National Cartoon Museum
Encyclopedia
The National Cartoon Museum was an American museum dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of cartoon
s, comic strip
s and animation
. It was the brainchild of Mort Walker
, creator of Beetle Bailey
. It opened in 1974, went through several name changes and relocations, finally closing in 2002. Originally known as the Museum of Cartoon Art in 1974, the name was changed to the National Cartoon Museum when it moved to Boca Raton, Florida
in 1992. In 1996, it became the International Museum of Cartoon Art.
In June 2008, Walker's collection was merged with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
, affiliated with Ohio State University
in Columbus, Ohio
.
using Krazy Kat
drawings to sop up water leaks. Walker lived in Greenwich, Connecticut
, and in 1974, with a contribution of $50,000 from the Hearst Foundation, he opened his museum nearby at 850 Canal Street in Stamford, Connecticut
. Two years later, the landlord decided he could rent the mansion for more, forcing a move to a large, dilapidated house
in Port Chester, New York
.
The city of Boca Raton, Florida
invited Walker to relocate there, and in 1996, the new facility opened. However, the museum did not attract enough donations and two corporate sponsors went bankrupt. To pay off some of the debts, Walker auctioned off a Mickey Mouse
drawing in 2001 for $700,000. However, it was not enough; the museum was forced to close in 2002, and the collection was put into storage. An attempt was made to relocate to three floors of the Empire State Building
in New York City
in 2007, but the deal fell through for reasons that are disputed. Walker finally accepted an offer to merge his collection with that of Ohio State University in 2008.
s, 1000 hours of film and tape, and various other items. It consists almost entirely of donations from artists, including Chester Gould (Dick Tracy
), Hal Foster (Prince Valiant
), Bill Keane (Family Circus), political cartoonist Jeff MacNelly
, Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm
), Milton Caniff
(Terry and the Pirates
), Dik Browne (Hagar the Horrible
), Stan Lee
(Spider-Man
), Rube Goldberg
and others. According to the curators, it is valued at an estimated $20 million. Among its prized possessions is the first drawing of Mickey Mouse, by Ub Iwerks
for the character's film debut in Plane Crazy
(1928).
Cartoon Hall of Fame in 1997 after a sponsorship was provided by the Hearst Foundation. The 31 inductees, chosen by non-cartoonist authorities, are:
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
s, comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
s and animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
. It was the brainchild of Mort Walker
Mort Walker
Addison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...
, creator of Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...
. It opened in 1974, went through several name changes and relocations, finally closing in 2002. Originally known as the Museum of Cartoon Art in 1974, the name was changed to the National Cartoon Museum when it moved to Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...
in 1992. In 1996, it became the International Museum of Cartoon Art.
In June 2008, Walker's collection was merged with the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, a research library of American comic art, is affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio...
, affiliated with Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
.
History
Walker began preserving cartoon artwork in the 1940s, when he discovered King Features SyndicateKing Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
using Krazy Kat
Krazy Kat
Krazy Kat is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George Herriman, published daily in newspapers between 1913 and 1944. It first appeared in the New York Evening Journal, whose owner, William Randolph Hearst, was a major booster for the strip throughout its run...
drawings to sop up water leaks. Walker lived in Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 61,171. It is home to many hedge funds and other financial service companies. Greenwich is the southernmost and westernmost municipality in Connecticut and is 38+ minutes ...
, and in 1974, with a contribution of $50,000 from the Hearst Foundation, he opened his museum nearby at 850 Canal Street in Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
. Two years later, the landlord decided he could rent the mansion for more, forcing a move to a large, dilapidated house
William E. Ward House
The William E. Ward House, known locally as Ward's Castle, is located on the state line between Rye Brook, New York and Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It is a reinforced concrete structure built in the 1870s....
in Port Chester, New York
Port Chester, New York
Port Chester is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The village is part of the town of Rye. As of the 2010 census, Port Chester had a population of 28,967...
.
The city of Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA, incorporated in May 1925. In the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764; the 2006 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 86,396. However, the majority of the people under the postal address of Boca Raton, about...
invited Walker to relocate there, and in 1996, the new facility opened. However, the museum did not attract enough donations and two corporate sponsors went bankrupt. To pay off some of the debts, Walker auctioned off a Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
drawing in 2001 for $700,000. However, it was not enough; the museum was forced to close in 2002, and the collection was put into storage. An attempt was made to relocate to three floors of the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 2007, but the deal fell through for reasons that are disputed. Walker finally accepted an offer to merge his collection with that of Ohio State University in 2008.
Collection
The collection includes over 200,000 original drawings, 20,000 comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, 1000 hours of film and tape, and various other items. It consists almost entirely of donations from artists, including Chester Gould (Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy, a hard-hitting, fast-shooting and intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror. It was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate...
), Hal Foster (Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant
Prince Valiant in the Days of King Arthur, or simply Prince Valiant, is a long-run comic strip created by Hal Foster in 1937. It is an epic adventure that has told a continuous story during its entire history, and the full stretch of that story now totals more than 3700 Sunday strips...
), Bill Keane (Family Circus), political cartoonist Jeff MacNelly
Jeff MacNelly
Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly was a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and the creator of the popular comic strip Shoe.-Early life:...
, Mike Peters (Mother Goose and Grimm
Mother Goose and Grimm
Mother Goose and Grimm is an internationally syndicated comic strip by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mike Peters. It was first syndicated in 1984 and is distributed by King Features Syndicate to more than 800 newspapers...
