A comprehensive history of how comics and comic art gained recognition as art
2021 Eisner Award Nominee! Comic Art in Museums. Edited by Kim A. Munson. University Press of Mississippi, 2020. 386pp, 80 images. 30 paperback. Press release | Excerpt (Table of Contents, Full Introduction with Images, Contributor Bios)
“I can’t stress enough the importance of objectivity in a collection such as this. Munson has done such an admirable job of organizing this multitude of dispatches from the front lines, including her own work.”
Henry Chamberlain, Comics Grinder
“Valuable for both fans and academics alike, this collection provides the groundwork for debate in future graduate and undergraduate courses on sequential art, museum studies, and art history.”
Robert Ribera, Journal of Popular Culture
Press for Comic Art in Museums
paulgravett.com Top 24 Graphic Novels, Comics and Manga: July 2020 | Forbes Here are the Books We Would be Talking About at SDCC This Week | Comics Grinder Review: Comic Art in Museums, Edited by Kim Munson | Comics Grinder: Interview Kim A. Munson and Comic Art in Museums | Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson interviews Kim A. Munson about "Comic Art in Museums" | Review by Barbara Margarethe Eggert in MEDIENwissenenschaft (English translation) | Interview by Kevin Sharp on Fanbase Press | Review by Robert Ribera in the Journal of Popular Culture (August 2021 pdf) | Review by Michael D. Picone in the journal European Comic Art (December 2021, pdf) | Review by Steve Smith Panels and Prose blog | Review by Katherine Kelp-Stebbins in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.
Book Overview
Historians Jim Thompson and Alex Grand interview me about the book in 2020.
Through essays and interviews, Kim A. Munson’s anthology tells the story of the over-thirty-year history of the artists, art critics, collectors, curators, journalists, and academics who championed the serious study of comics, the trends and controversies that produced institutional interest in comics, and the wax and wane and then return of comic art in museums.
GREAT DISCUSSION WITH CONTRIBUTORS TO “COMIC ART IN MUSEUMS” ROB SALKOWITZ (MODERATOR), KIM MUNSON, DIANA GREEN, ERIC BOIME, CHARLES HATFIELD, DAMIAN DUFFY, AND DENIS KITCHEN.
Audiences have enjoyed displays of comic art in museums as early as 1930. In the mid-1960s, after a period when most representational and commercial art was shunned, comic art began a gradual return to art museums as curators responded to the appropriation of comics characters and iconography by such famous pop artists as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. From the first-known exhibit to show comics in art historical context in 1942 to the evolution of manga exhibitions in Japan, this volume regards exhibitions both in the United States and internationally.
Fine Art of Comics: GREAT PANEL IN MANY ASPECTS OF COMICS AS ART. I’M TALKING ABOUT WOMEN IN COMICS OPENING IN NY. (L TO R) BILL SIENKIEWICZ, SCOTT DUNBIER, LIAM SHARP, KIM MUNSON, ROB SALKOWITZ (MODERATOR). PHOTO BY EUNICE VERSTEGEN. VIDEO BY ALAN FREEMAN, 59 MINUTES. SAN DIEGO COMICS FEST, MARCH 2020.
With over eighty images and thoughtful essays by Denis Kitchen, Brian Walker, Andrei Molotiu, Paul Gravett, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, and Charles Hatfield, among others, this anthology shows how exhibitions expanded the public dialogue about comic art and our expectation of “good art”—displaying how dedicated artists, collectors, fans, and curators advanced comics from a frequently censored low-art medium to a respected art form celebrated worldwide.
Contributions by Kenneth Baker, Jaqueline Berndt, Albert Boime, John Carlin, Benoit Crucifix, David Deitcher, Michael Dooley, Damian Duffy, M. C. Gaines, Paul Gravett, Diana Green, Karen Green, Doug Harvey, Charles Hatfield, M. Thomas Inge, Leslie Jones, Jonah Kinigstein, Denis Kitchen, John A. Lent, Dwayne McDuffie, Andrei Molotiu, Alvaro de Moya, Kim A. Munson, Cullen Murphy, Gary Panter, Trina Robbins, Rob Salkowitz, Antoine Sausverd, Art Spiegelman, Scott Timberg, Carol Tyler, Brian Walker, Alexi Worth, Joe Wos, and Craig Yoe. Cover Image The Spirit at an Art Gallery” by Will Eisner (1996) with permission of Will Eisner Studios, Inc (MCA Collection Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum).
Blog Posts referred to in the text
Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix | Carol Tyler’s Pages and Progress | NCS/Metropolitan Museum American Cartooning
Page header photo: Exhibition view of George Herriman: Krazy Kat is Krazy Kat is Krazy Kat, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. 2017. Photo by David Walker. Courtesy of Brian Walker.
