Comics Lovers Will Be Drawn to Ohio Museum
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LIFESTYLE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2013 Features36 Comics lovers will be drawn to Ohio museum Photo shows the cover File photo shows a of the New York Journal comic called “Ho- from Oct 18, 1896 in gan’s Alley” by Columbus, Ohio. Richard F Outcault Juli Slemmons holds a “Calvin and Hobbes” comic by cartoonist Bill Watterson from Oct 18, 1896 in Jeremy Stone frames a Billy Ireland comic strip from Dec 11, 1921 called “The at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Columbus, Ohio.—AP Passing Show” at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. photos here is a place where Snoopy frolics carefree with the scandalous says current curator Jenny Robb, noting that for many years original comic “I told my father, this is what we’ve all be working for for 30 years,” says Yellow Kid, where Pogo the possum philosophizes alongside Calvin strips were just thrown out with the trash and animation celluloid sheets — Brian Walker, who has written or contributed to three dozen books on the Tand Hobbes. It’s a place where Beetle Bailey loafs with Garfield the known as “cels” — were routinely wiped clean and reused. history of comics. “It’s kind of like the ultimate dream that we hoped would cat, while Krazy Kat takes another brick to the noggin, and brooding heroes Today, the museum collection includes more than 300,000 original strips happen someday, where all this great artwork is being kept safely and battle dark forces on the pages of fat graphic novels. That doesn’t even be- from everybody who’s anybody in the newspaper comics world, plus 45,000 archived and made accessible to the public.” gin to describe everything that’s going on behind the walls of the new Billy books, 29,000 comic books and 2,400 boxes of manuscript material, fan It’s partly because of the Walkers that the museum is what it is today. Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum on the Ohio State University campus, mail and other personal papers from artists. The university says it’s the larg- They held thousands of original comics and artifacts donated to the Mort opening to the public Saturday. est collection of cartoon art and artifacts in the world. Walker-founded International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Fla. “This is the stuff that makes me drool,” says Jim Borgman, the Pulitzer The museum has originals from everyone from Richard Outcault — When the museum ran into financial trouble during the recession, the Walk- Prize-winning editorial cartoonist who now draws the “Zits” newspaper whose “Yellow Kid” in a 19th century comic strip spawned the term “yellow ers were persuaded in 2008 to donate the entire collection, which included comic strip. “I enjoy art of all kinds, but it’s as if cartoons were segregated journalism” — to Charles Schulz (“Peanuts”), classic “Pogo” story lines from 200,000 original strips, to Ohio State. for many years and not allowed into such hallowed halls. And this is kind of Walt Kelly, Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury,” Chester Gould’s “Dick Tracy,” early About a decade before, the museum got the entire collection of the a moment of setting things right, I think, giving cartooning its due when it “Blondie” strips from Chic Young and the entire collection of Jeff Smith, an defunct San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, which included 2.5 mil- has been in the wings all these years.” Ohio State graduate who created the hugely popular “Bone” series of comic lion clipped newspaper comic strips and Sunday color comics. Robb says Jeremy, the kid from “Zits”? He’s in there, too, since Cincinnati native books. she’s especially proud of the collection of original strips and other papers Borgman donated most of his art and papers to the museum. The whole It’s all been moved to a new 30,000-square-foot home in a high-profile donated by Bill Watterson, the famously reclusive creator of the “Calvin and thing started with Milton Caniff, the influential comic artist whose beloved corridor of the sprawling Columbus campus, into a space renamed for Hobbes” strip. “Terry and the Pirates” and “Steve Canyon” adventure strips lived in the na- Ireland, the former editorial cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch who “We think this will be a destination for comics fans from around the tion’s funny papers for a half-century. was one of the pioneers of the art form. His family donated a big chunk of country and around the world,” Robb says. “We hope that Ohio State is Caniff graduated from Ohio State and loved the place so much that he money for the project. synonymous with cartoons in the way it is synonymous with football.” The wanted his original art and other papers to be kept here forever. He handed The new place has also got what’s been missing at the museum’s two grand opening of the museum is timed to the Festival of Cartoon Art, which it all over to the university in 1977. Along with library curator Lucy Shelton, previous campus locations: a large gallery space for permanent and rotat- every three years brings artists and other to the university to talk about the Caswell then began urging his cartoonist friends to do the same. Two class- ing exhibitions of comics and cartoon art that will finally give it the air of craft.