Through a different lens: New exhibit at May 4 Visitors Center features comics on event

They cover the walls and the columns in the May 4 Visitors Center.

Hundreds of illustrations, comic panels and magazine covers.

Depictions of Ohio National Guard members aiming at students. One cartoon of an enormous woman in an apron scolding a student kneeling near the body of another student who was shot. Cartoon panels from "Crankshaft," one of which depicts parents taking their teen children on a tour through Kent State University and reliving their own memories of what happened on May 4, 1970.

The power of that pivotal event is captured in the May 4 Visitors Center's current exhibit, “Graphic Content: Comics of May 4." The display, which can be seen in Taylor Hall at Kent State University through June 7, highlights the work of former Akron Beacon Journal artist Chuck Ayers, graphic novel author John "Derf" Backderf, and artist and teacher Katherine Wirick, along with various other artists.

Alison Caplan, director of the May 4 Visitors Center, said the display includes not only copies of the political cartoons and comic strips, but also the drafts and notes behind several of the pieces.

"We aim to get more people engaged through these stories," Caplan said.

Each artist provides a unique voice to the exhibit.

Chuck Ayers: First-hand witness

Ayers, along with Tom Batiuk, created the long-running comic strip "Crankshaft."

Ayers was a student at Kent State and was in the Daily Kent Stater office on May 4, 1970, when the Ohio National Guard shot at students protesting the Vietnam War.

Students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder were killed, and nine more were wounded: Alan Canfora, John Cleary, Thomas Grace, Dean Kahler, Joseph Lewis, Donald Mackenzie, James Russell, Robert Stamps and Douglas Wrentmore.

During a talk Ayers made at the March opening of the exhibit, he said he had three binders: one of his art before May 4, his art for May 4, and his art in the years that followed, according to Caplan.

One of the exhibits includes what Ayers considers his first political cartoon, which ran not only in the Daily Kent Stater but also in the New York Times and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It also prompted an opinion piece from a columnist who complained Ayers was inciting the students to riot.

Even after the exhibit closes, the staff at the visitors center is putting together a traveling exhibit to take to area schools and groups to highlight Ayers' work connected to May 4, Caplan said.

Derf Backderf: Illustrating history

Backderf, who grew up in Richfield, is the author of several graphic novels, including "Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio," "My Friend Dahmer" and "Trashed." He worked as a cartoonist for the Ohio State Lantern, The Evening Times in Palm Beach, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Akron Beacon Journal.

It was Backderf's graphic novel "Kent State" and his research behind its creation that allowed the exhibit to come together, Caplan said. She added that it took about four years to complete the graphic novel, which was published in 2020. Backderf used the archives on the May 4 shootings in Kent State's Special Collections and Archives.

"This is the first time we've been able to spotlight his work," Caplan said. "He constructs the horror in his own way."

Caplan said Backderf saw the National Guard camping out in Richfield before they went to Kent.

In addition to panels and drafted work from "Kent State," there's also a map Backderf had created with Jason Prufer, a senior library associate in Kent State University's library and author of "Small Town, Big Music - The Outsized Influence of Kent, Ohio, on the History of Rock and Roll." The map shows how downtown Kent looked in 1970, which Backderf used in creating the graphic novel.

Another highlight of the graphic novel is how he features the four students who were killed, Caplan said. For example, he found a message from the boyfriend of Sandra Scheuer, and he called her "Sandy Beach."

Katherine Wirick: Through her father's eyes

Wirick's father, David W. Wirick, was attending Kent State University in 1970 and was in the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps, Caplan said. Her father sat next to Schroeder during an ROTC exam hours before the shootings.

In numerous detailed illustrations brought together in a piece titled "No One Is Safe," Wirick, who teaches painting and drawing in Los Angeles, captures both her father's memories and her emotions as she relates his tale.

Caplan said Wirick's father did not go to the protest, but it still affected him in the years that followed. He frequently listened to "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a song written in response to the Kent State shootings.

One whole wall in the exhibit is filled with copies of her panels, blown up to 16 feet by 20 feet. Another wall has the entire work.

"With her, you get this sense of emotion," Caplan said. "I'm so glad she allowed us to do this."

"No One Is Safe" took nearly half a year to complete, according to Wirick's website.

Wirick's father, who went on to serve in the army, passed away from bile duct cancer in 2012, two years after she finished "No One Is Safe."

For the latest information about the commemoration and events planned to remember May 4, 1970, visit www.kent.edu/may4.

Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: New May 4 exhibit at Kent State highlights comics by 3 artists