9 November 2001 - 28 February 2002

Comics, Heroes, and American Visual Culture features nearly seventy works of comic and superhero art drawn from the Dan F. and Barbara J. Howard Collection of American Popular Art. Consisting of over one-hundred works as well as a significant research library, this collection was recently donated to the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden through the University of Nebraska Foundation.

Although cartoons and caricatures have played an important role in Western culture since the Middle Ages, the development of the comic strip is a unique American phenomenon and has contributed significantly to American visual culture, including the development of high art in the U.S. Comics, Heroes, and American Visual Culture is divided into two parts, one focusing on comic strip art, the other featuring fantasy and superhero art.

The comic strip art exhibition features the work of such important early strips as Gus Mager's Grafto the Monk (1907), Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates, and George Herriman's Krazy Kat. This section also shows the development of the so-called "adventure" strip, pioneered by Roy Crane in the thirties with Wash Tubbs and Captain Easy and continued by Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon and Dick Calkins's Buck Rogers through the forties and fifties. Also included are such favorites as Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Walt Kelly's Pogo, Gary Larsen's The Far Side, and Bela Zaboly's Thimble Theatre, which came to be known simply as Popeye.

Another part of the exhibition focuses on the seminal contribution of the "superhero" to another major comic art genre, the comic book. Loosened from the daily and Sunday newspaper, these self-contained publications featured such memorable larger-than-life characters as Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain Midnight, and the Spirit, among many others. Emerging from Roy Crane's "adventure" strips of the thirties, the "superhero' came to embody the values of an American society blossoming into a world power. This exhibition features comic strips and original paintings by the most important creators and illustrators of this genre, includng Will Eisner, Alex Ross, Joe Shuster, and Bill Sienkiewicz.

The Sheldon Art Gallery will host an opening reception for the exhibition on Friday, 9 November from 5:00-7:00 p.m. Philosopher and art critic David Carrier, author of The Aesthetics of Comics, will present a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m.

The Education Committee of the Nebraska Art Association is presenting a special cartoon workshop for school-age children, featuring Lincoln resident and cartoonist Bob Hall, who currently illustrates Batman for DC Comics. The workshop will take place on 19 January 2002.

A symposium entitled "The Art of the Comics," which will celebrate and explore the significance of comic art to U.S. culture, will be hosted by the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery on 1-2 February 2002. Among the participants will be Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit; Chris Ware, whose publication of Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, has made him the most significant graphic novelist in the country; Bill Sienkiewicz, who has made Batman and Superman images; and comic art historian Robert C. Harvey, among others.

A series of videos on "The History of the Comics" will be available for viewing in Sheldon's Great Hall at noon, and again at 2:30 pm throughout the course of the exhibition according to the following schedule.

On Tuesdays,

Volume 1 features The Katzenjammer Kids: Betty Boop, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye, Tarzan, Gasoline Alley, Dick Tracy, Flash Gordon, The Phantom.

On Wednesdays,

Volume 2 features Superman, Batman, Steve Canyon, Peanuts, Captain America, James Bond, Beetle Bailey, Mad Magazine, and Andy Capp.

On Thursdays,

Volume 3 features Vampirella, Conan, Furry Freak, Spiderman, Little Annie Fanny, Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, Creepy Magazine, and Judge Dredd.

On Fridays,

Volume 3 features X-Men, Outland, Heavy Metal Magazine, Green Arrow, Watchmen, Atom, Elf Quest, Ronin, and Green Lantern.

Krazy Kat is also available for viewing, upon request.