Kirby in Academia | Kirby Studies

6 October 2015

Comic Book Apocalypse, Kirby in Academia, Press

Five More Days of Apocalypse; plus, Book News

Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Gallery (catalog signing day). Why, yes, that is Diana Schutz, foreground right!

The Apocalypse has reached its final week!

The exhibition Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby will be up for just FIVE more days, through Saturday, Oct. 10, at the CSU Northridge Art Galleries. This is the largest-ever US exhibit of Kirby’s work, and the fulfillment of a dream decades in the making. If you’re a Kirby fan or comics history buff anywhere within range of Los Angeles, I hope you can come see it!

Check out this terrific writeup on the exhibition by artist, curator, and critic Doug Harvey, at The Comics Journal.

And now some news about the exhibition catalog:

Thanks to all of you who have contacted me or the CSUN Art Galleries asking about the catalog. It is an unusual, and beautiful, full-color book, designed by Randy Dahlk, edited by Ben Saunders and me, and co-published by IDW Publishing and CSUN. It runs 168 pages in roughly 8 x 11 inch softcover form, and lists for $39.99. Further details about the book can be found at the bottom of this post.

Q: Where is the catalog???

A: Coming soon! Thanks, everyone, for your patience as we work to make this long-promised book available! The Gallery has seen a huge show of interest in the catalog; since the exhibition opened in August, we have taken down hundreds of names from visitors interesting in buying it. We received an initial shipment of 150 copies by express freight in time for our panel and signing on Sept. 26, but that supply ran out almost immediately. We await a corrected second printing from the printer, which should arrive in late October or early November (a misprint in the first printing did not deter sales!). Please accept our apologies for the further delay of the book—we are waiting breathlessly for that second shipment.

Those of you who have already contacted the Gallery about buying the book, you do not need to do anything else at this point. Once we receive our shipment, you’ll be getting an email from us with a link to purchase the book, which will include a place for you to add your full shipping address. Once payment has been received we will ship the book to you ASAP.

For those who have not contacted the Gallery about the book, rest assured, there will be a page on the CSUN Art Galleries site where the book can be purchased (and I’ll be making announcements here and on social media). Also, IDW expects to make the book available to comic book shops via Diamond Comic Distributors in January—which means that Diamond should be soliciting orders for the book in the next month or so (ask your local shop if the catalog is listed in the November Previews).

Q: What exactly is this catalog like?

A: Here are the specs: again, the catalog is a 168-page color softcover, at 8 x 11 inches. It lists at $39.99. However, when ordering it from CSUN you must add $5.00 for shipping. California residents must also add an in-state tax of 9%.

The catalog contains over 120 images, including more than seventy shot from Kirby’s original art as well as several previously unpublished photos of Jack at work in his studio (taken by David Folkman in the 1970s). It also includes the complete exhibition checklist and some twenty essays, short and long, totaling about 40K words, written by nineteen different creators, storytellers, and scholars:

Mark Badger
Scott Bukatman
Howard Chaykin
Brian Cremins
Ramzi Fawaz
Craig Fischer
Glen David Gold
Doug Harvey
Charles Hatfield
Adam McGovern
Carla Speed McNeil
Andrei Molotiu
Dan Nadel
Adilifu Nama
Ann Nocenti
Tony Puryear
James Romberger
Ben Saunders
Diana Schutz

Topics run the gamut, from superheroes, romance, and SF comics, to The Fantastic Four, The Fourth World, and Kamandi, to Kirby’s collages, the power of his visual storytelling, and the impact of his war experiences. Whether your interest is “Toxl the World Killer” or “Big Barda and Her Female Furies” or simply how and why Jack drew so many double-page spreads, this book has something for you.

I’ll let you know when it’s available!

1 October 2015

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Comic Book Apocalypse, Kirby in Academia

Nine More Days of Apocalypse!

The exhibition I’ve curated, Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby, will be up for NINE MORE DAYS at the CSU Northridge Art Galleries—that is, through Saturday, October 10. Readers, I hope you can make it!

This past Saturday, Sept. 26, the Galleries hosted a jam-packed panel discussion of Kirby at CSUN’s Noski Auditorium, followed by a well-attended catalog signing in the Main Gallery itself, amidst all that Kirby art!

(More photos to come!)

On the panel were six Kirby experts, all catalog contributors and/or lenders to the exhibition: Scott Bukatman, Doug Harvey, Adam McGovern, Andrei Molotiu, Steve Roden, and Ben Saunders. I had the pleasure of moderating. Also in attendance were catalog contributors Mark Badger, Glen David Gold, and Diana Schutz.

Catalog signing, CSUN Main Gallery, 26 Sept. 2015. In the center, Diana Schutz signs, and Adam McGovern makes conversation. At the edges, a bunch of the rest of us are sort of visible.

Again with the catalog signing. You probably can’t quite see from the photo, but, from left, we are CH, Ben Saunders, Mark Badger, Adam McGovern, Diana Schutz, and Andrei Molotiu. (Is Scott Bukatman visible on the end? He should be!)

Many of us joined together to create an impromptu signing line in the Gallery—and so it was that our long-expected exhibition catalog, a beautiful tome co-published by IDW Publishing and the CSUN Art Galleries, finally made its public debut!

Thanks to everyone who made this event possible, from Gallery Director Jim Sweeters and his hardworking team to IDW’s Scott Dunbier, to all of our contributing writers, panelists, and lenders.

Dream of a lifetime, folks—happily fulfilled at my school, Cal State Northridge!

