Press Release
Comic Ink: The Art of the Graphic Novel, opens Tuesday December 2, 2014, at the Rutgers Art Library and will be on display until January 12, 2015. This exhibit will display some of the best-known graphic novels from the Rutgers Library Collection as well as some other game-changing works.
Graphic novels have been labeled pedestrian due to their lack of text and “everyman” appeal. This exhibit challenges that presumption showing some groundbreaking works which include topics such as those on political unrest and some telling of personal turmoil. These are serious works by Khaled Hosseini, Marjane Satrapi, and Mutu Rodan, all in the Rutgers collection, and all basing their stories on their lives, with all regrets and triumphs reveled using frame by frame artwork with all the intensity of a text novel. Also shown will be some more light-hearted novels which have given rise to such important cultural events such as Comic-Con. Color (or not) and subtle lines can give a story as much, or more, meaning than words alone.
Running in conjunction with the exhibition is the Comic Ink contest. The rules are to make your own comic. One can use free software like Pixton, or even draw and photographic your comic and send it to cyrobbin@scarletmail.rutgers.edu . The winner’s comic will be posted on The Rutgers Art Library page and receive two recently published graphic novels as well as some great library swag! Contest ends Jan 12th, 2015 at midnight.
Cynthia Robbins, curator of the exhibit, is an MLIS candidate at Rutgers SCI. She interned this fall in the Rutgers Art Library with Art Librarian, Megan Lotts.
If you have questions about the Art Library Exhibition spaces please contact Art Librarian, Megan Lotts at megan.lotts@rutgers.edu or (848)932-7189. Please visit our research guide that includes information about our Past, Present, and Future exhibitions at: http://libguides.rutgers.edu/eventsandexhibits
To learn more about the Art Library like the Rutgers Art Library facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/rutgersartlibrary
Comic Ink: The Art of the Graphic Novel
Graphic Novel Discussion Panel at Politics and Prose Bookstore
This discussion at Washington D.C.'s Politics and Prose Bookstore, The Art and Style of Graphic Novels, features NPR's Glen Weldon as moderator. Discussiing their work are Laura Lee Gulledge, Rutu Modan, Matt Phelan, and Gene Yang
Documentary on Osamu Tezuka author of Buddha
Persepolis: Interview with Marjane Satrapi
Watchmen: The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
Bat Girl meets Wonder Woman
Ways of Seeing, part 1, by John Berger
About Comic INK
Graphic novels have an interesting history. Once thought of as tools for teaching those with diffculty reading text, they have graduated to an art form. The exhibition in the Rutgers Art Library shows some of the more famous graphic novels and explores the development of this special expression.
As an added feature to the Art Library display, there are some great discussions. a documentary, and show clips on this page for you to enjoy.
Information from Wikipedia:
FIND MORE in Special Collections
Check out the Lynn Ward collection in Alexander Libraries Special Collection, a complete set of extant woodblocks used to print Lynd Ward's last published and largest graphic novel, Vertigo (Random House, 1937). The blocks were donated by Ward's daughters, Robin Ward Savage and Nanda Ward Savage. The collection is now part of the John DePol Collection of American Wood Engraving. Ward was a longtime New Jersey resident. Rutgers University has a number of related collections, including a substantial collection of American prints located in the Zimmerli Art Museum.