School of Visual Arts Exhibits Work by Over 100 Comics Artists

Press release:

School of Visual Arts Presents "Ink Plots: The Tradition of the Graphic Novel at SVA"

Comic Art Legends and Rising Stars Celebrated in Exhibition, Talks and Film

See Gary Panter, Dash Shaw, Jerry Robinson, Ray Billingsley, David Sandlin and Jerry Moriarty Live On Stage at SVA

New York, October 1, 2010 - School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents "Ink Plots: The Tradition of the Graphic Novel at SVA," an exhibition of original drawings, books, prints and animation by over 100 artists. "Ink Plots" traces the development of sequential art over four decades with selections by SVA faculty members and showcases the work of SVA alumni who are pushing the boundaries of the graphic novel today. "Ink Plots" is curated by Marshall Arisman, chair of the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department, and Thomas Woodruff, chair of the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department. The exhibition will be on view at the Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West 26 Street, 15th floor, New York City, from October 8 - November 6, 2010. A reception will be held on Thursday, October 14 from 5:30 - 7pm.

"'Ink Plots' pays tribute to some of the most important artists responsible for the invention and development of the graphic novel," says co-curator Arisman. "The years many of these artists spent teaching at SVA has greatly influenced the present generation of graphic novelists."

Participating current and former SVA faculty members include Sal Amendola, R. O. Blechman, Sue Coe, Will Eisner, Tom Gill, Edward Gorey, Burne Hogarth, Klaus Janson, Frances Jetter, Ben Katchor, Peter Kuper, Harvey Kurtzman, Keith Mayerson, David Mazzucchelli, Jerry Moriarty, Mark Newgarden, Gary Panter, Jerry Robinson, David Sandlin, Walter Simonson and Art Spiegelman.

"We're in the midst of the new platinum age for sequential art," says Woodruff, co-curator of the exhibition. "Using multicultural influences and ambitious new formats, SVA alumni are expanding the boundaries of the graphic novel to include traditional and experimental adult-themed long-format works, diarist comics, fantasy epics, and cutting edge examples of 'Amerimanga' the hybridized East-West form taking hold in our cartooning canon."

Participating SVA alumni include Russell Braun, Sungyoon Choi, Erik Craddock, Pascal Dizin, Nathan Fox, June Kim, Bill Plympton, Nate Powell, Lauren Redniss, Dash Shaw, Koren Shadmi, Raina Telgemeier, Michael Townsend, Steve Uy and Sara Varon, among others. A full list of participating SVA alumni can be found below.

Comics legend Will Eisner is often credited with coining the term "graphic novel" with his 1978 work, A Contract with God, which tells four related stories of Jewish immigrant life in 1930s New York. A critical and commercial success, Eisner's landmark work, along with the popular satire of Harvey Kurtzman's Mad magazine and Burne Hogarth's pioneering Tarzan of the Apes (1972), established a new genre of literature, one that embraced the comic format while telling mature, complex stories. In 1986, graphic novels entered the mainstream with the publication of Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus.

From the psychedelic experimentations of Dash Shaw's high school melodrama Bodyworld (2010) to the teen nightmares Raina Telgemeier poignantly details in her fictionalized memoir Smile (2010), the graphic novel has continued to challenge conventional storytelling in form and content. The genre's popularity has also grown exponentially in the past 40 years, allowing artists and publishers to take greater risks. As seen in the 9/11 memoir American Widow (2008), illustrated by Sungyoon Choi, or in Nate Powell's Eisner award-winning exploration of mental illness, Swallow Me Whole (2008), the limits of the graphic novel are still being tested.

Related Events
"Ink Plots" Benefit Cocktail Party
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Midtown Loft & Terrace, 267 5th Avenue

On Thursday, October 14 from 7 - 10pm, The Alumni Society of School of Visual Arts will hold a benefit cocktail party at Midtown Loft & Terrace (267 5th Avenue, New York City). Tickets are priced at $250 with $100 tickets available to SVA alumni. Proceeds will fund a scholarship for cartooning and illustration students at SVA. For more information on this event, please contact The Alumni Society of SVA at (212) 592-2302 or serwin@sva.edu.

Will Eisner, Master Teacher at SVA
Monday, October 18, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street

This two-part event begins with a panel discussion on longtime SVA faculty member Will Eisner moderated by author and comics historian N. C. Christopher Couch and features Curtis creator Ray Billingsley, Punk magazine creator and underground cartoonist John Holmstrom, author and cartoonist Batton Lash and Will & Ann Eisner Family Foundation President Carl Gropper. The evening continues with a screening of Andrew D. Cooke's documentary Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist (2010, 96 min), which features Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Frank Miller and others discussing Eisner's impact on popular culture. This event is free and open to the public.

Every Picture Tells a Story: Comics and Narrative Painting
Wednesday, October 20, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street

New media guru and comics scholar John Carlin, who founded the digital design studio Funny Garbage and co-curated the 2005 exhibition "Masters of American Comics" at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, leads a panel discussion on the relation of comics to narrative painting. Participants include legendary painters, comic book artists and SVA faculty members Gary Panter, Jerry Moriarty and David Sandlin. This event is free and open to the public.

Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics
Wednesday, November 3, 7pm
209 East 23 Street, 3rd-floor amphitheater

A living legend of American comics and one of SVA's original faculty members, Jerry Robinson will discuss his influential career, including his most recent books, Jerry Robinson: Ambassador of Comics (Abrams ComicArts, 2010) and Jet Scott Volume 1 and 2 (Dark Horse, 2010) along with the forthcoming updated edition of the 1974 classic The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art (Dark Horse, 2011). As a member of the original Batman team, Robinson created the Joker and co-created Robin. A 70-year veteran of the comics industry, he was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004. This event is free and open to the public.

