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Although our giving page is no longer active, you can still donate. If you would like to provide any additional support, please make a gift here.
Although our giving page is no longer active, you can still donate. If you would like to provide any additional support, please make a gift here.
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:
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!
World of Books
World of Books T-Shirt
World of Books Tote Bag
Collection Print Options:
Dimples Day Dream 1928
Gasoline Alley 1923
Naughty Pete 1913
Krazy Kat 1918Your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page. Thank you for your donation!
Make a gift of $50 and receive a Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page.
“World of Books” Winsor McCay tote bag, Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page. See image in fundraiser description.
“World of Books” Winsor McCay t-shirt, Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page. See image in fundraiser description.
“World of Books” Winsor McCay t-shirt AND tote bag, Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page. See image in fundraiser description.
Make a gift of $500 and receive a very special high-quality print reproduction of a Sunday comic from the collection. Keep this exclusive gift for yourself or surprise your favorite comic collector! “World of Books” Winsor McCay t-shirt AND tote bag, Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page. See images in fundraiser description for prints available. Choose from one of four.
VIP behind-the-scenes Curator-led tour of the BICLM vault personalized to your interests (travel to Columbus not included), “World of Books” Winsor McCay t-shirt AND tote bag, Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page.
Hang out with world-renowned cartoonist Jeff Smith ("Bone", "RASL", "Tuki") for the afternoon talking comics while looking at rare comic art and artifacts! Personalized behind-the-scenes tour of the vault for you and up to 4 family or friends led by Jeff with original art picks curated him, “World of Books” Winsor McCay t-shirt AND tote bag, Bill Blackbeard: The Collector Who Rescued the Comics comic book by Jenny E. Robb and Alec Longstreth print edition, and your name listed on our San Francisco Academy of Comic Art project Wall of Heroes page. Jeff Smith fans won’t want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime experience!
Private “after hours” party for you and 15 of your friends. Enjoy hors d'oeuvres and drinks at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum with access (supervised, of course) to exhibits, reading room, behind-the-scenes vault, and collection materials that you and your friends want to see!
