Garytoons!

I experienced a cartoonist’s nirvana this weekend – I went to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University (http://cartoons.osu.edu/) and I got to hold 12 original Calvin and Hobbes strips of my choosing in my very own (gloved) hands, and pore over them at my leisure.  I saw the first strip, the last strip, and many of my favorites strips in-between.  In fact, I even got to see one of the strips that Bill Watterson first submitted to the syndicates – when Calvin’s name was Marvin, and he had long, straight hair over his eyes!

As fans of Calvin and Hobbes know, it’s great enough just to see and enjoy these strips in the books,  but to hold the originals in my hands and get to see the pencil marks and ink brush strokes – well, for a comics geek like me, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.

Bill Watterson is currently keeping pretty much the entire collection of his strips (save for a few he’s given away over the years) at the museum, and I emailed the museum staff ahead of time and they were extremely accommodating.

The museum has many thousands of pieces of original artwork in its archives, from artists going back many, many years.  If you’re a fan of pretty much any genre of the comics and you get a chance to stop in to the museum, by all means try to do so.  If there’s specific works you’d like to see, it’s best to let them know in advance before you visit.  You can search their site to see if they have items from artists that you’d like to see.  They’re planning on expanding over the next few years, so there should be even more there to see in the years to come!