Anderson Comic Exhibition

Features William Schwartz | October 20, 2026 For most, there's only one name in comics they're likely to associate with Indiana. Jim Davis, and this is mainly because Garfield is tightly associated with tourism in Muncie, among other Indiana locations. An ongoing exhibition at the Anderson Museum of Art in Anderson, Indiana seeks to change that. Spearheaded by Deon Parson of Rosebuds fame, The Funny Pages gives a surprising answer to the question no one generally thinks to ask. How many contemporary artists in the newspaper comic industry call Indiana home? Apparently, fourteen! A lot more deceased cartoonists with big names have Indiana connections than you might think, most notably Charles Schulz. It's a trivia question, really: What school gave Charles Schulz his honorary doctorate? The answer is Anderson University. The question as to why they gave him an honorary doctorate is a tad complex, and as it isn't a focus of this exhibition, I'd rather not dwell on it except to note that this ties into Schulz's affiliation with the Church of God. This led to his writing the relatively obscure Young Pillars, a weird little comic that takes the awkward, anxious style Schulz is best know...