The "King" at the Skirball

REVIEW: Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby

If you happen to be in the Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley area, I encourage anyone interested in comics to visit an exhibition of original comics art called “Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby” at the Art Gallery at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). The exhibition runs through October 10.

For anyone not familiar with Kirby’s work (who passed away in 1994), he is one of the most visionary and influential comic book artists in the history of the medium. One needs to look no further than the incredibly successful run of films that feature Marvel Comics characters—Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and X-Men—to understand the man’s stunning legacy. While the more visible Stan Lee, a lifelong Marvel ambassador, has sometimes been solely credited for these and other characters that made Marvel a juggernaut in the comics industry and valuable properties—it’s generally understood now that while the two worked together synergistically to create many of these iconic characters in the 1960s, Kirby played a huge role in inventing and developing the characters, often single-handedly.

Curated by noted comics scholar and CSUN English Professor Charles Hatfield, the retrospective provides a great overview of Kirby’s work. While it comprehensively covers Kirby’s career which began during the 1930s Depression—and encompassed in these early days the creation of Captain America on the eve of World War II—it focuses on his work in the 1960s and ‘70s, when Kirby particularly exploded creatively. This era saw the launch of many of Marvel’s iconic characters and, after his move to rival publisher DC Comics in the 1970s due to his dissatisfaction with Marvel, characters and series like Kamandi, Mister Miracle, the Forever People, New Gods, and the Fourth World.

I’ve covered at length in this blog cartoonists like Roy Crane, Noel Sickles, Milton Caniff, Will Eisner, and Alex Toth, who are considered among the finest cartoonists in the history of the field and had great personal influence on me. Indeed, Kirby and Toth are often considered as the leading examples of the two primary differing schools of comic-book art: Toth was the more naturalistic (though still strong on design) while Kirby’s dynamic, operatic style was perfectly suited for the superhero genre. Although my blog posts clearly show that I lean towards the work of the other school of cartooning represented by people like Caniff and Toth, one cannot deny that Kirby is truly among the titans of the comic-book industry. The characters he created or had a hand in creating  remain the foundation on which modern superhero comics—particularly those published by Marvel that have been major source material for the films—continue to build upon.



In looking at the exhibit, it’s fascinating to see how Kirby incorporated his love of myth, fantasy and science fiction into his work. As he gained more freedom, his creative output reached its apotheosis around this period—though Thor was initially about a god living in the guise of a human among ordinary people, the series soon expanded into the Norse myths of Asgard and other realms. Much of his work at DC—under the umbrella of his ambitious Fourth World saga—further advanced his thinking in these areas. Though Kirby, a product of the Depression era and a member of “the greatest generation,” could hardly be mistaken to be a part of the 1960s counterculture, one could see how the transcendental and fantastic elements of his art and stories had resonance in the psychedelic age. His art during this period also became more stylized and impressionistic, but retained the operatic and epic quality that was always a part of his work.

Seeing original comics art in their original full size is always a treat and a different experience from seeing them in print format and in color. It’s a great opportunity to see original comics art up close and learn about one of the giants of the comic-book field.

Interview with curator and comics scholar Charles Hatfield from the Comics Reporter.

Below: A tour of the exhibition with curator Charles Hatfield.

Entertainment Roundup for 2013

ABOVE: The Google Chromecast

 

As I do each year, I start this year's blog with a rundown of the films, books, TV, comics, and other entertainments I took in this past year. While I try to keep a complete list, I suspect there are still a few items that get by, particularly among the comics and television.

Continuing a trend that accelerated this past year, most of the books and comics I read in 2013 were digital (via my Kindle Fire HD) and many films were watched through streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. So while the medium of storytelling hasn't changed much—whether it's film, television, books, or comics—what has changed significantly is the way such content is delivered. Netflix original content like Arrested Development and Orange is the New Black may not be series "television" in the traditional sense, since they are delivered through an online streaming service and often presented all at once in acknowledgment of the increased users who engage in "binge watching." In the same way, the Kindle re-kindled my interest in comics, particularly in titles like All New X-Men, Nick Fury Max: My War Gone By maxi-series, and Hawkeye. My recent acquisition of streaming-ready devices like the Google Chromecast and a DirecTV system and BluRay player with wifi connectivity reinforces the way entertainment is consumed. Like many people, I've even seriously considered cutting the umbilical to DirecTV/cable given the amount of content available online or on cheaper pay systems like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, but ultimately decided to hold the line on this since others in my household—particularly my children—still watch series television on their tween channels.

But what about the content? This year seemed to be a particularly strong year for movies and other entertainments. One of my favorite films was Populaire, which I saw on Netflix. Other highlights included Frances Ha, Man of Steel, the Lone Ranger, Thor: The Dark World, Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, and Saving Mr. Banks. Two animated films, Dispicable Me 2 and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, surprisingly, were on my list of disappointments.

A discovery this past year was IFC's "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret," which I caught on Netlix. Speaking of Netflix, though I still have to finish them, their original series, Orange is the New Black and the new season of Arrested Development, have been as good as anything you'll find on TV and the way they are presented on Netflix certainly has redefined what "series television" is all about and how it is delivered.

