Hope Larson

Brummett Echohawk

Dawud Anyabwile

Out of Sequence:

Underrepresented Voices

in American Comics

Exhibition Fact Sheet

Checklist (click for images)

Despite recent attention to the history and development of comics, the steps required to create a new canon have been limited and incomplete. Out of Sequence continues and expands on investigations such as Masters of American Comics, presented in 2005 by UCLA's Hammer Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, by showcasing areas of sequential art that might otherwise be overlooked or underappreciated. These areas include the work of women and minority artists and small press and webcomics creators. The exhibition will explore alternate histories of American comics and suggest some of the limitless possibilities for the medium in the past, present, and future, from early newspaper strips to the Internet and virtual narratives in simulated three-dimensional space.

Artists: Ben Alcantara, Dawud Anyabwile, Ryan Armand, Gus Arriola, Kyle Baker, Alison Bechdel, Dale Beran and David Hellman, Ray Billingsley, Bentley Boyd, Mark Staff Brandl, Nell Brinkley, Dawn Brown, Marjorie Henderson Buell, Elmer Simms Campbell, Stanford Carpenter, Denys Cowan, Jenny Craft, Phonzie Davis, Christa Donner, Colleen Doran, Grace Drayton, Kris Dresen, Edwina Dumm, Brummett Echohawk, Donovan Foote, Shaenon Garrity, Nicholas Gurewitch, Oliver Harrington, Ethel Hays, Shepherd Hendrix, Leilani Hickerson, C. Hill, Raye Horne, Tom Hunt, Phil Jimenez, Ryan Kelly, Keith Knight, Mshindo Kuumba I, Hope Larson, Jenn Manley Lee, Jim Mahfood, Scott McCloud, Dylan Meconis, Dale Messick, Eric Millikin, Tarpe Mills, Andrei Molotiu, Brian Moore, Danica Novgorodoff, Rose O'Neill, Turtel Onli, Jackie Ormes, Ken Patterson, Mikhaela Reid, Trina Robbins, Stan Sakai, Richard Santiago, Melody Shickley, C. Spike Trotman, Ann Telnaes, Hilda Terry, Dann Tincher, Lance Tooks, Tak Toyoshima, Drew Weing, Brian Wood, Masheka Wood, Ashley Woods, Larry Yang, and Lev Yilmaz.

Exhibition supported in part by Office of the Chancellor, UIUC; Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Illinois Arts Council; Krannert Art Museum Director's Circle; Krannert Art Museum Council

Exhibition Details

Organizer: Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Curators: John Jennings and Damian Duffy

John Jennings is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jennings frequently lectures on visual literacy, popular culture, and the visual communication found in Hip Hop culture. Jennings is also the co-author of the graphic novel The Hole: Consumer Culture and a co-founder of Eye Trauma, a web based collective of sequential artists, activists, and curators who seek to expand the public's perception of the comics medium.

Damian Duffy is editor-in-chief of the Eye Trauma Comix online anthology. He is the writer and letterer of several graphic novels, including Whisp (2005) and the forthcoming The Hole: Consumer Culture. In addition, he is an active film, music, and television critic. He has presented on comics at such conferences as the International Comic Arts Festival at the Library of Congress and the Symposium on African American Culture and Philosophy at Purdue University. His comics collaborations with fellow Eye Trauma founders John Jennings and Whisp artist Dann Tincher have appeared in art exhibitions throughout the nation.

Historical consultant: R. C. Harvey

For well over a quarter of a century, R. C. Harvey has published scholarly work on comic strips, editorial cartoons, comic books, magazine cartoons, and graphic novels. He is a member of the National Cartoonist Society, an associate member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and a member of the Comic Art Professionals Society. He has authored several books about cartooning, including the aesthetic histories The Art of the Funnies (1994) and The Art of the Comic Book (1996).

Acquisitions Consultant: Dan Yezbick

Dan Yezbick is Assistant Professor of English at Peninsula College, Washington, where he currently teaches film, drama, literature, and writing. Originally from northwest Detroit, Dan grew up on Motown, Shakespeare, Spider-Man, and Citizen Kane. Ever since then, he's been feeding his triple addiction to screen, stage, and comic strips non-stop. He has lectured and published on diverse topics in literature, theater, and media studies including Victorian stereoscopic views, American radio drama, Blaxploitation cinema, and New Deal Shakespeare. He has taught in both the U.S. and Great Britain, and he also pioneered the first undergraduate surveys of American comic art at the University of Illinois and Peninsula College. He recently edited R. C. Harvey's mammoth critical biography of the legendary American cartoonist, Milton Caniff.

Contents: Approximately 210 objects

Space requirements: Variable, ca. 5,000 square feet

Publications: A fully illustrated book with sequential art essays by the curators John Jennings and Damian Duffy, as well as the artists Stan Sakai and Jerry Craft, and additional essays by R. C. Harvey, Dan Yezbick, Brian Wood and Trina Robbins, and an interactive website.

Accompanying materials: electronic files containing wall text and extended labels, and ten complimentary copies of the catalogue

Costs: Loan fee of $15,000 for a 10-week booking, plus pro-rated shipping costs and the purchase of 50 catalogues at 40% off list price

Schedule:

Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion
October 24, 2008 to January 4, 2009

The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar (The Lab), Belmar, CO
January 28, 2008 to April 26, 2009

Available for travel thereafter

Contact:
Kathleen Harleman, Director
217.244.6481, harleman(at)uiuc.edu

Working checklist, insurance values, and a disc with images are available on request or click Checklist for images online.