Crossing Kirby: The “King of Comics” in context of social issues and “fine” art

The groundbreaking exhibition “Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby” at California State University, Northridge in summer 2015 and its accompanying catalog advanced interesting ideas about this visionary pop artist’s cultural significance and his intersection with issues of commercial creativity, representations of otherness, personal trauma and more. Panelists are include the exhibition’s curator Charles Hatfield (CSUN), the catalog’s co-editor Ben Saunders (University of Oregon), artist and “Black Kirby” co-founder John Jennings (UC Riverside), playwright Crystal Skillman and writer/comics historian Fred Van Lente (who collaborated on the play King Kirby), designer Rand Hoppe (curator, Jack Kirby Museum & Research Center), writer/filmmaker Ann Nocenti (catalog contributor, legendary scripter of Daredevil and, recently, the Kirby-created Klarion), artist, activist and Kirby scholar James Romberger, and artist/writer Amy Reeder (currently co-scripting the Kirby-inspired Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur). Moderated by catalog contributor, cultural critic and comic writer Adam McGovern.

The 165th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons School of Design, The New School, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby).

Free and open to the public.