Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Blog

Beat the late summer heat with a visit to our 40^th anniversary exhibits! One attraction in our 40 Years/40 Stories exhibit is this decorated swimsuit, a relic from 1950.

Our good friend and member of our National Advisory Council Tom Gammill donated five of these suits from a National Cartoonists Society party in NYC, where members were invited to “test” a new waterproof pen by drawing on bathing suits worn by models. They decorated the suits with their famous cartoon characters, random doodles, and (for some) their own phone numbers. The cartoonists included Ernie Bushmiller (Nancy), Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon) Alfred Andriola (Kerry Drake), Otto Soglow (The Little King), Ham Fisher (Joe Palooka), and others. Bernard Hoffman of LIFE magazine photographed the party and the “Ball Point Bathing Suits.”

The event was a product of its time, when all National Cartoonist Society members (and most professional cartoonists) were men, and this type of sexism was not unusual. LIFE magazine decided that the images were inappropriate for a family audience, and ultimately chose not to publish them.

In this photo, also from Gammill’s collection, Nancy comic strip creator Ernie Bushmiller decorates one of the suits.

“Very little was known about this “grinning Ernie” photo until Heritage Auctions put six bathing suits up for sale, all with drawings by famous cartoonists,” says Gammill. The photos received attention when the photographer, Bernard Hoffman, sold one to Gala Magazine.  “From the photos it looks like twelve cartoonists were part of the event! So that means six bathing suits are still on the loose,” says Gammill. “Look for them so they can join the others at the museum.”   Unbeknownst to any of us, we were actually bidding against Tom on the auction for these suits.  He outbid us, but months later, our curator Jenny Robb visited his home and saw one of them on display (the one with the Ernie Bushmiller drawing).  When Tom found out we had tried to acquire them, he generously offered to donate five of the suits and promised the sixth one would follow someday.

Gammill is a producer and comedy writer who has worked on many popular TV shows, including The Simpsons and Seinfeld.  He is also the creator of the comic strip, The Doozies.  He has made many generous donations to our collections, including over 80 pieces of original art by 62 artists including Irwin Hasen, Edwina Dumm, Mort Walker, Dale Messick, Mell Lazarus, and many more. Another recent donation was the production script of an episode of The Simpsons titled “Grampy Can Ya Hear Me,” which references the Ohio State University Marching Band:

 

Gammill’s collection also includes historic photos of famous cartoonists. Some of his favorites include the many faces of Ernie Bushmiller. In this photo, Bushmiller draws on stage with Rube Goldberg for an audience of schoolchildren in their Sunday best:

And finally, Gammill tells us what’s going on in this candid shot. “According to Bushmiller pal James Carlsson, this photo below was taken at Ernie’s mother-in-law’s house. Check out that Sluggo scowl!”

“I’m sure that memory was the inspiration for this panel…”

You can see a Ball Point bathing suit and many more treasures in TALES FROM THE VAULT, two current exhibits that celebrate our 40^th anniversary, until October 22.

For Immediate Release: July 10, 2017

Erwin and Alfred Bergdoll Collection of Underground Comics and Original Art Donated to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

COLUMBUS: The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM) is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Alfred and Erwin Bergdoll Collection–approximately 1,370 underground comics, zines, and publications and over 1,000 pieces of original art, as well as correspondence, photographs, sketchbooks and other materials.

Alfred Bergdoll (192-?-1990) and Erwin Bergdoll (1934-2015) were brothers whose German-American family made their  fortune in the beer business. The brothers were skillful stock market investors who shared an interest in comics and art, and began their collection in the 1960s.

Included in this collection is original art by Aline Kominsky, Art Spiegelman, Justin Green, Kim Deitch, Rory Hayes, Jay Lynch and many others. Deitch first began selling his work to Erwin Bergdoll in 1972, after Erwin saw his work in an exhibit and contacted him.

“I didn’t meet Erwin right away but started selling him art work through the mail,” Deitch recalls. “At a certain point Alfred…got involved and I probably sold a lot more art to him over the years.”

In the introduction to his book Shadowland, Deitch describes Erwin as “a man who had the foresight to begin assembling a collection of underground comic original art almost from the earliest inception of that outlaw art form. Beyond that, he has always been on the lookout for other overlooked aspects of emerging contemporary art.”

With the help of the Bergdolls’ nephew, Craig Scott Taylor, Erwin and Alfred’s collections were transported to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum after Erwin’s death.

“This is an underground collection beyond compare, and we are very honored to take over as its caretakers and promoters from the Bergdoll family,” said BICLM Curator Jenny Robb. “When added to our other underground-related collections, including those donated by Jay Lynch, Jay Kennedy and Scott Jonas, we believe we have gathered one of the most comprehensive collections of materials documenting the underground comics movement, from the 1960s on.”

Student Assistant Nick DaLonzo helped to catalog the Bergdoll Collection, and described the experience as “a journey through the ages of underground comics.” DaLonzo was especially drawn to a box of Deitch’s sketches, in which Deitch experiments with dozens of styles and layouts before creating a finished page.

“It was fascinating to see his process in these sketches,” DaLonzo said.

We are still in the process of cataloging the collection, but you can explore the art we’ve cataloged so far here. We will continue to add more records. NOTE: Some work in this collection contains explicit content.

About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum:  The BICLM is one of The Ohio State University Libraries’ special collections. Its primary mission is to develop a comprehensive research collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art (editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, sports cartoons, and magazine cartoons) and to provide access to these collections.  The BICLM recently moved into its newly-renovated 30,000 sq. ft. facility that includes a museum with three exhibition galleries, a reading room for researchers and a state-of-the-art collections storage space.  The library reading room is open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday from 1 – 5 p.m.  See http://cartoons.osu.edu/ for further information.

The Ohio State University Libraries

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Contact: Amy Chalmers
Sullivant Hall
1813 N. High St
Columbus, OH 43210

614-292-0538 Phone
614-292-9101 Fax