UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
LitGraphic:
The World of the Graphic NovelFebruary 20 – May 23, 2010
Daywood Gallery
Opening reception takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. February 28, 2010, with a Gallery Walk by Walter Gropius Master Artists Matt Madden & Jessica Abel.
Text-based, hip-hop artist Baba Israel performs at 7 p.m. March 16, 2010.
Herald-Dispatch illustrator Thom Marsh brings a project to Saturday KidsArt at 1 p.m. May 8, 2010.
Lions released from a zoo in war-torn Baghdad; a mother's battle with lung cancer; an American expatriate searching for her identity in Mexico – serious subject matter for any medium, but particularly so for a new wave of critically acclaimed and commercially successful stories called graphic novels.The graphic novel is a creation of the early 20th century, and is now the fastest-growing genre for all national bookstore chains. The stories are told through pictures, with many of the earliest books featuring only images without words. Most current graphic novels are a combination of words and text, similar to a comic book, but dramatically differ from the comic books in the depth of subject matter and plot. These provocative books have captured the interest of the art and literary establishments, and have thoroughly engaged a diverse contemporary readership.
LitGraphic examines the development of sequential art through its practitioners. Their work continues to suggest new ways of seeing: wordless narratives by 1920s woodcut artist Lynd Ward and modern-day commentator Peter Kuper; revolutionary underground comix by R. Crumb and humorous, personal Girl Stories by Lauren Weinstein; the visual thrill of works by Mad Magazine co-creator Harvey Kurtzman and Breathtaker co-creator Marc Hempel; and the pioneering art of Will Eisner (Contract with God), Dave Sim (Cerebus), and Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise).
This traveling exhibition features original artist book pages, studies, sketchbooks, and videotaped interviews, in all, more than 146 artworks by 24 contemporary graphic novelists and historic practitioners of this ever-evolving art form. LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel has been organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
This exhibit is generously sponsored by Cabell Huntington Hospital, The Herald-Dispatch, Macy’s, Marshall University Division of Multicultural Affairs, Bulldog Creative Services, Paris Signs, and Comic World of Huntington.
Original Comic Book Illustrationsfrom the Collection of Beau Smith
February 27 – May 30, 2010
Bridge Gallery
Gallery Walk with Beau Smith takes place at 2 p.m. April 11, 2010.
Based in Ceredo, West Virginia, Beau Smith has been writing comic books for more than 22 years. During that time, he has written for most of the big name companies, including DC Comics, Image Comics, Eclipse Comics, IDW Publishing, Dreamwave Studios, Dark Horse Comics, Capcom Video Games, and has also written dialogue script for major motion picture studios. Batman, Superman, Wolverine, Jack Bauer/24 and Star War’s Boba Fett are some of the well known characters for whom he has written.
Smith has also created a number of original comic book characters and titles, including Cobb, Beau LaDuke, Parts Unknown, Primate, Wynonna Earp, Maximum Jack, Courting Fate, Lost and Found, and Cossack. Many of the industries’ best comic book illustrators have worked with, and befriended Smith including the following: Sam Glanzman, Brad Gorby, Flint Henry, Gary Kwapisz, Graham Nolan, Billy Tucci, Enrique Villagran, and many others.
This small exhibition presents approximately 30 original works selected from Beau Smith’s collection, which he began in 1971 with the acquisition of Ka-Zar the Savage (#20), art by Ron Frenz and Armando Gil. Model sheets which delineate character development, weapon details, costumes, etc. are featured. These works give insight into the “dialogue” between writer and artist. Also included are examples of various techniques employed by comic book artists including color boards, overlays, page layouts, splash page, and double-page spreads, and oversize drawings.
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Walter Gropius Masters Workshop Series Presents:
Matt Madden and Jessica AbelThree-day workshop: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. February 26 & 27; 9 a.m. – noon February 28, 2010
Public presentation: Gallery walk with both artists takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday, February 28, 2010.
Exhibition: February 20 _ May 23, 2010
Gallery ThreeDrawing Words & Writing Pictures: A Comics Workshop
In this intensive workshop, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden teach the principles of comics language — a mixture of drawing, writing, and design all marshaled in the service of storytelling. Making comics requires creators to think fluidly of words and images, to smudge the boundaries, and artfully blend the two usually distinct forms of communication to create a synchronized whole. We truly draw words and write pictures. Drawing words means to think of the letterforms as a part of the visual language of the comic. Writing pictures means to think of the images as carrying meaning much like language does. Comics has been compared to calligraphy in the blending of word and image, and to music notation in the visual notation of time passing and emotion written in ink. Participants will learn how to make comics through a series of short activities and exercises, reading, and finally writing and drawing a one-page comic.
Matt Madden Background
Comic book writer and artist Matt Madden is best known for his alternative comics, for his coloring work in traditional comics, and for the textbook 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style, a comic adaptation of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style. He started self-publishing minicomics while living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the early ’90s, where he co-edited the anthology title 5 O'Clock Shadow with Matt Feazell and Sean Bieri. In 1996 Madden began writing reviews for The Comics Journal and other publications, which he continues to do, albeit infrequently. After having a number of short pieces published in more established publications, Madden published his first graphic novel, Black Candy, with Black Eye Books in 1998.
Madden currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, Jessica Abel and his daughter. He works in illustration and also teaches comics at the School of Visual Arts and Yale University. His other comics-related activities include translations from
French and Spanish and coloring for DC and Marvel. Madden was recently invited to be the American correspondent of OuBaPo, the French experimental comics group. He is currently working on several new projects. Many of those short stories and experiments will appear in A Fine Mess, his current bi-annual series published by Alternative Comics.
Jessica Abel Background
Cartoonist and writer Jessica Abel is the author of a textbook, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, about making comics, written in collaboration with her husband, the cartoonist Matt Madden; and the graphic novel La Perdida (Pantheon Books).
Abel is also the co-writer of the graphic novel Life Sucks. Previously, she published Soundtrack and Mirror, Window (Fantagraphics Books), two collections that gather stories and drawings from her comic book Artbabe, which she published between 1992 and 1999. She collaborated with Ira Glass on “Radio: An Illustrated Guide,” a non-fiction comic about how the radio show “This American Life” is made. Abel won both the Harvey and Lulu awards for “Best New Talent” in 1997; La Perdida won the “2002 Best New Series” Harvey Award. She teaches at the New York’s School of Visual Arts, and Madden and Abel are also series editors for The Best American Comics.
