It seems I am often ‘late to the party,’ but this blog, begun months ago, was work finishing because of the unusual pieces in it.

I am speaking of the exhibition at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum’s “Gallery of Rogues” at Ohio State University in Columbus, which was replaced in January, but may be available in their archives.

Just as our Museum in Santa Rosa celebrated the centenary of Sparky’s birth, so did ‘The Billy’ (as it is affectionately called.) Our Museum partnered with the Billy Ireland Gallery, which was a pleasure for our staff and theirs.

Some unique things caught my eye and pleased me when I visited in early October.  (Yes, I am way behind in posting this.)

The two self-portraits Sparky created for our friend Mark Cohen’s collection were displayed there. And this is the first time, I think, that they have been shown together.

There is a lovely history to the first set of caricatures. Mark began collecting his “Gallery of Rogues” in 1971, asking cartoonist friends if they would draw a self-portrait. That first set of caricatures was published in a book by Ohio State University Libraries in 1998.

Mark started collecting the nude caricatures in 1997 after being diagnosed with brain cancer. That group of self-portraits was published in 2012 by Fantagraphics Books.                                      

 I think both of Sparky’s drawings are very characteristic of his work, and I love them both. They reside in the Mark and Rosie Cohen collection at OSU.

The exhibition also included my favorite photo of Sparky and little Andy in Sparky’s preferred space at home, his blue lounge chair. Sparky is feeling the pure pleasures of Andy’s beating heart.

Peanuts fans can understand many of the relationships of Snoopy in the comic strip from seeing this photograph.

Another unique offering at the OSU exhibition is the wall panel of 11 color ’tear sheets’ showing various alter egos of Snoopy. These comics came from the San Francisco house of Bill Blackbeard, a serious collector of original newspapers and magazines with comic content.

His collection, known as the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection, was saved from destruction when it was acquired by the library in 1998.

All the comic strips, whether from the OSU collection or on loan, demonstrate the point of Robert C. Harvey’s observation of ‘the slight incident.’

As they look through the strips in the gallery, visitors can understand just how Schulz changed the comic page.

The exhibition ended with one of my favorite quotes from Sparky.

“… it really does not matter what you are called, or where your work is placed, as long as it brings some kind of joy to some person someplace. To create something out of nothing is a wonderful experience. To take a blank piece of paper and draw characters that people love and worry about is extremely satisfying.”—Charles M. Schulz

—Jean Schulz