Two articles in Fall/Winter 2016 IJOCA

Two articles I finished last year have been published in the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of the International Journal of Comic Art: "A Collaborative Journey: Malcolm Wyte, Troubador Press, and the Founding of the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco," and "How the French Kickstarted the Acceptance of Comics as an Art Form: the Books and Exhibitions of Maurice Horn" (pages 61-155) The IJOCA does not publish articles on-line. They are posted on Academia.edu, and IJOCA articles sometimes appear in the JSTOR database.

Thanks to the following people who shared their stories with me: Maurice Horn, Brian Walker, Rick Marcshall, Denis Kitchen, Paul Gravett, Art Spiegelman, Carol Tilley, Trina Robbins, and Steve Leialoha. Malcolm Whyte, Jenny Robb, Andrew Farago, and Mark Bode. Also, thanks to Brian, Randy Duncan, Matt Smith, and Marc Greenberg for their advice throughout these projects. 

The article about Maurice Horn, French scholarship, his publications, and the 1967 exhibition at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs will be the topic of my upcoming presentations at WonderCon and the Popular Culture Association's National Convention.

cover of the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of the IJOCA.

New Article: The Books and Exhibitions of Maurice Horn

Poster for 1967 exhibition, courtesy of Maurice Horn.

"How the French Kickstarted the Acceptance of Comics as Art in the US: the Books and Exhibitions of Maurice Horn" will be published in the Fall 2016 issue of the International Journal of Comic Art, and is currently available on Academia.edu.

Overview of the career of the French/American comics pioneer Maurice Horn. Discussion of the French interest in US comics, and the exhibitions Bande dessinée et figuration narrative (Paris 1967), AAARGH!: a Celebration of Comics (London 1970), and 75 Years of the Comics (NY 1971). Books discussed are A History of the Comic Strip (1968), World Encyclopedia of Comics (1976), Women in the Comics (1977), and several others. Includes a short history of American comics in France, and the 1960's groups, Club Bande Dessinée, and SOCERLID, that championed the idea of comics as "the ninth art" through their exhibitions and publications. Horn was a contributing member of these groups, moving on in the 1970's to edit an important string of comics reference books.

Article includes interviews with Maurice Horn, Rick Marschall, John Lent, Brian Walker, Denis Kitchen, Trina Robbins, Steve Leialoha, and Art Spiegelman. 

New Article on Malcolm Whyte and the founding of the Cartoon Art Museum

Catalog cover Zap to Zippy 1990

"A Collaborative Journey: Malcolm Whyte, Troubador Press, and the Cartoon Art Museum, San Francisco" will be published in the Fall issue of the International Journal of Comic Art, and is currently available on Academia.edu.

The longest running independent museum of comic art, the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, was forced out of its space in September 2015, and is still looking for a home. This is the story of the museum's founder, the author and publisher Malcolm Whyte. His amazing career began in the Navy when he and a partner started Troubador Press, which began with greeting cards and grew to high quality coloring books illustrated by Greg Irons, Larry Todd, and Edward Gorey, In the mid-80's he founded the Cartoon Art Museum, and was the director from the opening in 1988 through 1992. Key exhibitions and catalogs are discussed. Following this he moved back into publishing with the Cottage Classics books. These were illustrated by artists like S. Clay Wilson, Maxon Crumb and Spain Rodriquez. Often these publications were coordinated with exhibitions.