SD Comics Fest and Eisner Week Event

3/6 in San Diego, Balboa Park; SD Comics Fest 3/7 - 10.

I’m headed to San Diego Comics Fest to visit with friends and participate on a panel about comic art and museums:

Splashing Ink On Museum Walls: Comic Art on Display

Saturday, Mar 9, 2019, 3:00 PM (Palm B)

Comic art and comics are finally being recognized as worthy of display in galleries and museums. What are the best ways to present it to the public? How are new facilities like the Comic-Con Museum approaching their mission of education and entertainment? What does it mean for artists and the medium?

Join Comic-Con Museum Director Adam Smith, author/scholar Kim Munson, and award-winning artist Mark Schultz for a wide-ranging exploration of the issues, moderated by Rob Salkowitz. Here’s link to their site: https://www.sdcomicfest.org/

I’m looking forward to hearing from Adam how the San Diego Comic-Con Museum project is progressing. Weds night 3/6, the museum is organizing an Eisner Week event, which I will be attending:

Cover Story: The Art of Comic-Con 50 
Exhibit Opening Reception

March 6, 2019 6pm – 9pm
Future Home of the Comic-Con Museum 
2131 Pan American Plaza, Balboa Park | San Diego, California 92101

“Cover Story: The Art of Comic-Con 50,” is a new exhibition at the future home of the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park. Explore the past 50 years of Comic-Con covers through striking examples of original art and process pieces that explore the creation of a cover, from thumbnail sketches to finished pencil and ink art to fully-colored finished pieces. Drawing from Comic-Con’s archives, the exhibition celebrates art as an integral tool in promoting the organization’s mission of creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular artforms. The exhibition includes pieces from talent as diverse as Jack Kirby, Bruce Timm, Dave McKean, Moebius and Steranko.

As one of the benefits of being a Charter Member of the Comic-Con Museum, you will have an opportunity to view this exhibit ahead of the general public, at the Museum’s first ever Exhibit Opening Reception from 6pm – 9pm, March 6, 2019.

8pm Special Program: Will Eisner & The Spirit of Service

In the Comic-Con Museum Theater

In addition to the opportunity to view Cover Story: The Art of Comic-Con 50, the Museum will also be hosting a special panel discussion honoring Will Eisner on what would have been his 102nd Birthday. The panel will take a focused look at Eisner’s life and work, while evaluating his commitment to education, military service, and professional development.

"From Panels to Frames: Comic Art in Museums"

I'm happy to announce that I will be editing a collection of essays, comics, reviews, and other materials about comic art in museums for the University Press of Mississippi. My UPM editor, Vijay Shah said "Museums, exhibitions, and exhibition catalogs have played a great part in the development of comics scholarship. By bringing this "low art" into the presence of "high art," a good deal has been learned about both. This matter has hardly been studied at all, and a good many people involved in it have been overlooked or forgotten."

Cover art illustration by Will Eisner. Originally created for the Museum of Cartoon Art.

So far, contributors include: Brian Walker, Dr. Thomas Inge, Benoit Crucifix, Jaqueline Berndt, Michael Dooley, Charles Hatfield, Diana Green, Trina Robbins, Karen Green Jonah Kinigstein, Denis Kitchen, Leslie Jones, Kenneth Baker, John Lent, and Mark Badger. Interviews with artists Gary Panter, Art Spiegelman, and Carol Tyler will be included. More to come.

If all goes as planned, publication is expected spring 2018. Thanks to Brian Walker, Denis Kitchen and Carl Gropper for allowing me to use this perfect Will Eisner illustration for my cover.