About Kim A. Munson (author, curator, art historian)
Kim A Munson (MA SFSU) is the editor of the Eisner Award-nominated anthology Comic Art in Museums (University Press of Mississippi press release) the first academic book to explore the evolution of thought about comic art 1930-present as manifested in art exhibitions. Kim is an art historian, author, artist, and curator living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has contributed essays on comic art, museum exhibitions, labor emblems, and other topics to numerous books and journals including The Cambridge Companion to Comics, The Comics of R. Crumb: Underground in the Art Museum, Routledge Handbook of the Secret Origins of Comics Studies, International Journal of Comic Art, and Places Journal. She was a 2022 Eisner Awards Judge and the curator of Women in Comics at the Society of Illustrators (NY), the Palazzo Merulana (Rome), and the Foques Corte dell'Arte (Naples) and Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman (Society of Illustrators, NY & San Diego Comic-Con Museum).
Beautiful Monsters: The Art of Emil Ferris
Two galleries of original art by Emil Ferris will be on view at the Society of Illustrators, NY 7/31 - 10/19, including a large selection from My Favorite Thing is Monsters book 2, and other upcoming projects. Forbes
Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman
65 beautiful drawings by Colleen Doran were on view at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park through April 2024. Doran/Gaiman projects represented in the show include Chivalry, Snow Glass Apples, Troll Bridge, American Gods, Norse Mythology, Sandman, and Doran’s latest project, the official adaption of Good Omens. The exhibit was developed by Kim with the Society of Illustrators in NY, where it was shown from March to July 2023. Exhibit photos from San Diego.
Documentary: Lichtenstein and Comics
News
Farewell Trina: We lost Trina Robbins on 4/10/24. Tribute in Forbes by Rob Salkowitz | CNN | NYT | WaPo | Today Show | Comics Journal | Heidi McDonald Oral Histories.
New Books: I have agreed to edit books on Denis Kitchen (submitted) & Trina Robbins for UPM’s Conversations series, forthcoming 2024, 2025.
Journal: I’m guesting editing a symposium on Emil Ferris’s “Monsters 2” for the American Book Review Journal, in conjunction with Paul Buhle.
Chivalry: A new essay on Chivalry is upcoming this summer in Source: Notes in the History of Art (U of Chicago journals). I presented on Chivalry at academic conferences for the International Society for the Study of Medievalism and the College Arts Association.
Mutts: I am developing a Patrick McDonnell exhibit with the SDCC Museum opening January 2025.
New Essay: “Maurice Horn: A Memorial.” International Journal of Comic Art Vol 25, No 1, Spring 2023. Pgs 504-509.
New Review: Katherine Kelp-Stebbins reviews Comic Art in Museums for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.
New Chapter: George Lucas in Museums to the anthology Lucas: His Hollywood Legacy, edited by Richard Ravalli for the University of Kentucky Press film studies series (available May 14, 2024).
New Book
I contributed a chapter on exhibitions to the Cambridge Companion to Comics, edited by Maaheen Ahmed. Ahmed article & podcast.