The Cartoon Museum is a museum that specialises in British cartoons, animation, comic strips and caricatures. With a library of over 5000 books and 4,000 comics relating to the subject the collection is very extensive. Locate at 35 Little Russell Street, near the British Museum it is easily reachable from Holborn or Tottenham Court Road. The museum was opened in 2006 to preserve Britain's extensive cartoon past as much of the heritage is sold to private collectors abroad, never to be seen again.
Curator Anita O'Brien noted, "There has never been a cartoon museum [in Britain]... In spite of the very strong historical tradition here, there has always been a very strong ambivalence towards comic art."
In its mission statement, the museum declares it is "dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and to establishing a museum with a gallery, archives and innovative exhibitions to make the creativity of cartoon art past and present, accessible to all for the purposes of education, research and enjoyment."
I haven't visited the museum yet but hope to go next weekend as there is a special event called 'Comics, so what?' where many comics writers and animators will be present to give talks and do signings including Asia Alfasi, Hunt Emerson, Karrie Fransman, David Hine, David Lloyd, Steve Marchant and Posy Simmonds. Should be very interesting!