Anyway, without any further ado....

Films:

Nowhere Boy - DVD (1/12/13)
Argo (1/19/13)
Iron Sky (1/28/13)
Remains of the Day - DVD (1/29/13)
Shanghai Calling (2/16/13)
Alfie (2/15/13)
Guys and Dolls (2/26/13)
The Third Man (2/27/13)
Little Voice - Netflix (2/27/13)
Blow Dry - Netflix (2/28/13)
Carnal Knowledge (2/28/13)
The Front (3/10/13)
Kramer vs. Kramer (3/16/13)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Netflix (3/25/13)
Atlantis: Return of Milo - Netflix (3/26/13)
Treasure Planet - Netflix (3/28/13)
Oz: The Great and Powerful 3D (4/1/13)
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (4/2/13)
Titan A.E. (4/3/13)
Independents ??
The Imposters (4/6/13)
Death at a Funeral (4/24/13)
The Day I Saw Your Heart - Netflix (French) (5/11/13)
Classic Albums: Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell - Neflix (5/11/13)
This is 40 - Amazon (5/11/13)
Price Check - Netflix (5/13/13)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (5/18/13)
Extract - Netflix (5/24/13)
Les Miserables - Amazon (5/26/13)
Homecoming - TCM (5/26/13)
Frances Ha (5/27/13)
The Dish and the Spoon - Netflix 5/20/13)
Absolute Beginners - TCM (6/1/13)
Hitchcock - Amazon (6/2/13)
Girl Model - Netflix streaming (6/4/13)
Damsels in Distress - DVD (6/7/13)
Dead Again - Netflix streaming (6/8/13)
Epic (6/9/13)
Friends with Kids - Netflix streaming (6/12/13)
Man of Steel (6/16/13)
Monster U. (6/30/13)
Dispicable Me 2 (7/3/13)
Man of Steel (7/5/13)
Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn - Netflix streaming (7/14/13)
Turbo (7/23/13)
The To Do List (7/27/13)
Dive Bomber - TCM (8/9/13)
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (10/12/13)
Behind the Candelabra (HBO - 11/28/13)
Thor: The Dark World (11/29/13)
Frozen (12/8/13)Lovelace (Netflix - 12/9/13)
Populaire (Netflix - 12/11/13)
Lone Ranger (Amazon On Demand - 12/21/13)
Saving Mr. Banks (12/21/13)
Great Gatsby (DirecTV On Demand - 12/28/13)

 

Television:

The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret - Netflix streaming (1/4/13)
Downton Abbey/Season 3 (PBS - 1/13)
Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee by Jerry Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm - Season 8 (DVD - 12/7/13)
Orange is the New Black (Netflix)
Arrested Development, Season 8 (Netflix)

Theater:

Ragtime (3/16/13)
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (7/7/13)
It’s a Wonderful Life (11/19/13)

Books:

How I Slept My Way to the Middle by Kevin Pollack (1/10/13)
Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings (2/25/13)
The Complete Making of Indiana Jones
Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel: Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang (8/1/13)

Museum Exhibitions:

Kubrick Exhibition (LACMA) - (1/6/13)
Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archeology - Science Discovery Center (4/14/13)

Comics/Graphic Novels:

Amazing Spider-Man #700 (1/3/13)
All-New X-Men
Dominic Fortune (5/2013)
Hawkeye
Nick Fury Max: My War Gone By
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story by Vivek J. Tiwart and art by Andrew C. Robinson and Kyle Baker (12/30/13)

ABOVE: Cover art to the Fifth Beatle

Motion Picture Costume Design Exhibit

It's often said that cartoonists aren't simply artists, but must also function as cinematographers, set and costume designers, prop masters, etc.

With this in mind, this past Saturday, I visited the 18th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in downtown L.A. with my family. (The show runs through April 17 and is free to the public.) Though I am hardly a clothes horse (or, as Steve Martin described it at this past weekend's Academic Awards ceremony, "clothes whore")—and it's my wife who usually takes the initiative to make sure we see the show each year—it's an exhibition I always enjoy taking in, and find instructive for my work as a cartoonist.

We actually have taken in the exhibition for many years now, which features the actual movie costumes and clothing created and worn in films from the preceding year, including most if not all of the costume designs nominated for an Academy Award. This year's exhibition featured costumes from, among many, Aliens in the Attic, Broken Embraces, Coraline, An Education, G.I. Joe, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Inglourious Basterds, Julie & Julia, My One and Only, Night in the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian, Nine, Pirate Radio, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Watchmen, and Where the Wild Things Are.

The show is fun because you get to see the actual movie costumes up close, and a sense of the actual size of the actors who wore the costume (for example, how tall Nicole Kidman must be in real life!).

However, it's also instructive because of my work as a cartoonist—getting the "costumes" right for a character—or at least making it interesting—is one of many challenges a cartoonist faces when working on a story. The exhibition understandably does not allow visitors to take photos (the photo accompanying this blog was taken from an Internet report of a past show), but one often sees numerous visitors at the exhibition—presumably aspiring fashion designers—making sketches. (Inspired myself by a few of the costumes, I borrowed a sketchpad from my wife to make some sketches for my own reference for the future!)

