

The expanded storage space in our new home in Sullivant Hall will afford us the ability to consolidate one of these entire additional housing areas into our archive home-base. Over the past few months, Assistant Curator Susan Liberator and Associate Curator Wendy Pflug have led our dedicated team of student workers in preparing these offsite materials to prepare for our move at the beginning of August.

The students have been sorting and rehousing items that will be relocating with us, and have come across a number of gems along the way. Of particular delight for the students was a large collection of various pop culture merchandise and memorabilia from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, containing figurines, board games, oddities and artwork.

Below, some of our favorite finds:

StarTrekColorform

Colorforms Star Trek Adventure Set. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

We swear we fought the urge to play with the Star Trek Colorforms. Except for just a little–for the sake of making sure all pieces were accounted for, of course.

SmokeyTheBear

Warner Brothers plush toys and Smokey the Bear Appli-Press set. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

The students also came across some vastly varying Disney memorabilia of yore:

DisneyBox

Disney-inspired Mexican souvenir. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

DisneyWatch

Giant Disney wall watch. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Eddie Pisarczyk unpacking a wood wall decoration from Disney's Jungle Book. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Student assistant Eddie Pisarczyk unpacking a wood wall decoration from Disney’s Jungle Book. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Hannah Schobel with a Disney toy shovel. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Student assistant Hannah Schobel with a Disney toy shovel. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Mickey's Haunted House antique pin-ball game. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Mickey’s Haunted House antique pin-ball game. From the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

All of these items and more have been wrapped in archival packing materials and rehoused in storage boxes, to be ready to go on moving day.

We truly could not be making this move without the help of all of our student assistants, who have accomplished so much during this process and kept us laughing the whole way. Thank you for all of your help!

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!

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