05-27-94 Snuffy Smith artist to be here

SNUFFY SMITH CARTOONIST TO CELEBRATE STRIP AT OHIO STATE

     COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University will host a
celebration of 75 years of the comic strip Barney Google and
Snuffy Smith on June 19.

     Fred Lasswell, cartoonist for the comic strip, will give a
chalk talk at 2 p.m. in the Grand Lounge of the Faculty Club, 181
S. Oval Drive, and a special birthday cake will be served.

     After the program, an exhibition, "Barney Google and Snuffy
Smith:  Seventy-five Years of an American Legend" will premiere
from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Cartoon, Graphic, and Photographic Arts
Research Library, 023L Wexner Center for the Arts, 27 W. 17th
Avenue Mall.

     Both events are free and open to the public.

     The exhibit will continue through Sept. 5.  "It documents
the history of this notable comic strip and the two remarkable
cartoonists who have drawn it," said Lucy Caswell, curator of the
library and an associate professor of journalism.

     Barney Google was created by Billy DeBeck in 1919, and it
gained immediate popularity.  Barney ("with the goo-goo-googly
eyes") and his race horse Spark Plug were celebrated in a popular
song (written by Billy Rose) in the 1920s and millions enjoyed
their antics.

     In 1933, when he was 16, Fred Lasswell began as DeBeck's
assistant.  Snuffy Smith made his first appearance in the strip
in 1934.  After DeBeck's death in 1942, Lasswell assumed
responsibility for the comic strip.

     Today, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith appears in 900
newspapers and is translated into Spanish, Finnish, Danish, and
German for worldwide distribution.  For his work on the comic
strip, Lasswell received the National Cartoonists Society's
highest honor, the Reuben Award, in 1964.

     The exhibition is made possible in part by a grant from King
Features Syndicate and with support from the Friends of the
Libraries of The Ohio State University.  In conjunction with the
display, a book, titled Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: 75 Years
of an American Legend by Brian Walker, is being published by
Comicana Books and Ohio State University Libraries for
distribution by Kitchen Sink Press.
                                
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Contact:  Lucy Caswell, (614) 292-0538, or Ted Hannah, King
Features Syndicate, (212) 455-4180.

Notes to editors:

     Art and photos -- Additional comic strip art and photographs
of Billy DeBeck and Fred Lasswell are available.  (See attached
page for sample illustrations.)  Call Tom Spring, managing
editor, at (614) 292-8309, fax (614) 292-0154 or e-mail via
Internet: spring.1@osu.edu

     Interviews -- Fred Lasswell will be available for interviews
on June 19.  Contact Lucy Caswell to make arrangements.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 27 May 1994 16:33:06 -0500 (EST)]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.