Longtime Richmond Times-Dispatch cartoonist Chick Larsen is the subject of 
a small exhibition in the Fourth Floor Gallery of James Branch Cabell Library.
From 1950 to 1954, Carl E. "Chick" Larsen (1923-1991) studied commercial art at Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), the forerunner to VCU. He worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch for more than 35 years.
He worked in the pre-digital age when X-ACTO knives and India ink were among the trade's tools. Some of those art supplies are on display along with samples of his work for various clients and his student work.
Also on view are clippings of the color comic strip he created around a newspaper delivery carrier. "Carrier-Toons" ran in newspapers nationwide from 1979-84.
The materials on view are from the Carl "Chick" Larsen Papers housed in VCU Libraries Special Collections and Archives in James Branch Cabell Library. The materials in the exhibit were donated by Larsen's family to VCU Libraries. The collection documents Larsen's career as a professional artist and contains materials ranging from Larsen's original art work to the art supplies he used during the 1950s through the 1980s. The photograph of Larsen, left, was taken in 1978.
VCU Libraries' Comic Arts Collection, housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library, consists of some 100,000 items, including more than 40,000 comic books, graphic novels, editorial cartoons, comic strips, memorabilia, comic journals, fanzines and an array of reference materials. In addition to the growing, comprehensive collections for the study of comic arts, VCU Libraries is the repository for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Archives.
a small exhibition in the Fourth Floor Gallery of James Branch Cabell Library. From 1950 to 1954, Carl E. "Chick" Larsen (1923-1991) studied commercial art at Richmond Professional Institute (RPI), the forerunner to VCU. He worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch for more than 35 years.
He worked in the pre-digital age when X-ACTO knives and India ink were among the trade's tools. Some of those art supplies are on display along with samples of his work for various clients and his student work.
Also on view are clippings of the color comic strip he created around a newspaper delivery carrier. "Carrier-Toons" ran in newspapers nationwide from 1979-84. The materials on view are from the Carl "Chick" Larsen Papers housed in VCU Libraries Special Collections and Archives in James Branch Cabell Library. The materials in the exhibit were donated by Larsen's family to VCU Libraries. The collection documents Larsen's career as a professional artist and contains materials ranging from Larsen's original art work to the art supplies he used during the 1950s through the 1980s. The photograph of Larsen, left, was taken in 1978.
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VCU Libraries' Comic Arts Collection, housed in Special Collections and Archives at James Branch Cabell Library, consists of some 100,000 items, including more than 40,000 comic books, graphic novels, editorial cartoons, comic strips, memorabilia, comic journals, fanzines and an array of reference materials. In addition to the growing, comprehensive collections for the study of comic arts, VCU Libraries is the repository for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Archives.