Through exhibits, animation, workshops and lectures, the Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco has been home to one of the largest collections of cartoon art in the western United States since 1984.

The Cartoon Art Museum is nestled in the heart of San Francisco’s downtown cultural district.

“The museum is dedicated to the collection, preservation and display of original cartoon art in all its forms,” said museum curator Andrew Fargo. “There is no other museum in the western United States that exhibits all forms of original cartoon art year-round.

“The Cartoon Art Museum is currently the largest of its kind in the U.S., although Ohio State University is constructing a large-scale museum scheduled to open in two years,” added Fargo.

The museum is rather small, providing a very intimate and peaceful atmosphere, which allows visitors the perfect opportunity to take their time browsing through all the different cartoon forms. Despite the museum’s smaller venue, it is home to about 6,000 pieces of cartoon artwork in their original form.

Currently there are seven different exhibitions on display in the museum, ranging from classic comic strips to digital animation.

According to the museum’s website, “In the museum’s 25-plus years of existence it has produced over 100 exhibitions and 20 publications celebrating and examining the diversity of cartoon art in animation, comics, graphic novels, zines, book illustration and more.”

The first gallery of the museum is currently showcasing a new exhibition titled, “La Raza Comica: A celebration of the Latino-American experience in the Comic Arts.”

Cinco de Mayo marked the opening of this exhibition, which focuses solely on Latino-Americans in cartoon art. Using satire, irony and blunt humor, the comics featured in this exhibit take many typical Latino stereotypes head on and express what it’s like growing up as a Latino in American culture.

This is one of the first large scale shows in the country to shed light on the contributions made by Latino-American artists to the world of comic arts. Some of the artists featured include Jose Cabrera and Spain Rodriguez.

The gallery will remain in the museum through Sept. 2.

A larger gallery in the museum is dedicated to comic strips of all types, some dating back as far as the early 1700s. Some of the most recognizable comic strips include “Peanuts,” “Cathy Doonebury,” “For Better or Worse,” “Popeye” and “Dennis the Menace.”

Of course, there were also a multitude of the popular superhero comic strips showcased throughout the museum. The museum’s bookstore has take-home souvenirs available for purchase.

There’s even a corner of the museum dedicated to spotlighting local Bay Area artists. This month’s featured artist is Ric Carrasquillio, San Francisco animator, illustrator and cartoonist since 1998.

“We feature many local artists in our galleries, and we are constantly hosting events and finding ways to involve the community in our programming,” said Fargo.

The largest gallery in the museum houses an exhibition titled, “What, Me Worry? 60 Years of MAD.” MAD has been in existence since 1952 and remains one of the most influential cartoon publications in the world.

According to the museum’s website, the MAD exhibit “celebrates the rich history of MAD from the original comic book through the black-and-white magazine to its latest incarnation as a full-color bi-monthly publication supplemented by online content. This is the museum’s first exhibition to include both the MAD comic book and magazine.”

This particular gallery displays an extensive variety of MAD magazine covers, original drawings, framed photos and storyboards.

Aside from the galleries, the Cartoon Art Museum is dedicated to educating the community it serves by offering a variety of classes and workshops year round.

“This is a very important part of what we do,” said Fargo. “Arts education is not a priority when it comes to school funding, so our programs offer a vital component of a well-rounded educational experience.”

The museum’s art education program includes school field trips, drop-in Saturday classes, weekend workshops, after-school art programs at local schools and a number of different tours on site at the museum.

Just this past weekend, the museum had the grand opening of their latest exhibition, “Assemble Avengers,” which coincides perfectly with the recent box office hit, “The Avengers.”
This exhibit will showcase until late October.

“My hope is that we’ll increase funding enough to hire additional staff so that we can continue to improve in all of the things that we do, from our exhibitions and collections to educational outreach and community involvement,” said Fargo.