Exhibitions of the 47th Angoulème International Comics Festival: Gunnm L'ange mécanique

The exhibition space on the main floor of the Espace Franquin served as the home to another exhibition devoted to manga, though here the focus was on a singular creation rather than an entire range of work. Gunnm, l'ange mécanique [Gunnm, the mechanical angel] paid homage to Yukito Kishiro's popular cyberpunk series (known to North American readers as Battle Angel Alita) that was originally serialized in Japan from 1990 to 1995, and which was one of the first wave of manga to be translated into French in 1998. To support this exhibition, the Festival pulled out all stops: showcasing 150 pages of original artwork from the series for the first time outside of Japan, as well as bringing in Yukito Kishiro himself for a masterclass and an international encounter with Enki Bilal. 

Inside the darkened L-shaped exhibition room, the pages of original artwork were displayed on the walls as well as on flat and angular tables, and all are individually illuminated by ceiling spotlights. Near the entrance, visitors are drawn toward a video screen that features clips of individual interviews with Kishiro, directors James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez and producer Jon Landau talking about Gunnm the manga and its adaptation into the feature film ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019).

The exhibition organized the collection of original artwork into five separate sections that guided visitors through Kishiro's major graphic and thematic preoccupations that distinguished the series and elevated it (and by extension, its author) to stratospheric popularity. 

1. Le corps (the body). As the heroine of the series is an android named Gally, Kishiro places significant visual and thematic emphasis on the body as a site of permanent construction and destruction. Pages in this section are arranged to incrementally spotlight scenes of dismemberment, disconnection and repair to underline Kishiro's indulgence with the organo-mechanic body.

2. L'icone Gally (Gally the icon)

Gally's identity as an android provided Kishiro with the freedom to explore other the ways that duality is literally inscribed upon her body: human/android; hard wiring/free will; warrior/pacifist; violent/tender; and bounty hunter/prey. These dialectics consistently highlight the tension within Gally between the mechanical and the human in her search for her own humanity, with a visual character design that helps elevate her beyond being a simple character toward iconic status.

3. Un monde d'absolu (A world of absolutes)

The action in GUNNM takes place in a universe perfectly in tune with a post-Blade Runner aesthetic, where class divisions are expressed by two worlds: Kuzutetso (the lower depths) and Zalem (the upper heights). Pages that represent each of these worlds provided stunning clarity to Kishiro's labour and his vision in mapping out the intricate details that give these environments a sense of place and scope.

 

4. La cinétique (kineticism)

GUNNM is conceived and presented as a grand action spectacle.  Its pages highlight Kishiro's use of speed and sport through Motorball, a violent game within the GUNNM universe. The selected pages allowed for closer viewing to demonstrate the graphic tools that Kishiro uses, such as blur lines, panel and page design to connote velocity and combat.   

5. Les mues de Yukito Kishiro (The reinventions of Yukito Kishiro). The concluding section presents an evolution of Yukito Kishiro's graphism due to his discoveries of new tools (from airbrushing to digital art) and of new international comics (especially American comics).

This is a solid exhibition with a distinct aesthetic for its presentation (black walls and frames with ceiling spotlights as light sources; thematic sections individuated with color coded captions). The text and captions are to-the-point and provide sufficient commentary for visitors to appreciate what makes this series connect with its readers. Fans of the series will devour the opportunity to see so many original pages that confirm Kishiro's mastery, while neophytes such as myself will leave with a greater appreciation of the series and its place within both Japanese and French comics history.

Nick Nguyen

All photos taken by Nick Nguyen   

Angoulème 2020 Exhibit Review: Yoshiharu Tsuge, 'être sans exister'

  

Yoshiharu Tsuge, être sans exister. Stéphane Beaujean, Léopold Dahan and Xavier Guilbert. Angoulème. Musée d’Angoulème. 30 January - 15 March 2020.

 

The Angoulème International Comics Festival continued its mission to consecrate an important mangaka with a major exhibition devoted to the life and work of Yoshiharu Tsuge. The exhibition was installed in the same space in the musée d’Angoulème that was reserved over the three previous years for similar exhibitions that elevated Kazuo Kamimura, Osamu Tezuka and Taiyo Matsumoto to the wider festival audience (and beyond). Être sans exister follows the template set out by those earlier exhibitions by intertwining biographic information with historical, industrial and cultural contexts to individuate Tsuge’s narrative and aesthetic style.

