Picturing 9/11: The Mythology of Superheroes

One of my favorite post-9/11 images came from the brush of comic book artist Alex Ross. Ross’ painting of Superman looking up at crowd of first responders and saying “Wow” encapsulated perfectly for me who the real heroes were. The giants who died while trying to save others as well as those who came to pick up the pieces afterwards dwarf the “Man of Steel.” In Supermen–An Exhibition of Heroes, British artist Ben Turnbull shrinks comic book heroes even more in order to form collage portraits of firemen and policemen (such as Hero III above) to honor the memory of 9/11 by celebrating the everyday heroism of these men and women. By mingling kitsch and tragedy, Turnbull turns ones attention to the mythology that we’ve wrapped around the idea of 9/11. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Picturing 9/11: The Mythology of Superheroes."

[Image: Ben Turnbull. Hero III, 2011. Comic collage on wood. 87 x 129 cm. Courtesy of Eleven, London and the artist.]

[Many thanks to Eleven and the artist Ben Turnbull for providing me with the image above and other press materials from Supermen–An Exhibition of Heroes, which runs through October 22, 2011.]

Scare Tactics: Banned Horror Comics of the 1950s

As American tumbled to the lowest point of the Great Depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt rallied the country with the words, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” A little over two decades later, the United States government got into the fear business in a big way by shutting down one form of horror and replacing it with a form of their own. The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read! brings the horror comics of the 1950s back to life. Selected, edited, and with commentary by Jim Trombetta, these pre-Comics Code comics tell an even scarier tale than that of vampires, werewolves, and zombies—a tale of censorship and control that should scare anyone who cares about art and cares about how governments shape it using tactics that are downright scary. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Scare Tactics."

[Many thanks to Abrams ComicArts for providing me with a review copy of The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read! Selected, edited, and with commentary by Jim Trombetta.]

Missing Person

When J.D. Salinger passed away recently, many casual fans who only remember him from tattered copies of The Catcher in the Rye lost long ago seemed shocked that he was still alive. Reclusiveness will do that. Influential comic artist Steve Ditko, the creator of the original look for seminal characters such as Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, submerged into seclusion years ago and has rarely surfaced since, content to work on the fringes of the comic world rather than compromise his art or his beliefs. In The Art of Ditko, edited by Craig Yoe, Ditko’s forgotten art of the past resurfaces for a new generation of readers who may not even know that his genius lives on, or ever lived at all. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Missing Person."

[Many thanks to IDW Publishing for providing me with a review copy and cover image from The Art of Ditko.]