But even if you're not into fashion and just a movie fan, it's a fun, relaxing and enjoyable show to take in, located at the FIDM's gallery on its main floor in a quiet non-descript street L.A. just a few blocks from the new Staples Center where it's easy to find street parking on a Saturday, as we did (and do every year). While some people might find the exhibition itself to be a fairly quick walk-through, I would suggest using the visit to downtown as an opportunity to explore downtown by visiting the re-gentrified Staples Center or visiting the new trendy restaurants in the area, or perhaps some other landmarks like Japantown, the Disney Performance Hall, or the Museum of Contemporary Art. There's also a charming little park area right on the grounds, and the gallery features a small but funky museum store.

FIDM is located at 919 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90015.

Note: The photos accompanying this article are from past FIDM motion picture costume design exhibitions taken from other blog reports. Featured top right is a costume from the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and the Dark Knight Returns.

Mad About Sergio

This past weekend, my family and I had the privilege to attend a special reception for "Mad about Sergio," a gallery exhibition for celebrated, award-winning Mad cartoonist Sergio Aragones, at the Ojai Valley Museum. (I'm also proud to count myself as a professional acquaintance of the artist!) In attendance at the reception was the artist himself, Sergio Aragones, as well as a lot of his good friends from the cartooning world, including "Cathy" comic strip creator Cathy Guisewite, The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening, "Momma" cartoonist Mell Lazarus, and Usugai Yojimbo comic-book creator Stan Sakai.

Though the show ends this week, if you have a chance to catch it before it closes, by all means do so.

The exhibit provides a comprehensive retrospective of Aragones' work and career. Plenty of the artist's original art are included in the show—quite a few are surprisingly large in size, and impressive in their scope and the tiny details for which the fast-drawing cartoonist is known. Samples of some of Aragones' other arts and crafts interests—among them needlework—are also included, which the artist notes helps keeps his creative juices flowing. Pieces from his personal collection of original art by other cartoonists Aragones admires are also in the exhibition. This includes work by Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck and original comic strip art of classic work like Winnie Winkle and The Captain and the Kids. Many of Aragones' awards are also in the exhibition, as well as a delightful short documentary about the mounting of the show.

And in keeping with the cartoonist's sense of fun, many samples of Aragones' spontaneous cartoons can be found directly on the walls of the gallery itself, often interacting with the display pieces. A re-creation of the artist's work space is on display at the show as well, as seen below.

The show was mounted in conjunction with a series of talks and presentations by the artist.

It was a delightful evening and a lot of fun to visit the show with the artist in attendance.

Below are my photos from the exhibition. To see all the photos, click here. (Note that the photo at the top of this post is from a Los Angeles Times article about the show.)

Click here to see all the photos.

J.C. Leyendecker Exhibition

Many years ago, the Norman Rockwell Museum in New England put together a traveling exhibition of Rockwell's work. Its California stop was in San Diego, and though I had a good reason for not seeing it (my wife and I had just had a child), I always have regretted missing it.

With this in mind, I made a point to find the time to see an exhibition of one of Rockwell's idols and forerunners, J.C. Leyendecker, at the Fullerton Museum Center in Orange County, Southern California. (It's a tiny but nice little museum with lots of character.)

Leyendecker was one of the premier commercial illustrators and artists of his generation—and he was working in what probably is considered the Golden Age of American illustration. Though not as well known today (at least among lay people) he is greatly admired by other illustrators, and much of his work remains iconic and recognizable. He is perhaps best known for his Arrow Collar shirt ads. But he also was known for many other advertising campaigns, as well as for his covers of the Saturday Evening Post (where Rockwell would eventually follow in his footsteps and gain his own legacy). Leyendecker produced more than 300 covers for the Post alone over a 40 year period. (Leyendecker also is credited with inventing the "baby new year" concept, which he produced variations of on covers throughout his career.)

The exhibition includes about 50 pieces, which obviously is just a tiny fraction of his full output. (Pictured above is a piece that was included in the exhibition.) And while the exhibition is fairly representative of the breadth of his work, it nevertheless would be challenging in such a small exhibition to fully capture the magnitude of his artistry and achievements. An original work of art obviously can take look very different than its printed reproduction, and its amazing to see what Leyendecker could convey with the boldest and simplest of brush strokes. (I'm fortunate to own a rare, out-of-print hardcover book of his work.)

Rockwell gained popularity for perfectly capturing and dramatizing the everyday lives and ideals of the average American. While Leyendecker did so to a degree as well, his work was much bolder and idealized—his figures, particularly his males—were angular and heroically proportioned. And his strong and powerful compositions and design sense underscored this aesthetic. (Please keep in mind I'm not saying that made either artist better or worse—this obviously was just a reflection of their styles and personal artistic philosophies.)

Anyway, the show ends November 18. I highly recommend this opportunity to see this rare opportunity to see the original work of one of the field's finest commercial illustrators.

(For more samples of Leyendecker's work go here and here.)