Young museum-goers play with a interactive display within the Billy Ireland Comic Museum on Oct. 30. Credit: Daniel Bush | Campus Photo Editor
Comic book lovers can still enjoy the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum despite its closure.
The museum will begin hosting a monthly graphic novel comic book club on Nov. 13 while the museum’s galleries are closed for maintenance from Nov. 10 through May 22, 2026.
The club, named “Between the Panels,” was established by Museum Educator Rebecca Richardson, who saw the closure as an opportunity to try out a new strategy of community engagement.
“We still want people to interact with their space, and the best way to do that is to keep doing public programs that aren’t centered around the galleries,” Richardson said. “So, something like a book club to engage the Reading Room and using the Eisner room to invite people to still recognize us as a place to gather.”
The book club, intended for readers 18 and older, plans to meet once a month from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Eisner Room to discuss the month’s graphic novel.
Moving downstairs to the museum’s Reading Room, they’ll view thematically connected archival materials from the university’s libraries, including Billy Ireland’s own collection.
Book club membership will be free, but requires completing a brief sign-up form online found in a post on Instagram. The form includes the option to recommend graphic novels for the club to read in the future, and Richardson said suggestions will factor into selections pretty heavily.
The first graphic novel the club will read is “Feeding Ghosts” by Tessa Hulls, which won the Pulitzer Prize and Eisner Award. The book details Hulls’ “family trauma of leaving China, and her experience being a child of immigrants,” Richardson said.
Richardson said she hopes to see students and nonstudents alike join the club.
“I’d love to see students engage with the program,” Richardson said. “This is at their fingertips. The Billy Ireland [Museum], in general, is such a good resource to have.”
According to Museum Coordinator Anne Drozd, the closure is due to an HVAC renovation project affecting the entire building.
The Reading Room and Eisner Room will remain open throughout the renovation.
Drozd said that the museum is also looking to use the closure as an opportunity to re-envision the gallery spaces.
“When we open in May, we will have a whole new exhibition for the permanent collection space,” Drozd said. “We haven’t changed that space in years.”
