FIA: Comic Exhibits

Saturday I went to the Flint Institute of Arts (FIA) with good friend Desmond to see one of their current exhibits, "Comics, Heroes and American Visual Culture." It was soooo good. It was great to see so many old and new ORIGINAL comic pages on display. There was some Winsor McCay (no Little Nemo or anything fancy like that, but still), an old Thimble Theatre starring Popeye, some stuff by Jack Kirby, some Krazy Kat, Blondie, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, and a whole lot of other stuff. If I'd been thinking I would have brought a pad and pencil to take names/notes. 

It was fantastic to get up close to those old originals and see how something was done. How neat or messy the original was.

Right next to that gallery was another great exhibit, "Beyond the Frame: African American Comic Book Artists." It had a lot of fantastic art as well, but not as many originals. Mostly digital prints of the original inked pages, or art that was digitally colored. Some originals though, including little rough thumbnails. Some of these artists are graduates of SVA (hooray).

Someone who worked there came up to me and Desmond, and started telling us the history of comics and stuff. We let her. It was fun. I chortled once she went off to see other museum goers. I learned all that already, and more! <--- That's what I was thinking. It was cute though. I wonder if she has to memorize that sort of thing every time they get a new exhibit there. She seemed really enthusiastic.

The survey guys at the entrance to the exhibits tended to ignore me and favor Desmond. I have theories as to why... but no proof. Like I'm a girl and therefor not as interested or knowledgeable about comics? Or... other reasons? Maybe I'm scary and unapproachable? (haha, that'd be a fun reason).

All in all. Excellent. I recommend anybody close enough to Flint, MI, to see this while it's there. Both will be around till April 26. Saturdays are free.