By Ward SuttonSuttonImpactStudio.comIn a wonderful moment of synergy here at Grids' Alt Week, the exhibition
Alt-Weekly Comics is now up at the
Society of Illustrators in NYC. I got the chance to ask curators
Warren Bernard and
Bill Kartalopoulos about the show they've put together.
Warren Bernard is Executive Director of the
Small Press Expo and a comics historian; Bill Kartalopoulos is Series Editor for
The Best American Comics.
WARD SUTTON: Together, you've curated the exhibition "Alt-Weekly Comics." What inspired you to focus on the work from alternative weeklies?WARREN BERNARD: The alt-weekly newspapers published an amazingly wide variety of comics, and it was an incubator to a number of now well-established cartoonists, including
Jules Feiffer,
Lynda Barry and
Tom Tomorrow. This show was a combination of celebrating the great comic works of the alt-weekly world, as well as filling a gap in the canon of comics history, which does not give the alt-weekly comics their due.
BILL KARTALOPOULOS: Warren initiated this when he conceived of the alternative weekly newspapers as a theme for SPX: The Small Press Expo in 2014, where guests included Jules Feiffer, Lynda Barry, Tom Tomorrow, and several other relevant artists. I've been the programming director for SPX since 2006 and started serving the same role last year for MoCCA in NYC, which is run by the Society of Illustrators. The Society of Illustrators has a long history of organizing exhibits, including year-round comics exhibits in their MoCCA gallery space and a major comics-related exhibit in their main gallery every year timed to coincide with the MoCCA festival in April.
Warren approached
Anelle Miller, the executive director of the Society, with the idea of a collaboration between the two organizations, which became this exhibit. Since I work for both events, live in NYC, and have experience curating comics exhibits, it made sense for me to partner with Warren as co-curators on this exhibit. The alt-weekly papers in general are a great subject, and I think highlight a lot of things that have been lost in the transition to digital media, despite all of the obvious gains.
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