#triviatuesday - Which comic strip from the March 19, 1953, Middletown Journal was drawn by the Ohio native whose artwork helped establish a cartoon library and museum at Ohio State University?

If it’s “trivia,” it must be Tuesday! Here’s our TriviaTuesday question for March 19, 2019:

Which accompanying comic strip from the March 19, 1953, Middletown Journal was drawn by the Ohio native whose gift of artwork helped establish a cartoon library and museum at Ohio State University?

Congratulations, “Steve Canyon Fans”!  Canyon creator and Hillsboro, Ohio, native Milton Caniff (1907-1988) is the famous cartoonist whose collection of artwork helped establish the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum on the campus of Ohio State University in 1977.

Ireland (1880-1935) was a Chillicothe, Ohio, native and Columbus Dispatch editorial cartoonist whose clever images heaped praise or rebuke on the issues of his day. To this day his work remains a testament to freedom of the press...in print or in art.

Caniff, a Hillsboro, Ohio, native, “graduated from Ohio State and loved the place so much that he wanted his original art and other papers to be kept there forever. He handed it all over to the university in 1977…

“Along with library curator Lucy Shelton Caswell, Caniff then began urging his cartoonist friends to do the same. Two classrooms in the journalism building soon began to fill with the new comics archive.”

Today, “the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is now the largest and most comprehensive academic research facility documenting printed cartoon art. Administratively it is part of Ohio State University Libraries,” according to its website.

All hail the mighty cartoon! With perceptive images and few words it can entertain an audience or change society.

Sources:

“Comics fans will be drawn to Ohio museum” by Mitch Stacy, AP writer. USA Today, November 15, 2013: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2013/11/15/comic-strip-cartoon-museum-ohio/3580175/

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum website: http://cartoons.osu.edu/

About Billy Ireland (with photo): http://cartoons.osu.edu/about-us/about-billy-ireland/

About Milton Caniff: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Milton_Caniff

Milton Caniff Collection guide at OSU: http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/xOhCoUCR0004.xml;query=;brand=default

Do you love comics and cartoons? Do editorial cartoons get your political juices flowing?

Then all you need is a free MidPointe Library card to access our numerous online offerings and/or to check out material at any of our five locations: Middletown, West Chester, Trenton, Monroe and Liberty Township (second floor Liberty Center).

For “cartooning” via MidPointe Library’s website click on: http://encore.middletownlibrary.org/iii/encore/search/C__Scartooning__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold

For “comics” click on: http://encore.middletownlibrary.org/iii/encore/search/C__Scartooning__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold

Copies of the Middletown Journal can also be found online via our eLibrary:

www.midpointelibrary.org > eLibrary > Research Databases > Magazines and Newspapers > Newspaper Archive.

Microfilm copies of the Middletown Journal and Middletown News Signal can be found on microfilm at our Middletown location.