[Comicsstudiessociety] Help Preserve Comic Strip History

[Mike Rhode]

 Help Preserve Comic Strip History
https://buckeyefunder.osu.edu/project/35267
[image: Individual reading a newspaper in an old library]
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$76,650
61%
Raised toward our $125,000 Goal
Project ends on December 31, at 11:59 PM EST

Give Now <https://buckeyefunder.osu.edu/project/35267/donate>

   - Description <https://buckeyefunder.osu.edu/project/35267>
   - Donor Wall <https://buckeyefunder.osu.edu/project/35267/wall>

Help save comics!

*The History:*

Twenty-five years ago, six semi-trucks arrived at The Ohio State
University. They contained the world’s most comprehensive collection of
newspaper comic strips and cartoons, featuring more than 2.5 million comic
strip clippings and pages. Bill Blackbeard, a comics historian and
collector, had amassed this vast and unparalleled collection in his San
Francisco home starting in 1967. Bill recognized the value of studying this
popular media that engaged a diverse audience of millions and that
reflected and commented on our society and culture. Realizing that physical
newspapers were being discarded by libraries in favor of microfilm, he
understood
that the black and white mircrofilm images could never be an appropriate
format for preserving and studying our comic strip heritage, especially the
Sunday color comics.

In response to this need, Blackbeard embarked on a life-long mission to
rescue comics material in order to preserve it for future generations.
He formed
a non-profit called the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, and traveled
around the country collecting newspapers that libraries were no longer able
to keep. He kept many Sunday comics supplements intact, but also recruited
volunteers to clip out individual daily and Sunday strips to create
complete runs in chronological order by title: his goal was to collect and
preserve every comic strip that had ever been published. *The resulting
collection, documenting more than a century of newspaper comic strips, is
unique and could never be recreated today. **Many of the works Blackbeard
preserved are the last surviving copies of their kind.*

In the late 1990s, Blackbeard lost the lease on his home in San Francisco
where he housed his massive collection. The material was once again at
risk. Ohio State’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM) stepped
in to save the collection. Seventy-five tons featuring more than 2.5
million comic strip clippings and pages along with related material filled
six semi-trucks that made their way from San Francisco to Columbus, Ohio in
late 1997.

*The Project**:*

Despite the work previously completed since 1998, 2,000 boxes of material
from this massive collection remain uncatalogued and undiscoverable, at
risk of being forgotten.

Donations support:

   - Our Project Archivists’ salary and benefits
   - Additional archival housing material
   - One or two Ohio State student assistants

*The Impact:*

The San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection project is at the heart
of BICLM’s mission to inspire the study and appreciation of cartoon and
comic art. As a cultural heritage center, we collect, preserve and make
accessible materials that represent a diversity of voices for research,
teaching, exhibitions, and educational programming.

This collection contains the graphic art of thousands of artists, including
such luminaries as Winsor McCay, George Herriman, Nell Brinkley,
Lyonel Feininger,
Frank King, Milton Caniff, Edwina Dumm, Hal Foster, Walt Kelly, and Charles
Schulz, as well as many whose work has not received the appreciation and
critical attention it deserves because of the lack of access. The
collection also includes incredibly rare copies of the Chicago Defender,
one of the definitive Black Press newspapers. It is imperative that we
rehouse and catalog this historically and artistically-significant collection
so that broad public access can be provided for exhibitions, for research,
and for teaching. Creating access to these irreplaceable source materials
and artistic commentaries on the social, political, and cultural happenings
across time will offer unique insights to researchers while inspiring
diverse, broad audiences for generations to come. Thanks to Bill
Blackbeard’s collection, BICLM is the only place in the world where much of
this material can be studied, and we can only imagine what discoveries
remain in the thousands of uncatalogued boxes. We need your help!

As a thank you for your donation, we have put together some fun (and even
unusual) perks at different giving levels!
[image: World of Books image]*World of Books*

[image: World of Books t-shirt]World of Books T-Shirt


[image: World of Books tote bag]World of Books Tote Bag

*Collection Print Options:*
[image: Historical image of Dimples Day Dream 1928 comic]*Dimples Day Dream*
1928
[image: Historical image of Gasoline Alley 1923 comic]*Gasoline Alley* 1923
[image: Historical image of Naughty Pete 1913 comic]*Naughty Pete* 1913
[image: Historical image of Krazy Kat 1918 comic]*Krazy Kat* 1918
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