Exhibit puts the “˜pow!’ back into comic book art
By Jennifer Bastien
Feb. 23, 2009 9:09 p.m.
Today, many have turned to political figures like President Barack Obama for hope.
During the 1930s and ’40s, with the threat of war and economic hardship in America, hope came from an unexpected source: the superheroes of comic books. Who could we count on if not Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman?
An exhibition now open at the Skirball Cultural Center traces the popularity of these superheroes from their origin in the 1930s. “ZAP! POW! BAM! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938-1950″ opened on Thursday and runs through Aug. 9. This exhibit originated at the Breman Museum in Atlanta, while the companion exhibit “Lights, Camera, Action: Comic Book Heroes of Film and Television” was created for this occasion at the Skirball to reflect local connections.
The exhibit includes original art and objects from private and institutional collections, as well as interactive components, such as a drawing studio, vintage Batmobile ride, costumes and even a telephone booth where children can pick up phone calls intended for Superman.
Erin Clancey, associate curator of “ZAP! POW! BAM!” and creator of “Lights, Camera, Action,” suggests that while the Golden Age of comics is long past, there is a certain timeliness to the exhibit.
“I feel as if we’re in a new Golden Age; these comic books are as popular now as they were in the Golden Age,” Clancey said. “It’s a good time to have this exhibition.”
Certainly the economic climate may be frighteningly reminiscent of the 1930s, “an era when, as Jerry Robinson says, the American dream had become a nightmare,” Clancey said.
Robinson, a lifelong cartoonist and guest curator of the exhibit, played a role in the emergence of these much-needed heroes. Much of the work of the exhibit comes from Robinson’s own collection.
“I had one of the largest collections from the Golden Age, since I started on Batman, and created the Joker and named Robin,” Robinson said. “So I had a lot of that original art in my archives, and then it took us two years to round up all the other artwork that’s in the show.”
After the exhibit opened at the Breman Museum, it traveled to a few other venues before coming to the Skirball and will continue to travel after it leaves.
“We’ve had inquiries for the exhibit as far off as Australia, so there is worldwide interest in that art form now of the superhero,” Robinson said. “Certainly with the resurgence of the films of Batman and Superman and Spider-Man it shows that that art form and that concept is so viable and able to be regenerated, decade to decade.”
“Lights, Camera, Action” reflects this connection between comic books and film, industries that started with the same community of young Jewish men.
“There wasn’t a start-up cost, if you could draw or write you could have a career. This was one thing that drew dedicated Jewish men to the industry,” Clancey said. “The other is a real tradition of storytelling. It’s not coincidental that the film industry also started with this pool of Jewish talent that had come to New York.”
Robinson himself started out as a journalism student at Columbia University when he entered the comic book industry.
“I just sort of started doing Batman to earn my way through college, and then I found out it was a great way to combine writing and drawing. So that’s how I got attracted to the comics,” Robinson said.
Even for those who didn’t grow up reading comic books, it is easy to see why they were and continue to be so popular.
“Each of these heroes seemed to have their own fatal flaw or Achilles’ heel or version of Kryptonite,” Clancey said. “It resonates with the public to have a frail, flawed human being who can transform and become something bigger and better than themselves.”
Whether we’re looking for someone to lead us out of the Depression, or just someone to help us realize our potential, comic book superheroes have always been there when Americans needed hope.
