Cartoonist Mort Walker Discusses the Long Road Leading to a Huge Library/Museum Merger

By: Dave Astor The International Museum of Cartoon Art collection will soon have a home again, and IMCA's founder is pleased.

"We're very happy with the arrangement," said "Beetle Bailey" cartoonist Mort Walker, who established IMCA nearly 35 years ago.

That arrangement, as reported yesterday on this site, will add the huge IMCA collection to Ohio State's huge Cartoon Research Library collection.

But Walker, in an interview today with E&P, also finds the merger bittersweet. "I was devastated that the deal with the Empire State Building fell through," recalled the King Features Syndicate cartoonist. "We spent a lot of time and money on design and staff, and we were ready to go."

The plan to move a renamed National Cartoon Museum into the iconic New York City skyscraper fell through in 2006 -- the latest in a series of bad-luck events for IMCA.

After a 1974-76 stint in Greenwich, Conn., and a 1976-1992 stay in Rye Brook, N.Y., IMCA built a new structure in Boca Raton, Fla. The museum reopened its doors there in 1996, and drew many attendees.

"We were rolling along beautifully," said Walker, who began "Beetle Bailey" in 1950. "The place was so crowded some days we had to close the doors."

But IMCA was still paying off the cost of its building's construction when two financial backers went bankrupt. Walker said IMCA tried to rent out the second floor of its structure to make some needed money, but couldn't get city approval for a series of suggested tenants.

Then, when IMCA decided it had to move out, Walker said Boca Raton placed restrictions on who could be the building's buyer. IMCA ended up selling a $7-million structure for only about $3 million.

After its 2002 closing, IMCA put its collection in storage in Connecticut. Then came the almost-opening in the Empire State Building, and an unsuccessful attempt to move the museum into a west-side Manhattan building at the Circle Line pier.

Finally, the 1977-founded Cartoon Research Library became the best option. Walker said he holds CRL founder and curator Lucy Shelton Caswell in high regard (she's even been on the IMCA board), and praised the CRL itself.

"It's a wonderful place," he told E&P. "And the merger makes it the largest cartoon-art collection in the world."

Indeed, the CRL has more than 250,000 originals in its collection, as well as an enormous number of comic-strip clippings and tearsheets, comic books, and other material. And IMCA has about 200,000 works in its holdings, estimated Walker.

"But who can count it exactly?," he said with a laugh. "There's so much stuff. If you have the time to count it, come on down!"

Walker did mention that there was some worry about whether the CRL -- a research library -- would have the room to display parts of the IMCA collection. But he said CRL found a campus building to do so, and Walker hopes the structure will be ready to exhibit some of the IMCA material in a year or so.

The cartoonist said CRL isn't paying to acquire IMCA's collection, but offered to pick up the costs of moving the stored material from Connecticut to Columbus, Ohio. "It will probably cost about $35,000 and require four vans," noted Walker.

Yesterday's E&P story can be seen here.