Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund

Barbara Shermund is an unheralded early master of magazine cartooning. Her career spanned the heyday of American magazines, and her sharp wit and loose style boldly tapped the zeitgeist of first-wave feminism with vivid characters that spoke their minds about sex, marriage, and society. As one of the first women cartoonists to work for The New Yorker during the year of its launch in 1925, her style shaped the look of the publication, which celebrates its centennial in 2025. 

Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins follows Shermund’s career from the 1920s through the 1960s, highlighting a body of work that was ahead of its time and remains insightful, witty, relevant, and contemporary. Through original art, photographs, and published works, this traveling exhibition provides an expansive look into the trailblazing career and vivacious life of a pioneering woman cartoonist. 

In addition to her work for The New Yorker, Shermund regularly contributed to the most popular magazines of her time including Esquire, Life, and Collier’s. She had a syndicated newspaper feature, illustrated books and record albums, and created advertisements for major American companies including Pepsi-Cola and Ponds. In 1950, Shermund was among the first women to be accepted into the male-dominated National Cartoonists Society. 

Though her work was seen widely by the public, she lived a private, liberated life, and traveled extensively, rejecting social norms for women of her era. The witty and provocative characters Shermund portrayed were drawn from her complex personal life and current events; while including occasional nods to queer audiences. Shermund left behind a profound, yet under-recognized body of work that this exhibition seeks to remedy.

Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, was organized by the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at The Ohio State University in 2019 and is now available in tandem with an exciting new companion art book and biography by the exhibition’s curator, Caitlin McGurk, from Fantagraphics Books.

Watch the exhibit and the remarkable story it tells was recently featured on CBS Sunday Morning – you can view the segment on YouTube here.

Please contact the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at cartoonexhibits@osu.edu for more information.