The Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) is a California art museum that specializes in the art of

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

and

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

. It is the only museum in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...

dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms of cartoon art. The permanent collection features some 7,000 pieces as of 2015, including original

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

cel A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th century, bu ...

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

pages and sculptures. Until September 2015, the museum was located in the

Yerba Buena Gardens Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened on October 11, 19 ...

cultural district of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, in the

South of Market South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, situated just south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of the city's museums ...

neighborhood. It reopened in October 2017, in a new location in the Fisherman's Wharf area of

History

The Museum was founded in 1984 by comic art enthusiasts, with its primary founder being

Malcolm Whyte Malcolm Whyte is an author, editor, publisher, and founder of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco."Trustees,"
Carto ...

, the publisher of Troubador Press. CAM's first incarnation had no fixed location, instead organizing showings at other local museums and corporate spaces. In 1987, with the help of an endowment from cartoonist

Charles Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wid ...

, it established a home on the second floor of the

San Francisco Call-Bulletin ''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...

Building in the

(SoMa) area. In late 1994 the museum temporarily closed while it moved locations again, re-opening in the summer of 1995. Primary founder Malcolm Whyte retired from the museum's board of directors around the same time. In 1997, the museum suffered through serious financial difficulties, and was almost forced to close—this was despite a new endowment fund from the Schulz Foundation. Jenny E. Robb served as curator of the Cartoon Art Museum from 2000 to 2005. (Robb is now curator of the

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Library ...

in Columbus, Ohio.) Current curator

Andrew Farago Andrew Farago is the curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, author, chairman of the Northern California chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, and husband of webcomics author and illustrator Shaenon K. Garrity. Farago began hi ...

took over from Robb in 2005. In 2001, the museum moved to a ground-floor location at 655 Mission Street in SoMa, which had been vacated by the Friends of Photography Ansel Adams Center. It closed the location in mid-September 2015 after the lease expired; the owners more than doubled the rent. In late 2016, the museum signed a 10-year lease on a historic, 8,000-square-foot brick building a block away from Ghiradelli Square. Almost a year later, during late October 2017, the Cartoon Art Museum finally reopened its doors at its new location with three new exhibitions, including a retrospective of the San Francisco cartoonist

Raina Telgemeier Raina Diane Telgemeier (/'ɹeɪna 'tɛlgə'maɪəɹ/, born May 26, 1977) is an American cartoonist. Her works include the autobiography, autobiographical webcomic ''Smile (comic book), Smile'', which was published as a full-color graphic novel i ...

, a tribute exhibition of

Mike Mignola Mike Mignola (; born September 16, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer best known for creating ''Hellboy'' for Dark Horse Comics, part of a shared universe of titles including ''B.P.R.D.'', '' Abe Sapien'', '' Lobster Johnson'', '' Wit ...

Hellboy Hellboy is a fictional superhero created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. The character first appeared in ''San Diego Comic-Con Comics'' #2 (August 1993), and has since appeared in various eponymous miniseries, one-shots and intercompany crossovers ...

, and the emerging artist showcase featuring

Nidhi Chanani Nidhi Chanani (born 1980) is an Indian-American freelance illustrator and artist. Her debut graphic novel ''Pashmina'' was released by First Second Books in October 2017. Early life Nidhi Chanani was born in Kolkata, India and moved to Southern ...

Sparky Award

Over the years, the Museum has presented the Sparky Award (after the nickname of

Charles M. Schulz Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz (; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and the creator of the comic strip ''Peanuts'', featuring what are probably his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown and Snoopy. He is wi ...

), in honor of the lifetime achievement of prominent creators in the fields of cartooning and animation who "embody the talent, innovation and humanity of Schulz." The award, which is co-sponsored by the Charles M. Schulz Museum, includes a statuette of

Snoopy Snoopy is an anthropomorphic beagle in the comic strip ''Peanuts'' by Charles M. Schulz. He can also be found in all of the ''Peanuts'' films and television specials. Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Snoopy has become one of the most recog ...

holding a pen and leaning on an

inkwell An inkwell is a small jar or container, often made of glass, porcelain, silver, brass, or pewter, used for holding ink in a place convenient for the person who is writing. The artist or writer dips the brush, quill, or dip pen into the inkwell ...

. (The CAM Sparky Award is not connected to the award of the same name presented at the

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which als ...

