Tag: Jenny Robb (page 1 of 2)

Construction in Sullivant Hall is Nearly Complete!

DSC06858
Comics friends, fans, and family: the moment we have all been waiting for seems to be right around the corner; dressed as Ignatz and ready to throw one of the construction bricks at our enamored and awestruck heads.
IMG_2537

On the latest hardhat tour of our soon-to-be home in Sullivant Hall, the carefully calculated rooms now had walls, the cement flooring had settled, and the windows were all in place. The dream home dreamt up since the 1970s is now almost fully realized, with just a little over a month left before the moving process will begin.

We were joined on this final hardhat tour by the great Jeff Smith and Vijaya Iyer of Cartoon Books, our other mighty alliances in the comics city of Columbus. Below, they are pictured in our large new seminar room, named for Will Eisner.

JeffSmith&VijayaIyerEISNER

And now we invite you, dear readers, to join us on a virtual walk through of this incredible structure dedicated to the largest cartoon and comic art collection in the world. As you follow along, we hope you’ll envision yourself in here with us, cocktail in hand (but not near the artwork!), for our Grand Opening Festival this coming fall.

As you click through the images below, you will be walking through the north entrance to Sullivant Hall, which is the main entrance into the lobby of the Cartoon Library, shown in the architectural rendering here. To your right, the entrance to our reading room, separated from the lobby by a beautiful, large stained-glass window of Billy Ireland cartoons. To your left, the entrance to our offices and collection processing areas, where you will first be greeted by a receptionist in our waiting room. Directly in front of you, on the outside wall of one of our many massively expanded state-of-the-art collection storage areas, is a staircase leading up to the galleries, seminar room, and other public areas. The open second floor walkway wraps around, as seen in the top right photograph.

Although the details may all be hard to visualize when staring at photos of these wide, open spaces, the images below should give you an idea of the enormity of our new home. Our hearts and imaginations soar far wider than these camera angles can capture. Taken on the first floor of the building, the images below (in order) show a portion of our processing space that leads to our offices, the main (but not only!) collection storage area, and a gaze out into our reading room:

On the east side of Sullivant Hall, there is an entrance to the building through a gorgeous rotunda with an additional staircase leading up to our second floor. Up here, our three cartoon art galleries, exhibit prep room, seminar room, more storage, and a massive theater to be shared with the other departments. Below, a small portion of the rooms found along the second floor walk:

There is so much more to see, but we hope that for now this will wet your appetite for what’s to come for us at the end of the summer. As construction reaches a close, we are busy putting the finishing touches on our plans for relocating the collections, and arranging our exhibits and grand opening. These are busy and exciting days for all of us at the Cartoon Library, and we can’t wait to share the bounty of all of this hard work with you in the fall!

If you have not marked your calendars already, be sure to plan on joining us for the Grand Opening Festival on November 14th-17th. We know you are anxiously awaiting the details, and your patience shall soon be rewarded! Keep up with our blog for more information this summer as we pack, plan, and prepare to party in celebration of the world’s greatest home of cartoon art.

Below, two of the main people who could not be happier about this new era for the Cartoon Library; Founding Curator Lucy Shelton Caswell, and her former student at OSU, cartoonist and hard-hat-decorator Jeff Smith.

Cartoonist Jeff Smith and Founding Curator Lucy Shelton Caswell

Cartoonist Jeff Smith and Founding Curator Lucy Shelton Caswell

 

Found in the Collection: W. O. Wilson’s “Madge The Magicians Daughter”

As mentioned in yesterday’s fantastic interview on The Comics Reporter website with our head Curator Jenny Robb, one of the greatly unappreciated and enigmatic virtuosos of the newspaper comics pages was W. O. Wilson.

W.O. Wilson's "Madge The Magician's Daughter" Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

W.O. Wilson’s “Madge The Magician’s Daughter” from July 7, 1907. From the  Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

Unfortunately, next to nothing is know about the artist. The great Alan Holtz of the Stripper’s Guide, however, uncovered some potential details about Wilson’s history through naturalization papers, which tell us he was born in South Africa and settled in various areas of Long Island upon arriving in New York in 1890.

W.O. Wilson's "Madge The Magician's Daughter" from April 28th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

W.O. Wilson’s “Madge The Magician’s Daughter” from April 28th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

Wilson’s forgotten work steps right up to bat with other fantasy artists of the time including Winsor McCay and Lionel Feininger, and his other features–The Wish Twins and Aladdin’s Lamp, The Richleigh Family, and Horace the Hero–all hold elements of wonder as well.

W.O. Wilson's "Madge The Magician's Daughter" from March 24th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

W.O. Wilson’s “Madge The Magician’s Daughter” from March 24th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

An excellent point that Jenny Robb brings up in her article Madge’s Magic, co-authored by Richard D. Olson for the print magazine Hogan’s Alley No. 14 is that unlike his contemporaries, “Wilson made his child protagonist a girl and cast her in stories featuring dinosaurs, dragons, mermaids, pirates and Indians– the adventures usually associated with boys. The only similar example featuring a girl was The Naps of Polly Sleepyhead by Peter Newell, but after nine months Newell dropped the fantasy element and transformed it into a strip about children playing pranks.”

W.O. Wilson's "Madge The Magician's Daughter" from May 12th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

W.O. Wilson’s “Madge The Magician’s Daughter” from May 12th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

In every gorgeously full-colored installment of the feature, Madge fusses with her father’s magic wand and the tricks she has picked up from him in order to create a world in which she can impress her friends- a delightfully faithful portrayal of the imagination and desires of the young. The strip unfortunately ran for only a brief stretch, from Sept. 2, 1906 until August 15, 1907.

W.O. Wilson's "Madge The Magician's Daughter" from May 19th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

W.O. Wilson’s “Madge The Magician’s Daughter” from May 19th, 1907. From the Richard D. Olson Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (click to enlarge)

Older posts