Home #Hwoodtimes “Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins,” New Book About Pioneering Female Cartoonist Barbara Shermund

“Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins,” New Book About Pioneering Female Cartoonist Barbara Shermund

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“Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins,” New Book About Pioneering Female Cartoonist Barbara Shermund

By: Gordon Durich

The wonderful new book “Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund” is both a biography and coffee-table book mainstay.  Shermund was a pioneer in the craft of cartooning. Her career spanned the heyday of American magazines from the ‘20s to the ‘60s.

Photograph Of Barbara Shermund, Courtesy Of The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, Ohio State University

Sharp wit was her signature style and she managed to tap the zeitgeist of Feminism in its first wave.  Women in Shermund’s sphere spoke their minds openly about sex, society, marriage and more.  Smoking and drinking, they poked fun at this repressed era in which young women dared not.

One of the first female artists of at the prestigious New Yorker magazine, Shermund went on to shine at Esquire, and contributed to Life, Colliers and other publications.

Caitlin McGurk, author of this art book, is a former amateur cartoonist, Curator at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Gallery and Museum in Ohio, said of her book.“ It was a ‘passion project.’ I pitched it to Fantagraphics (comic books publisher) and it took 5 years of researching and writing and detective work.”

“Tell Me A Story Where The Bad Girl Wins…” features color and black and white illustration in Shermund’s distinctive style, and photographs.

As such it is an impressive oeuvre of the artist.

Shermund was a favorite of the author’s, which made the writing easier, McGurk explained.

Author and academic Caitlin McGurk has many other comic book heroes, including Ernie Bushmiller, “I love (the comic) ‘Nancy’, Walt Kelly (‘Pogo’ comic strip) and Bill Watterson’s ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ and lesser-known syndicated cartoonists such as Richard Thompson who did ‘Cul de Sac.” The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum hosted a retrospective exhibition of Thompson’s works.

Started in 1977, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum now has the world’s largest cartoon collection.

As the son of a cartoonist, I found this book and backstory intriguing and a treat.  My dad also has cartoons in the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum collection.

He devoured magazines, including America’s Mad- interestingly a love of Caitlin McGurk’s.   And comics a-la-Archie, Marvel and Peanuts.  “I love Schulz,” Caitlin said, and added comics in France and Japan are more respected, but the American perception of them has changed.”

www.fantagraphics.com

www.thenewyorker.com

www.dc.com

www.cartoons.osu.edu