.) The award debuted in 1998, and multiple winners were announced each year until 2001. After a six-year hiatus, the award was again presented in 2007. The most recent Sparky Award was given in 2015. The Sparky Award has been presented at various venues, including the

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

and the

New York Comic Con The New York Comic Con is an annual New York City fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television. It was first held in 2006. History The New York Comic Con is a f ...

. List of Sparky Award winners: * 1998 –

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...

, and

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, ...

* 1999 –

Sergio Aragonés Sergio Aragonés Domenech ( , ; born September 6, 1937) is a Spanish/Mexican cartoonist and writer best known for his contributions to '' Mad'' magazine and creating the comic book ''Groo the Wanderer''. Among his peers and fans, Aragonés is w ...

, Gus Arriola,

Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...

, and

Dale Messick Dalia Messick (April 11, 1906 – April 5, 2005) was an American comic strip artist who used the pseudonym Dale Messick. She was the creator of '' Brenda Starr, Reporter'', which at its peak during the 1950s ran in 250 newspapers. Early life Me ...

* 2000 –

Ward Kimball Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honored ...

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

, and

Morrie Turner Morris Nolton Turner (December 11, 1923 – January 25, 2014) was an American cartoonist, creator of the strip ''Wee Pals'', the first American syndicated strip with an integrated cast of characters. Biography Turner was raised in Oakland, Ca ...

* 2001 –

John Severin John Powers Severin (; December 26, 1921 – February 12, 2012) was an American comics artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics ''Two-Fisted Tales'' and ''Frontline Combat''; for Marvel Comics, esp ...

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

Phil Frank Phil Frank (March 27, 1943 – September 13, 2007) was an American cartoonist best known as the creator of the San Francisco-based comic strip ''Farley'' and the artist on nationally syndicated comic strip ''The Elderberries''. Works In additio ...

Lou Grant Lou Grant is a fictional character played by Ed Asner in two television series produced by MTM Enterprises for CBS. The first was ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977), a half-hour light-hearted situation comedy in which the character ...

Gary Larson Gary Larson (born August 14, 1950) is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of ''The Far Side'', a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fif ...

, and

Bill Melendez José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008) was an American character animator, voice actor, film director and producer. Melendez is known for working on the Peanuts animated specials, ''Peanuts'' animated specials ...

* 2007 –

Creig Flessel Creig Valentine Flessel (February 2, 1912 – July 17, 2008)Creig Valentine Flessel
at the Un ...

Klien, Gary
"Marin cartoonist, 95, wins 'Sparky' award,"
''Marin Independent Journal'' (Oct. 28, 2007). * 2008 –

Gene Colan Eugene Jules Colan (; September 1, 1926 – June 23, 2011)Eugene Colan
at the Social Security Death Index via ...

"Gene Colan Awarded Sparky Award,"
''Comic Book Resources'' (December 11th, 2008). (and, in an earlier ceremony,

Malcolm Whyte Malcolm Whyte is an author, editor, publisher, and founder of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco."Trustees,"
Carto ...

)Garchik, Leah
"Friends recall William Buckley's grace,"
''San Francisco Chronicle'' (February 29, 2008): "The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco threw a surprise 75th birthday party last week for its founder, Malcolm Whyte. The museum, which Whyte founded 25 years ago, is the world's largest devoted to cartoon art. Jeannie Schulz presented a Cartoon Art Museum "Sparky" award, named after her late husband, Charles Schulz, to Whyte, who was also given a caricature of himself by artist Zach Trenholm." * 2010 –

Mort Walker Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips ''Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and ''Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips. ...

* 2011 –

Jerry Robinson Sherrill David Robinson (January 1, 1922 – December 7, 2011), known as Jerry Robinson, was an American comic book artist known for his work on DC Comics' Batman line of comics during the 1940s. He is best known as the co-creator of Robin and ...

* 2015 – Ron Turner—presented in conjunction with the first annual San Francisco Comics Fest"SAN FRANCISCO PROCLAIMS MAY 5 'RON TURNER DAY': Legendary Publisher Also Gets 'Sparky Award',"
''ICv2'' (May 7, 2015). * 2017 – Jeff Smith presented at the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center

Exhibitions

The Museum hosts nine to 12 major exhibitions annually, along with classes for children and adults. It also offers lectures and operates a research library, a classroom and a bookstore.

References

External links

*
Twitter page
{{Coord, 37.787088, -122.400940, display=title Art museums and galleries in San Francisco Cartooning museums Media museums in California Art museums established in 1984 1984 establishments in California South of Market, San Francisco 1984 in San Francisco Charles M. Schulz