Comic Art in Museums. Edited by Kim A.Munson. UP of Mississippi, 2020. 386 pp. $99.00 cloth. $30.00 paper.

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 902-905
Author(s):  
Robert Ribera
Keyword(s):  
Comic Art

The Spanish Tebeo

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viviane Alary
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Mass Medium ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
Spanish Translation ◽  
Spanish Society ◽  
Cultural Phenomenon ◽  
Bande Dessinee ◽  
Cultural Legitimacy ◽  
Comic Art

It seems difficult to speak about comic art in Spain without considering what tebeos mean to Spaniards. This term is not simply a Spanish translation of bande dessinée. It refers to a special kind of comic strip aimed at children, which appeared in the late 1920s. Tebeos were the only available mass medium in Spain after the Civil War (1936-1939). In this contribution we want to analyse tebeos as an editorial, social and cultural phenomenon, with the aim of demonstrating that 'tebeo-culture' survived even after the collapse of the 'tebeo-industry' in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, we will examine the question of the cultural legitimacy of comic art in Spanish society.

“A Fabric of Illusion”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Cremins
Keyword(s):  
Comic Book ◽  
Critical Circle ◽  
Comic Art

C. C. Beck was one of the most influential artists working in comics in the U. S. in the 1940s and 1950s. As the co-creator of Captain Marvel, he and his assistants worked on one of the best-selling comic book characters of the era. Later in his career, he also developed a reputation as a comics critic. In addition to his columns for The Comics Journal, he established the Critical Circle in the late 1980s, a group of friends, fellow artists, and fans with whom he shared his unpublished essays on the form. Like Will Eisner, Beck was significant as a cartoonist and as a theorist of comic art. This chapter explores how he applied those theories to his work, which is known for its narrative economy and simplicity.

Pioneers: Comic Art Exhibitions, 1930–1967

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-65
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
World War ◽  
Art Exhibitions ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Comic Art

In this interstitial introduction, art historian Kim A. Munson establishes a chronology of museum exhibitions of original comic art between 1930 and 1967, summarizing the importance of historical trends (the popularity of comics exhibits during World War II) and pioneers like Milton Caniff and the National Cartoonist Society. This chapter contextualizes M.C. Gaines’ 1942 Print magazine article about the important touring exhibit The Comic Strip: Its Ancient and Honorable Lineage and Present Significance. This chapter introduces Alvaro de Moya and Pierre Couperie, who were the founders of influential fan groups that led to breakthrough exhibits in Brazil (1951) and in France (1967).

Masters of High and Low: Exhibitions in Dialogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 211-214
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Art World ◽  
Public Dialogue ◽  
Art Spiegelman ◽  
Comic Art ◽  
Museum Of Contemporary Art

This is a brief interstitial introduction by art historian Kim A. Munson explaining the importance of and interaction between two blockbuster exhibitions featuring comics, High and Low: Modern Art, Popular Culture (MoMA, 1990) and Masters of American Comics (Hammer & Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2005). This chapter discusses The Comic Art Show (Whitney, 1983), Jonah Kinigstein’s satirical cartoons about the NY art world, and the critical and public dialogue surrounding both High and Low and Masters, which has shaped many of the comics exhibitions that followed. This chapter tracks the team of comics advocates that organized The Comic Art Show (John Carlin, Art Spiegelman, Brian Walker, and Ann Philbin), their reactions to High and Low and the production of Masters of American Comics in response.

Permanent Ink: Comic Book and Comic Strip Art as Aesthetic Object

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-62
Author(s):  
Andrei Molotiu
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Comic Strip ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
Senior Lecturer ◽  
Aesthetic Object ◽  
Full Size ◽  
Comic Art ◽  
History Department ◽  
Born Again

Andrei Molotiu, the Senior Lecturer in the Art History Department at Indiana University, Bloomington, explores the formal characteristics of comic art and the fragmentation caused by showing framed pages that were originally created for publication and separated from their indigenous context, wondering if this separation is ultimately an act of creativity or an act of violence. This chapter explains white-out, margin notations, and how the eye is drawn to different things in an image when it’s isolated on the wall. In this 2006 essay, he focuses on the art of Jack Kirby, Ivan Brunetti’s Schizo 4, Metamorpho, Joe Palooka, Archie, Josie, Tom and Jerry, and "Sooper Hippie.” In this 2018 update to his 2006 essay, Andrei Molotiu, the Senior Lecturer in the Art History Department at Indiana University, Bloomington, returns to his analysis of the formal characteristics of original comic art as seen in exhibitions, exhibit catalogs, and high-end artist’s editions that faithfully reproduce full size comics originals, such as the IDW Artist’s edition of David Mazzucchelli’s and Frank Miller’s Daredevil: Born Again (images). Molotiu briefly discusses the proliferation of comic art exhibits and contrasts the experience of reading a full issue of Jack Kirby’s Kamandi on the wall at the Comic Book Apocalypse show at CSU Northridge and in print in an artist’s edition.

Northern Ink: Misfit Lit in Minneapolis

2020 ◽  
pp. 170-174
Author(s):  
Diana Green
Keyword(s):  
Comic Art

This chapter contains a 2017 essay by cartoonist and scholar, Diana Green, sharing her recollection of the alternative comics touring exhibit Misfit Lit: Contemporary Comic Art at the Artifex Alternative Arts Museum in Minneapolis (1992). This chapter discusses comics becoming more diverse and accepted in the 90s, the genesis of the Misfit Lit show, the curation by Fantagraphics, and of the experience visiting the show and gallery. This chapter includes commentary about Lynda Barry and Reed Waller. Image: Misfit Lit catalog cover.

Substance and Shadow: The Art of the Cartoon

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Brian Walker
Keyword(s):  
Comic Art

Brian Walker was a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art, where he worked from 1974 to 1992, continuing afterward to curate many important shows.  Here, he brings his experienced curator’s eye and life-long knowledge of cartooning to the task of explaining the value of seeing original comic art and the techniques, idioms, and methods of storytelling used in comics from 1843 to the present. This essay was written for the opening of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum and Library (2013) Images: Punch cartoon 1843, Mort Walker, drawings from The Lexicon of Comicana.

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