Distinguished Alumnus Lecture by Dash Shaw
Thursday, November 4, 7pm
SVA Theatre, 333 West 23 Street

The New York Times has called artist and SVA alumnus Dash Shaw (BFA 2005 Illustration) "a hard-core experimentalist" and "a hell of an artist, constructing vivid, uncanny compositions with a spectacular sense of color and space." With the publication of Bottomless Belly Button (Fantagraphics, 2008) and BodyWorld (Pantheon, 2010), Shaw has quickly established himself as a leader among today's graphic novelists. The animator and director of IFC's The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century A.D., Shaw is currently working on the animated feature The Ruined Cast. This event is free and open to the public. Presented by the Alumni Society of School of Visual Arts.


About School of Visual Arts
The Visual Arts Gallery, located at 601 West 26th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, 15th floor, is open Monday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm; closed on Sundays and public holidays. Admission is free. The gallery is accessible by wheelchair. For further information call 212.592.2145.

School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.

Participating SVA alumni, as of September 30, 2010, include: Rachel Allison, Delfin Barral, James L. Barry, Lauren Simkin Berke, Russ Braun, Hanni Brosh, Nathan Bulmer, Matty Burns, C.M. Butzer, Aaron Campbell, Mike Carlin, Frank Caruso, Sungyoon Choi, Erik Craddock, Jerry Craft, Marguerite Dabaie, Farel Dalrymple, Nick DeStefano, Matt Dicke, Pascal Dizin, Mike Dubisch, Darnell Edwards, Rami Efal, Anat Even-Or, Brian Floca, Joe Flood, Nathan Fox, Doug Fraser, Stephen Gilpin, Will Grant, N. Steven Harris, Scott Harrison, Paul Hoppe, Dunja Jankovic, Sabrina Jones, Kripa Joshi, Yuriko Katori, Victor Kerlow, June Kim, Scott Koblish, Viktor Koen, Nora Krug, Batton Lash, Brendan Leach, Dongyun Lee, John Paul Leon, Yali Lin, Abede Lovelace, Michael Lurry, Benjamin Marra, Shawn Martinbrough, Andrés Vera Martínez, Patrick McDonnell, Mark McKenna, Joe Meyer, Antonio Montalvo, Christian Montalvo, Al Nickerson, Cheri Nowak, Neil Numberman, Kensuke Okabayashi, Kip Omolade, Bill Plympton, Nate Powell, Joel Priddy, Lauren Redniss, Jungyeon Roh, Matt Roscetti, Koren Shadmi, Dash Shaw, Sandy Spreitz, Leslie Stein, James Sturm, Raina Telgemeier, Jodi Tong, Michael Townsend, Jonathan Twingley, Steve Uy, Sara Varon, Cherise Ward, Carolyn Watson-Dubisch, Graig Weich and Sophia Wiedeman.

Peter Bagge, James Sturm at Fantagraphics Bookstore

Peter Bagge and James Sturm at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on April 17!

Two of the most accomplished cartoonists in America, Peter Bagge and James Sturm, will speak and sign copies of their newly minted graphic novels at Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery on Saturday, April 17, 6:00 to 8:00 PM.

Seattle’s Peter Bagge is the architect of the ubiquitous alternative comics genre. His compelling comic book serial HATE chronicled the exploits of Buddy Bradley and his gang of lovable losers through the rise and fall of the grunge era. Going beyond mere satire, Bagge’s observations helped fashion the aesthetics and attitudes of the only significant youth movement to emerge from the Pacific Northwest. A contemporary review by Bruce Barcott in the Seattle Weekly stated, “Twenty years from now, when people want to know what it was like to be young in 1990s Seattle, the only record we’ll have is Peter Bagge’s HATE.”

Happily, in the years since the series ended, Bagge provides periodic updates on the lives of Buddy Bradley and his crew. HATE ANNUAL #8 finds Buddy and beau Lisa back home in New Jersey dealing with the responsibilities of parenthood while trying to cling to their carefree youth. The results are predictably hilarious. Bagge will also premiere his new full-length graphic novel OTHER LIVES on DC’s Vertigo imprint. The book follows the fantasy lives of high tech nerds as they collide with harsh reality.

James Sturm was among the cadre of creative cartoonists that relocated to Seattle at the dawn of the grunge era. He co-founded The Stranger and created his comic popular comic Cereal Killings for Fantagraphics Books. He later co-founded the Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) in White River Junction, Vermont and instructs students in their two-year program. In MARKET DAY, published by Drawn & Quarterly of Montreal, Sturm draws a quiet and reflective portrait of Eastern European culture in the early 1900s – bringing to life the hustle and bustle of an old-world market place on the brink of the Industrial Revolution. MARKET DAY is a timeless tale of how economic and social forces can affect a single life. Sturm will speak briefly on his experiences starting the Stranger, the CCS, and his work in comics.

The Peter Bagge and James Sturm event on April 17 coincides with national Record Store Day at neighboring Georgetown Records. Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery is located at 1201 S. Vale Street (at Airport Way S.) in the heart of the historic Georgetown arts community. Open daily 11:30 to 8:00 PM, Sundays until 5:00 PM. Phone 206.658.0110.