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Carta Monir Donates Almost All Her Original Artwork to Ohio's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Published Sat, 11 Jan 2020 14:00:11 -0600

Cartoonist Carta Monir has donated hundreds of pages of original art, including complete and near-complete works, to The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

Carta Monir is the founder and publisher behind Diskette Press, a small-press publishing house which focuses on publishing and distributing mini-comics and zines by trans and queer comics makers. Monir's own minicomics and zines marry her fascination for analogue technologies with autobiographical narratives about her experiences as a trans woman, family loss, abuse, grief and resiliency. Video and computer games appear frequently as a motif throughout Monir's work, which she uses as a vehicle for blending perceptions of reality, the body, and the future with dysphoria, memory, violence and discovery.

Monir says the donation includes, "nearly all of the original art I created since the end of college, including a substantial amount of art I created before coming out as a woman. Many of the pieces are no longer in print, and some of them have never been printed anywhere. Most of the stories are complete, although some (such as Secure Connect and RIPMOM) are missing pages which I gave away as gifts to friends and lovers."

In addition to Secure Connect and RIPMOM, BICLM received original art from Monir's Cave Dreams, Lara Croft Was My Family, Stealth Mechanic and I Still Want To Kill That Boy as well as partial and complete art for various other zines and web comics. The collection also includes the art for Ready to Pop, which appeared in the 2019 anthology Drawing Power: Women's Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival edited by Diane Noomin.

Caitlin McGurk, Associate Curator and Assistant Professor, said of the collection "The voice that rings through Carta Monir's work is singular, thought-provoking, and unafraid. We are so honored that she has trusted us at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum with preserving these deeply personal stories for future generations of students, scholars, and fans to study and find inspiration. Monir's work has already appeared in two of our museum exhibitions, Koyama And Friends: Publishing, Patronage, And The New Alternative Press, and currently, Ladies First: A Century of Women's Innovations in Comics and Cartoon Art. With this generous addition of her artwork to our collection, I am certain it will appear in many more."

"I chose to donate my original art to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum for several reasons" stated Monir. "I love visiting [The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum] and have had some very emotional experiences there. Knowing that my art would be taken care of alongside the art of some of my greatest heroes just means the world to me. I believe deeply in the work that Caitlin McGurk and the rest of the team is doing, and I know my art will be treated with care and respect. I encourage other creators to donate their original work to the Billy Ireland as well."

Carta Monir's first graphic novel, I Want To Be Evil, will be published by Youth in Decline. The book focuses on her late mother's terminal cancer, and Monir's experience with coming out to her family.

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