Popular Culture

Part interpretive criticism, part philosophical meditation, Regarding Frames: Thinking with Comics in the Twenty-First Century explores the ways that literary comics engage readers in the mutual construction of meaning. Kwa draws from a wide range of philosophical, critical, and theoretical texts to analyze the visual and verbal narrative strategies that artists use. She examines the work of comic artists Gabrielle Bell, Michael DeForge, Kevin Huizenga, Laura Park, and Dash Shaw who construct their particular visions of the world.

Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism calls upon craft, during an era of political disruption, as a creative force to voice dissent, express hope, critique the curtailment of civil rights, and to restore dignity to the human experience. The essays and artwork featured in this exhibition catalogue are framed within the context of American democracy and disclose how we, as individuals and as a culture, “craft democracy” and ultimately question what democracy means today.

Lejaren à Hiller (1880 –1969) pioneered advertising photography for an industry dominated by text and an occasional line drawing. An advertising and editorial photographer in early twentieth-century America, Hiller began his career as an illustrator.  He first recognized photography’s potential as a persuasive method to sell products and services, as well as illustrating magazine stories. Best known for his large and exquisitely detailed studio sets that often depicted historical scenarios or exotic foreign lands, Hiller produced thousands of photographs for a variety of clients.

Crime comic books in the 1950s caused controversy leading to their suppression and near extinction. Twenty-five years later, the dark hero, femme fatale, and bleak outlook of crime story comic books are even more striking and subversive. Terrence Wandtke traces the history of crime comics from their beginnings to the current resurgence and analyzes the cultural forces that give rise to influential works like Frank Miller’s Sin City, Brian Azzarello’s 100 Bullets, and Ed Brubaker’s Criminal.