Last year, I was fortunate to attend the MSU Comics Forum, an event that unites readers, artists, and scholars in the exploration of comic art. The time for this annual event has come once again, and like last year, I’ll be writing blog entries in real time to cover the various goings-on. My entries from last year can be found here:

Blogging the MSU Comics Forum, 2009 (part 1)
Blogging the MSU Comics Forum, 2009 (part 2)
Blogging the MSU Comics Forum, 2009 (part 3)

The event itself will be occurring over two days. The keynote speech is this Friday evening, and the guest speaker will be Guy Davis. I’m not tremendously familiar with the stories he’s worked on, but I’ve seen his artwork and it’s pretty strong stuff. I look forward to his address, particularly after last year’s impressive speech by David Petersen.

On Saturday, things will get into full swing. Like last year, there will be discussion panels with guest speakers throughout the day, which I’ll be sure to attend. And again, there will be an “artist’s alley” meet ‘n’ greet, with a dizzying list of creative people. I don’t believe the comic submission contest will be returning this year, which is mildly disappointing, but like last year, I don’t have anything worth submitting on hand at the moment anyway.

One of this year’s new features is a comic art exhibit that will remain open until the forum itself begins. The exhibit is called “From Superman to the Small Press: The Library of Comics Shows Its Stuff.” It features many items on loan from the MSU Libraries Comic Art Collection, gathered together by Randy Scott–comics’ own patron saint, as Ryan “And Then One Day” Claytor has said.

I had the opportunity to visit the exhibit briefly today, and I hope to return before it’s over. There are a couple of glass-encased displays within the gallery, the first one featuring the original superheroes: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Each character is represented with both a genuine first-run copy of one of their earlier adventures, plus a tabloid size reproduction of their first appearance. Furthermore, the Wonder Woman portion of the display is accompanied by a small showcase about female representation in the early days of the comics industry.

At the opposite end, the other display case features a number of curiosities, including a collection of Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” strips. Capp’s signature style is in full force on the chosen example page, including the idiosyncratic lettering that grows in both size and weight as the shouting reaches its crescendo. The case also contains representatives of independent comics and the dawn of graphic novels, or comics structured in a novelistic format. On hand is a first-run copy of Will Eisner’s A Contract With God, which–it did not escape my notice–features a much cooler cover design than the version currently in print.

In the middle of the room, there are tables and boxes filled with comics that passers-by can read or even trade for comics of their own. These are, admittedly, not quite as luminescent as the curiosities in the glass cases. What they lack in monetary value or cultural significance, they retain in the simple pleasure of riffling around and absorbing the comic book aesthetic from the last few decades.

Down the hall, there are display cases featuring even more gems. One side contains original artwork from keynote speaker Guy Davis–in other words, the actual oversize boards that he drew and inked on prior to the coloring stage. This side also includes a copy of the promotional poster by Ryan Claytor, plus the original artwork for it. The other side contains some of the earliest examples of comics as we know it, including the “picture stories” of German artist Rodolphe Toepffer (1799-1846). Nobody thought to call what Toepffer did “comics” in his day, but his artwork–hand-drawn cartoons sequentially arranged in panels with text–are comics in every way that matters.

For anybody in the mid-Michigan area this week, I strongly recommend coming around for these events. For everybody else, you can read about them here as they occur.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 6:51 pm and is filed under MSU Comics Forum. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.