Usually I don’t post on Sundays, but today I had the great honor to sit with Arnold Roth and Mort and Brian Walker and celebrate the merger of the International Museum of Cartoon Art with my beloved Cartoon Library and Museum. I moderated a panel with the three great men and, following a masterful keynote address by Jim Borgman, we headed over to Hopkins Hall on the Ohio State campus to see the opening of From the Yellow Kid to Conan: American Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection and then to the Cartoon Library and Museum to see the opening of Hogarth and Beyond: Global Cartoons from the International Museum of Cartoon Art Collection.

For those of you unfamiliar with the history of the International Museum of Cartoon Art, it was founded by Mort Walker in 1974 and was at the time the only museum of its kind devoted to original cartoon art. With the merger of its collections with the unparalleled collection of Ohio State’s Cartoon Library and Museum I am now blessed to live in the center of comics history in the known universe. Those of you who might be passing through Columbus this summer, you must stop and see the show, which is hanging in Hopkins Hall until early August.

In 2013, if all stays on schedule, the Cartoon Library and Museum will be moving into a newly renovated space with 40,000 square feet, three permanent gallery spaces, and a suitable home to show off the vast collections now residing in Columbus. To help make this dream come true, Jean Schultz, widow of the late, great Charles Schultz, has set up a matching grant to raise needed funds. All friends and fans of comics history are encouraged to participate in the challenge!