If you haven’t been able to see Comic Book Apocalypse yet, please pay a visit by October 10!

25 September 2015

Kirby Panel Discussion This Saturday, Sept. 26, plus other news

This is a busy time for comics and Kirby studies here at my school, CSU Northridge!

Last night I joined Prof. Jon Stahl, Chair of the Department of Cinema and Television Arts, for an on-stage conversation with Jeph Loeb, Head of Marvel Television and longtime screenwriter, producer, and comic book writer. This lively, well-attended event kicked off the annual Commerce of Creativity series at CSUN.

Tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 26, at 1:00 p.m., I join panelists Scott Bukatman, Doug Harvey, Adam McGovern, Andrei Molotiu, Steve Roden, and Ben Saunders for an intense discussion of the art of Jack Kirby, tied to the Comic Book Apocalypse exhibition. We’ll talk at the Noski Auditorium, right across the street from the Gallery, then troop over to the Gallery afterward to visit (or revisit) the exhibition itself! Many catalog contributors will be on hand for this, the last big public event tied to the show. Hope you can make it! More information is available at the brand-new Comics@CSUN website, here:

http://www.csun.edu/humanities/comics/events/panel-discussion-comic-book-apocalypse-graphic-world-jack-kirby

Finally, this coming Monday, Sept. 28, Comics@CSUN launches its Comics on Screen film series with a screening and discussion of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), adapted from Bryan Lee O’Malley’s generation-defining graphic novel series. More details here:

http://www.csun.edu/humanities/comics/events/scott-pilgrim-vs-world-launches-comics-screen-film-series

All of these events are FREE and open to the public. Again, hope you can join us!

11 September 2015

Apocalypse in the Media!

Splash from Silver Surfer #18 (Kirby/Trimpe), adapted by Louis Solis

Reminder: Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby runs until Saturday, Oct. 10, at the CSU Northridge Art Galleries! Come see if you can!

NEWS! The show has been getting some terrific coverage. On Sept. 1, Tom Kraft and Rand Hoppe of the Jack Kirby Museum and Research Center filmed a video walk-through of the exhibition with me: a half-hour curator’s talk, or ramble, through the Gallery. You can see this walk-through at the Museum’s online journal, The Kirby Effect, right here. Thanks, Tom and Rand! This is the best way to experience the show if you cannot visit in person.

Also, back on Aug. 25, Gabriel Valentin and Dan Brozo of the Digital Lizards of Doom webcast (sponsored by Meltdown Comics) interviewed me in the Gallery. Watch it right here, or via Meltdown’s site. Our conversation starts about six minutes into the webcast and lasts about an hour. Thanks for a great experience, Gabriel and Dan!

AND: This past Monday, Sept. 7, Labor Day, Ted Coe of radio station KCSB at UC Santa Barbara (91.9 FM, kcsb,org) interviewed me about Kirby and the exhibit for a marvelous edition of his show The Freak Power Ticket. An edited podcast of that live interview is now available for streaming or download through the KCSB website, right here. Our conversation starts about 11 minutes in, and goes for about an hour and a half. Ted, thanks for a delightful talk, and for the chance to reconnect with my alma mater, UCSB!

Finally, thanks to Artillery magazine for the nice shout-out. 🙂

Come to our panel discussion on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 1pm! It’s going to be a doozy. Details TBA!

7 September 2015

Labor Day Apocalypse

Tomorrow, Labor Day, I’ll be on the radio, talking about Jack Kirby and Comic Book Apocalypse. Specifically, I’ll be on UC Santa Barbara’s station, KCSB, doing an interview on Ted Coe’s show, The Freak Power Ticket, between 11:00am and 1:00pm PCT. I can’t wait!

The Freak Power Ticket is an wide-ranging and phantasmagorical show described by producer/host Ted as a “wondrous boatride” among rock’n’roll and other music, movies, pop culture, counterculture, and various esoteric but vital forms of art and expression. Ted interweaves interviews and tributes with eclectic music and audio tidbits from movies and obscure recordings. Most episodes are curated around particular themes or guests. Tomorrow the theme is Kirby!

All this takes me back a bit. Years ago—say about thirty—I myself went to UC Santa Barbara, and got my BA in English there. Heady days. I lived for a couple of years in Isla Vista, that curious unincorporated community attached to the UCSB campus, and fell in with a loose circle of esoteric music buffs, comics fans, nerds, neopagans, creatives, and Ren Faire anachronists—my peeps. One of the things I most enjoyed doing in those days was tagging along when my friend Dio Sanchez (RIP) did his late-night prog rock radio show, Willow Farm, on the campus station, KCSB. I too got an FCC license, and did some subbing for Dio. I also ran, briefly, my own wannabe prog show on the station’s closed-circuit AM feed (which only reached the dorms). Naturally I spent a good deal of time listening to other KCSB programs, including a late-night ambient show called Sonic Gallery and Pat Cardenas’s wonderful folk show The Black Nag, which is still going strong after all these years. I can’t claim to know much about KCSB or the station’s history, but I’ll always fondly remember my brief time there.

So I’m delighted to be joining Ted Coe (Ted C.) tomorrow for a show that is clearly a labor of love. We’ll talk about Kirby, comic book labor, and art, Kirby’s relationship to the Marvel Universe, and of course the exhibition. Ted has a cornucopia of music and sound bites prepared, all of it related to Kirby or comic books. That’s The Freak Power Ticket, from 11:00am and 1:00pm Pacific Time, tomorrow. I hope you can tune in—and support independent radio!

Here’s KCSB’s official announcement about tomorrow’s show.