Coming to your Local Comic Shop this January: the catalog to our just-finished exhibition, Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby. Please ask your shop to order it!
Comic Book Apocalypse is more than a catalog and more than a memento. It’s a book of gorgeous Kirby art and smart writing that I hope will have a long shelf life and inform discussions of Kirby’s work going forward. Details below!
The book can be found in the IDW section of the latest, i.e. November, issue of Previews, the comic shop catalog from Diamond Comic Distributors (that issue solicits orders for products shipping to shops in January). Look on page 170 for a full-page ad. The order code for the book is NOV15 0459.
Scores of people have asked me about getting this book, and we at the CSUN Art Galleries have a list of buyers hundreds of names long, mostly folks who got to visit the exhibition in person. (In fact we’re anxiously waiting on a new shipment of books so that we can fulfill those orders!) But if you weren’t able to see the exhibit, and haven’t been in touch with the Galleries, ordering the book through your LCS could be the best way to go!
THE DETAILS
Previews has an info page on the book here. Here’s the relevant page in the printed catalog:
Again, that’s page 170, item number NOV15 0459
Comic Book Apocalypse is a 168-page color softcover at 8 x 12 inches that lists at $39.99. Co-edited by my fellow prof Ben Saunders and me, it’s a publishing collaboration between the CSUN Galleries and IDW. Scott Dunbier, the visionary behind IDW’s famed Artists’ Editions, supervised the project, and Randy Dahlk, the designer behind IDW’s incredible Kirby Artist Editions, designed it. It’s like no other book about Kirby: a mashup of history, art criticism, and appreciation, written from academic, professional, and fan perspectives. It boasts over 120 images, most shot from Kirby’s originals—as well as the complete checklist of the exhibition and some twenty essays, written by these 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
It’s a beautiful book—just paging through it makes me a bit dizzy! We expect that it will get people talking in new ways about Kirby, his art, and his towering, lifelong achievement. Please ask your LCS to order it!
NOTE: Just as a reminder, those who have already contacted the Gallery about buying the book 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.
HAND OF FIRE 