Fine Art Comics

Fine art comics, beaux comics, display comics, exhibition comics, object comics, sequential fine arts .....

I have a certain difficulty with the term gallery comics, as it centers so directly on only one possible destination for the works of art presented here. Granted, the term has its strengths. First, it was created by C Hill, who is the first theorist and practitioner to have identified and promoted interest in this direction. Second, it draws a clear, non-judgmental line between comics-intended-for-books, and this work. Third, it uses the word comics, which I feel it is important to retain, for historical and anti-jargonistic reasons. Sequential art and related terms seems so self-debasing, as if comics now are to deny their past and assume an academic stance. Pop art, or Neo-Pop art, doesn't work either, as that is one strand of the past, but not the chief one; furthermore, Pop appropriations of comics were just that usually: stolen citations, NOT using the language knowledgeably, thus not gallery comics.

However --- I think the work we are promoting on this site is art grounded in and utilizing the formal, structural and stylistic discoveries of book comics, applied to works intended to be put on display in some way and primarily visually appreciated. It is fine art, beaux arts, visual art, exhibition art, which has grown out of comics or is an overlap of the tradition of fine art and comics. How could this better be expressed without reference to a particular form of display? Our work is the same whether in the studio, a museum, a collector’s wall, or a gallery. And we would not want to call it museum comics, collector comics, wall comics. Wall and floor comics? Most of the terms I personally have dreamed up are simply too vague when googled. A strong term is needed that clearly suggests a merging of traditions. I, personally, do not have one. I’ll stick with gallery comics, but am on the look-out for a broader one.

Any ideas?

More Gallery Comics Commentary Coming Soon

Sorry --- while this topic of Gallery Comics is indeed a hot issue, we have all been too busy making the works and discussing them elsewhere to properly be active here! I promise more activity soon --- and stimulating discussion.