Comics As Culture

It's official -- comic books is art! I was contacted recently by a museum in the Detroit area, the Janice Charach Epstein Gallery, because they're putting on an exhibit about comic books and wanted to know if they could have HeroMachine involved somehow. Being the patron of the arts that I am (ahem) I of course agreed immediately, and sent them a box of CDs they could pass out to the attendees at the opening.

Comic books and super-heroes have come a long way from being derided as cultural rot eating away at the moral fiber of our young people at worst, or as empty-headed nonsense at best. One of the turning points, at least in my own perception of their worth as art and not just as entertainment, was a great book titled "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud. The key concept is to think of comic strips as "sequential art", a method of stringing together words and images that come together to create something truly unique, a way of interacting with the viewer that is fundamentally different from animated art (a series of images shown one on top of the other in such rapid sequence that they appear to move) or traditional painting (a single static image).

Plus, come on, when was the last time you saw aliens or super-villains getting their butt kicked in a Van Gogh painting? Not gonna happen.

Anyway, I am always happy to support efforts to garner the kind of cultural and critical acclaim for comics that I've always had for them. If you're in the West Bloomfeld, Michigan area on or after October 19, head on over to the JCEG and take a look at the exhibit. And be sure to ask them for a HeroMachine CD!