Guide to the Tom Batiuk Collection

Biography of Tom Batiuk

Thomas Martin Batiuk was born March 14, 1947 in Akron, Ohio. He graduated from Midview High School (Elyria, Ohio) in 1965 and Kent State University in 1969. After graduation, Batiuk went to New York where he was unable to get a job with Marvel Comics. He returned to Elyria and taught arts and crafts at Eastern Heights Junior High School for two and one half years. During his years teaching, Batiuk did a weekly strip for the teen page of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram called Rapping Around. This material served as the basis for Funky Winkerbean, which debuted on March 27, 1972 with North America Syndicate. The strip focuses on the lives of the students, teachers and community surrounding the fictional Westview High School. The characters remained the same ages until 1992 when Batiuk jumped the storyline and characters five years into the future. In 1979, Batiuk was approached by Field Enterprises about writing for Heads and Tails, a strip drawn by Tom Armstrong. He agreed to the project if he could use his own characters and make the story a talk show. Using several characters that had appeared in Funky Winkerbean, John Darling was launched in 1979. Following Armstrong's departure and persistent problems with his syndicate, Batiuk ended the strip in 1990 with the murder of its title character. Crankshaft is another spin-off of Funky Winkerbean. Ed Crankshaft became popular as the bus driver in Funky Winkerbean and, knowing he would soon be ending John Darling, Batiuk began developing a strip revolving around this character. Chuck Ayers was hired to draw the strip that debuted in 1987 with Universal Press Syndicate. Batiuk uses his comic strips to tackle challenging social issues such as teen pregnancy, dating abuse, homelessness, illiteracy, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease.

Scope and Content

The collection contains 20 original Funky Winkerbean comic strips from the 1986 teen pregnancy series. Accompanying documentation of the series and the 1989 adult literacy series in Crankshaft is also in the collection.

Original art works in this collection may be found by searching the library's
art database.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

All copyright laws pertain to any use or reproduction of published materials in the collection.

Restrictions on Access

There are no access restrictions for materials in this collection.

Original art has been separated and cataloged in the museum’s
art database.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Persons:

Provenance

Materials were sent directly to The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum from Tom Batiuk and Allison W. Cusick.

Preferred Citation

[Box Number/Folder Number], Tom Batiuk Collection, The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum

Acquisition Information

All materials are the gifts of Tom Batiuk, 1989, except for Box 1, Folder 8, which is the gift of Allison W. Cusick,

Other Finding Aid

A paper finding aid is available for use in the library.

Detailed Description of The Collection

The collection is organized in three series. Series I contains original art from the 1986 Funky Winkerbean teenage pregnancy storyline. Series II contains press materials, correspondence, clippings, paste-ups, and proofs related to the Funky Winkerbean teenage pregnancy storyline. Series III contains press materials, correspondence, and clippings related to the 1989 Crankshaft adult illiteracy series.