"Power Lines: Comics and the Environment" Exhibition

From the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Art by Peter Kuper from Ruins, published by SelfMadeHero, 2015.

This exhibit surveys over 100 years of comics that depict both the pleasures and dangers of human interaction with the environment. 

We survive and thrive thanks to the earth’s many resources, but we can also cause our planet irreparable harm. 

From fears about pollution, to the celebration of parks and preserves, to anger at the failures of the Environmental Protection Agency, to recognition of the ways environmental destruction and global warming disproportionately affect people of color: comics have captured it all. 

Types of work included in this exhibit include political cartoons, underground comix, superhero comic books, newspaper comics, and more. 

Artists featured include Peter Kuper, Richard Thompson, Eleanor Davis, Bill Watterson, and more. 

Curated by Jared Gardner and Elizabeth Hewitt.

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About the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum (BICLM), part of The Ohio State University Libraries, houses the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, magazines, journals, comic books, archival materials and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings. 

BICLM is located in Sullivant Hall at The Ohio State University, 1813 N. High Street, Columbus, OH 43210. 

Explore the collection online at cartoons.osu.edu.