Alex Raymond, the Rip Kirby strip for June 27, 1953.
Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: my wife and I drove three hours from Indianapolis to attend the third annual GalaxyCon Columbus in the heart of Ohio’s very capital, met one of my all-time favorite performers, bought comics, chatted with fellow fans, and fled the place around 12:30 Saturday because it wasn’t the only comics-related event I wanted to check out in town. Fortunately we just missed the Great Convention Center Wi-Fi Crash of 2024 and the ensuing descent into temporary cash-only savagery.
We got our first taste of the Columbus comics scene in 2015 when we attended the inaugural Cartoon Crossroads Columbus and, while we were in town anyway, visited the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University, a graphic-storytelling tribute space with rotating exhibits and free admission. ‘Twas a fun Saturday for us, but for some reason we took and posted very few photos from the occasion.
This year GalaxyCon partnered with the Ireland for a bit of cross-promotion that included a Friday night VIP event attended by some of the con’s guests. We couldn’t work out the logistics to attend that soiree, but I wanted to see the museum’s latest showcase — a fascinating gallery of original art from the Golden Age of comic books and strips. We snapped quite a few more pics this time.
In addition to the temporary exhibits, the Ireland’s lobby offers original pieces and miscellanea from across the decades. (Click to enlarge! Preferably on something bigger than a phone!)
Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland for October 29, 1905.
Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia, Captain America #206, Feb. 1977.
Todd McFarlane’s adjectiveless Spider-Man #5, Dec. 1990.
The drawing board and side table of Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould.
Their largest special exhibit at the moment is “The Lone Crusader: Larry Ivie and Fandom in the Golden Age of Comics”. Ivie (1936-2014) was an avid comics reader and collector back in the ’50s and ’60s, who grew up to publish seven issues of his own fan magazine Monsters and Heroes from 1967 to 1970, for which he painted all the covers and created his own superhero strip called “Altron-Boy”. He had pieces published in other magazines and amassed a handful of pro comics work, including a co-writing credit on Avengers #14 under the pseudonym “Paul Laiken”.
In past road trips we’ve viewed the considerable collections of other high-end fans such as Diamond Distribution head Steve Geppi (though his museum later closed) and Indiana’s own Allen Stewart, founder of Elkhart’s Hall of Heroes Comic Con. I’ve no idea how much Ivie accumulated during his lifetime, but we appreciated the Ireland providing this opportunity to view selections from among them.
A few of the key issues on display:
Flash Comics #1, January 1940! Where the legacy of DC’s super-speedsters began.
All-Star Comics #3, December 1940! The first appearance of the Justice Society of America, the longest-enduring superhero team.
Captain America Comics #1, Marvel Mystery Comics #3, Red Raven Comics #1, and Detective Comics #18. And there were still more!
Along with some homemade costumes and stashes of pop culture merch, the exhibit’s biggest draw was original art Ivie acquired from various comic books and strips throughout his life. It was a tremendous treasure trove for any comics fan with serious interest in the medium’s pre-digital beginnings of pencils and inks on oversized paper and art boards, when artists got paid mere pittances for their labors, rarely had any ownership stake in the characters they helped create and/or popularize, and went down in comics history with far too many real-life unhappy endings.
Superman’s creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster would later work on his comic strip. This installment was from 1943.
An autographed Joe Shuster Superman sketch from 1945.
Another Shuster sketch from the ’40s.
One of the largest pages in the room: Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant Sunday strip from December 16, 1956.
Bill Everett, Heroic Comics #12, page 1, 1942.
A preliminary sketch by Johnny Craig for the cover of EC Comics’ Vault of Horror #39, from 1954.
A breakdown by Harvey Kurtzman (a common writing method for him) for a story in Frontline Combat #12 .
Jack Cole (creator of Plastic Man!), Police Comics #19 (Oct 1942), pages 5 and 11.
John Severin, Prize Comics Western #104, March 1954.
A closeup of Severin’s interiors from that same issue. As a kid I loved, loved, loved his work on Cracked, which was ten times funnier than Mad Magazine.
Roy Krenkel, Prize Comics Western #109, Jan. 1955.
A Reed Crandall splash page for the Doll Man story in Feature Comics #60, September 1942.
Crandall’s cover for Smash Comics #36 (Oct. 1942) and color guide.
A page from Will Eisner’s 1940s classic The Spirit. The museum didn’t have publishing specifics.
An Alex Toth page from the original Green Lantern series of yore, circa 1940.
Jack Kirby and Joe Simon’s splash from Captain America Comics #4 (June 1941), photographed at an unflattering angle to avoid glares and reflections, which plagued several of our outtakes.
An obscurity from Simon and Kirby’s many collaborations: the cover of The Strange World of Your Dreams #4, Jan./Feb. 1953.
An unpublished 1960s Buster Crabbe page (based on the then-famous real-life Olympic swimmer and actor) drawn by Frank Frazetta.
Buster Crabbe #5 (July 1952), page 6; pencils by Al Williamson with inks by Frazetta.
Williamson solo art on Astonishing #47, Jan. 1957.
More of Williamson from Two-Gun Kid #25, Sept. 1955.
Williamson pencils for Weird Science #22 (Nov/Dec. 1953), partially inked by a rookie named Bernie Krigstein. Williamson rejected the work-in-progress, redrew it and had Frazetta ink it instead.
Another Alex Raymond Rip Kirby daily from June 5, 1954.
…and there was so much more to see. We took enough pics for a second entry, but that’ll do for now for this low-traffic hobby-blog. Ideally you should walk, run, drive, fly or teleport to Columbus and see for yourself while the Ivie collection is on display through May 4, 2025. If you can’t make it because of traffic, or if anyone truly wants to see more of our pics, let me know! Otherwise I’m sitting on the rest and enjoying them for myself, like some kind of selfish small-fry hoarder who’ll never be honored in a museum.