), Milton Caniff
Milton Caniff
Milton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
(Terry and the Pirates
Terry and the Pirates (comic strip)
Terry and the Pirates was an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate, had admired Caniff’s work on the children's adventure strip Dickie Dare and hired him to create the new adventure strip,...
), Dik Browne (Hagar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible
Hägar the Horrible is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne , and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973, and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirement in 1988 , his son Chris Browne has continued the...
), Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
(Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
), Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to...
and others. According to the curators, it is valued at an estimated $20 million. Among its prized possessions is the first drawing of Mickey Mouse, by Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....
for the character's film debut in Plane Crazy
Plane Crazy
Plane Crazy is an American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The cartoon, produced in 1928 by The Walt Disney Studio, was the first to feature the character Mickey Mouse. It was made as a silent film and given a test screening to a theater audience on May 15, 1928, but...
(1928).
William Randolph Hearst Cartoon Hall of Fame
Begun in 1974, the Hall of Fame was renamed the William Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
Cartoon Hall of Fame in 1997 after a sponsorship was provided by the Hearst Foundation. The 31 inductees, chosen by non-cartoonist authorities, are:
- Peter ArnoPeter ArnoPeter Arno was a U.S. cartoonist.-Biography:Born Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. in New York, New York, and educated at the Hotchkiss School and Yale University, his cartoons were published in The New Yorker from 1925–1968. They often depicted a cross-section of New York society from the 1920s through...
- Carl BarksCarl BarksCarl Barks was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck , Gladstone Gander , the Beagle Boys , The Junior Woodchucks , Gyro Gearloose , Cornelius Coot , Flintheart Glomgold , John D...
- Dik Browne
- Milton CaniffMilton CaniffMilton Arthur Paul Caniff was an American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.-Biography:...
- Al CappAl CappAlfred Gerald Caplin , better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner. He also wrote the comic strips Abbie an' Slats and Long Sam...
- Roy CraneRoy CraneRoyston Campbell Crane , who signed his work Roy Crane, was an influential American cartoonist who created the comic strip characters Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer. He pioneered the adventure comic strip, establishing the conventions and artistic approach of that genre. Comics historian...
- Billy DeBeck
- Rudolph DirksRudolph DirksRudolph Dirks was one of the earliest and most noted comic strip artists....
- Walt DisneyWalt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
- Will EisnerWill EisnerWilliam Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
- Bud FisherBud FisherHarry Conway "Bud" Fisher was an American cartoonist who created Mutt and Jeff, the first successful daily comic strip in the United States....
- Harold Foster
- Elzie SegarE. C. SegarElzie Crisler Segar was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of Popeye, a character who first appeared in 1929 in his comic strip Thimble Theatre. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was "SEE-gar". He commonly signed his work simply Segar or E...
- Charles Dana GibsonCharles Dana GibsonCharles Dana Gibson was an American graphic artist, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century....
- Rube GoldbergRube GoldbergReuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor.He is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. These devices, now known as Rube Goldberg machines, are similar to...
- Chester Gould
- Harold Gray
- George HerrimanGeorge HerrimanGeorge Joseph Herriman was an American cartoonist, best known for his classic comic strip Krazy Kat.-Early life:...
- Lynn JohnstonLynn JohnstonLynn Johnston, CM, OM is a Canadian cartoonist, well known for her comic strip For Better or For Worse, and was the first woman and first Canadian to win the National Cartoonist Society's Reuben Award.-Early life:...
- Chuck JonesChuck JonesCharles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
- Walt KellyWalt KellyWalter Crawford Kelly, Jr. , or Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip, Pogo. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio and Fantasia. Kelly resigned in 1941 at the age of 28 to work at Post-Hall Syndicate,...
- Winsor McCayWinsor McCayWinsor McCay was an American cartoonist and animator.A prolific artist, McCay's pioneering early animated films far outshone the work of his contemporaries, and set a standard followed by Walt Disney and others in later decades...
- George McManusGeorge McManusGeorge McManus was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of Irish immigrant Jiggs and his wife Maggie, the central characters in his syndicated comic strip, Bringing Up Father....
- Thomas NastThomas NastThomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the scourge of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine...
- Frederick OpperFrederick Burr OpperFrederick Burr Opper is regarded as one of the pioneers of American newspaper comic strips, best known for his comic strip Happy Hooligan...
- Richard Outcault
- Alex RaymondAlex RaymondAlexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon for King Features in 1934...
- Charles Schulz
- Jimmy Swinnerton
- Mort WalkerMort WalkerAddison Morton Walker , popularly known as Mort Walker, is an American comic artist best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He has signed Addison to some of his strips.Born in El Dorado, Kansas, he grew up in Kansas City, Missouri...
- Chic YoungChic YoungMurat Bernard Young , better known as Chic Young, was an American cartoonist who created the popular, long-running comic strip Blondie. His 1919 William McKinley High School Yearbook cites his nickname as Chicken, source of his familiar pen name and signature...
- Cathy GuisewiteCathy GuisewiteCathy Lee Guisewite is the cartoonist who created the comic strip Cathy, about a career woman facing the issues and challenges of eating, work, relationships, and being a mother. As Cathy put it in one of her strips, "The four basic guilt groups."Born in Dayton, Ohio, Guisewite grew up in Midland,...
See also
- Bill BlackbeardBill BlackbeardWilliam Elsworth Blackbeard , better known as Bill Blackbeard, was a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art from American newspapers...
- Fred Waring Cartoon Collection