Post Your Favorite Comic Book Artists - Jack Kirby Exhibit in CA

[SC kid]

I remember wen he did spawn lol ^^^

Shout out if u remember dis

 

[rfx45]

Happening in my old University so I am there!

‘Apocalypse’ of comic book shows to descend on Cal State Northridge

“Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby,” opens Monday, Aug. 24, 2015, and ends Oct. 10 at the California State University Northridge Art Galleries.

A record 42,000 students expected to flood Cal State Northridge on Monday could face an end to the world.

That’s because the apocalyptic battle between superheroes and supervillains drawn up by comic book legend Jack Kirby will be featured in the largest exhibit of its kind in the nation — and the first at any university — to open Monday at CSUN Art Galleries.

“We call the show ‘Comic Book Apocalypse’ because when you’re dealing with Kirby, nothing less than the end of everything is at stake,” English professor Charles Hatfield, curator of the exhibit, said in a statement. He is “a neglected giant of American comics and popular culture.”

When it comes to comics, think Kirby. The Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Thor, the Hulk, Captain America, Nick Fury, the Black Panther and the Marvel Universe were all conceived in part by the King of Comics.

And if they weren’t enough, he helped launch such famous Marvel characters as Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Daredevil.

More than 100 pieces of the late artist’s work will be displayed during the CSUN show that runs through Oct. 10, which includes a 200-page catalog.

“Comic Book Apocalypse” also tells the story of the professional cartoonist, born Jacob Kurtzberg to Austrian-Jewish immigrants on New York’s Lower East Side, who pioneered comics for more than half a century. Kirby, a Thousand Oaks resident, died in 1994.

His early work included comic books on crime, Westerns, superheroes and romance, a genre which he helped invent.

His later work includes the Marvel Universe he co-founded with comic book writer and editor Stan Lee, including the Black Panther, the first African-American superhero. He also created such influential comics as the “New Gods” and “Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth” for DC Comics.

“He was the greatest comic book artist of them all,” said Bob Strauss, a Los Angeles News Group entertainment critic who read Fantastic Four and other Marvel Comics during their heyday in the 1960s. “I always love looking at Jack Kirby art.”

Hatfield, founder of CSUN’s popular “Comics and Graphics Novels” course and the author of the award-winning “Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby,” said the exhibition is long overdue.

For he said there’s growing academic interest in comics as art, and comics as literature and an influence on popular culture.

“We want to educate CSUN students and the larger community about how comics were actually made,” said Hatfield, founding president of the Comic Studies Society, the first academic association for comic scholars. “This will bring in students to study an understudied part of our culture.”

The Kirby exhibit will also launch Comics@CSUN, an initiative to boost campus interest in comics. Projects include film screenings, speakers and a comics conference planned for next spring featuring student research on comics from across 23 Cal State campuses.

“This is huge,” said art galleries spokeswoman Michelle Giacopuzzi. “This is really cool. I would say it’s a groundbreaking show.”

“Comic Book Apocalypse” at CSUN Art Galleries will include a public reception from 4-7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29; a gallery talk at 10 a.m. Aug. 31 and a panel discussion set for 1 p.m. Sept. 26. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m., and Thursdays from noon to 8 p.m. For information, go to www.csun.edu/artgalleries, www.facebook.com/CSUNArtGalleries, 818-677-2226.