—AP rooms in the journalism building soon began to fill with the new comics a proper museum. Brian Walker, who collaborates on the “Beetle Bailey” archive. and “Hi and Lois” newspaper strips created in the 1950s by his 90-year-old “Prior to that, most universities ignored that type of popular culture,” father, Mort, is putting together one of the first exhibits. Early pieces by graffiti artist Banksy added to Los Germany plans to step up research Angeles auction into ‘Nazi art trove’ heirs he German government said yesterday it plans to speed up re- search into the rightful ownership of recently unearthed artworks Tlooted by the Nazis, amid mounting calls for a full online list. Fed- eral and regional authorities involved in shedding light on the vast trove of artworks, including masterpieces by Picasso and Matisse, held talks on Friday, the government’s spokesman said. Representatives from the culture and finance ministries and the southern state of Bavaria agreed they “want to advance considerably faster the research into the origins of the artworks from this collection”, Steffen Seibert told reporters. “We want that works with an unclear history of acquisition... in consideration of the legal aspects of the ongoing investigation process, are immediately published,” he said. “We will announce further details on the procedure this week.” The head of the World Jewish Congress yesterday added his voice to calls for an inventory of the artworks to be published on the Internet. Ronald S Lauder told Die Welt daily that time was of the essence with possible heirs now elderly and that “injustice” would continue our early works of elusive British pieces by artists Risk, Indie 184 and as long as clarity was lacking. “The German government must show artist Banksy will go on sale at MearOne. these pictures,” he told the newspaper. “Valuable time has been wasted. Fan auction in December, joining Banksy is the pseudonym of a Neither the possible claimants nor possible witnesses in the return A painting believed to the artist’s “Flower Girl” piece, Julien’s graffiti artist who first emerged process are getting any younger,” Lauder said. “Injustice will not be be by Henri Matisse Auctions said yesterday. The four graf- in Bristol, England, as part of an removed but continued so long as there is no clarity created about the is seen on a com- fiti works include “Happy Choppers,” underground group. He hides his owners.” puter screen during a 2002 mural that first appeared on a identity and real name, and his And he warned that if nothing happened “we will raise the pressure”. a news conference wall at the Whitecross Street Market works have become collectors’ items, Despite international calls, German prosecutors have refused to publish on November 5, 2013 prized for their trademark spray- a full inventory of the works, citing a need for more time to fully in London and features a stenciled in Augsburg, south- paint stencils and offering social catalogue them and for discretion in their probe. They have launched an group of military helicopters, one ern Germany.—AFP commentary. The auction follows investigation on charges of tax evasion and misappropriation of assets adorned with a pink bow. The piece is a month-long “street residency” by against Cornelius Gurlitt, in whose Munich apartment the more than photos estimated to fetch between $150,000 Banksy in New York through October, 1,400 works including paintings by Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste —AFP and $200,000, and will join the sale of during which he placed murals, “Flower Girl,” a stencil work that first sculptures and artwork around the A reproduction of a appeared on a Los Angeles gas station city. painting by German art- wall. It is expected to fetch between One stunt included selling original ist Otto Dix is seen dur- $150,000 and $300,000. canvas artwork for $60 at a street-side ing a press conference in Beverly Hills-based Julien’s stall, with buyers having no idea they Augsburg. Auctions said the auction marked were purchasing Banksy originals. the first time that Banksy’s public He also dropped off a painting at a street art had gone on sale in the Housing Works thrift shop, which United States.