 An incredible collection of over 270 pages of original artwork, almost all of it being displayed outside of Japan for the first time, provides the visual support for the exhibition’s reconsideration of Tsuge’s place not only within the history of postwar manga, but also his contributions to the development of comics as an artform. 

Close readings of the displayed pages intelligently highlight how Tsuge transitioned from his early commercial work (where his debt to Tezuka is undisputed) toward a more personal individual style that used oneiric narratives and open-ended endings to express his inner preoccupations and demons. A highlight of the exhibit in this context is the presentation of Tsuge’s surreal 1968 tour de force La Vis (translated in English as “Screw Style”), which is presented in its entirety by the original pages of  artwork.

 

first page of "La Vis"

This artistic breakthrough hinted at a personal cost as Tsuge’s work began to incorporate darker, introspective themes that foregrounded the psychological toll that his characters endured within their rigid social environments. These autobiographic undertones informed Tsuge’s later travel narratives, which suggested a retreat from the constrictions that were plaguing the fragility of his personal life and mental health.

It is this very relationship between artistic expression, formal innovation and psychological intimacy that the exhibition illuminates to position Tsuge as a comics artist whose work deserves a thorough reappraisal. A handsome catalogue has been published by the festival that reproduces the entire text and images of the exhibition to serve as a fitting record of this living artist whose body of work reveals the personal hardship endured in a search toward a semblance of inner peace. 

 

 Nick Nguyen   

All photos taken by Nick Nguyen

A version of this review will appear in print in 22:2, but the exhibit is currently open at Angouleme, France through the weekend. 

Exhibit Review: Batman exhibits at the Society of Illustrators in New York City

Illustrating Batman: Eighty Years of Comics and Pop Culture, Batman Collected: Chip Kidd’s Batman Obsession, and Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan. Rob Pistella and John Lind. New York: Society of Illustrators’ Museum of Illustration. June 12-October 12, 2019.  < https://www.societyillustrators.org/exhibits/illustrating-batman>,  <https://www.societyillustrators.org/exhibits/batman-collected-chip-kidd%E2%80%99s-batman-obsession>, <https://www.societyillustrators.org/exhibits/bat-manga-secret-history-batman-japan>

(all photographs are courtesy of the Society’s Flickr page at <https://www.flickr.com/photos/societyillustrators/albums/72157709277832053>

In honor of the 80th anniversary of the creation of Batman, the Society of Illustrators is currently hosting four exhibits about his comics history, with the three major ones co-curated by Rob Pistella and John Lind.

As the opening panel of the exhibit group points out, the eightieth anniversary of Batman’s creation happens to coincide with the eightieth anniversary of the Society of Illustrators moving into its current location on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, making the venue an even more relevant location for these exhibits. Needless to say, after so many years, Batman and his many allies and adversaries have gone through many transformations. Though not all of them are represented in these exhibits, there are a diverse assortment of Batman items on display from a number of collectors’ collections, ranging from comic strips, to examples of Batman-themed toys. At the heart of all of the exhibits, however, is a focus on the illustrations that have brought the world of Batman to life over the last eighty years, which means that visitors will see an assortment of interpretations of Batman and his world. In fact, works by more than four dozen artists are featured throughout the exhibits which helps to offer a crash course in the history of the character around the world.  

The largest of these exhibits is Illustrating Batman: Eighty Years of Comics and Pop Culture, which extends across two galleries and floors in the museum. The primary focus of this exhibit is original art from the comics with a particular focus on cover art, but this is far from all that is on display. There are a few cases showing examples of Batman products from comic books to Nabisco Shredded Wheat packages with Batman and Robin on them. Illustrated works dominate in the exhibit, although the 1960’s live action Batman television show is playing in the museum’s theater space to offer context for Batman’s visual style during this period. Though not the centerpiece of the exhibit, these products and the video installation show the widespread cultural impact that Batman and his friends (and enemies) have had in the decades since his creation.

The comic art that is on display spans much of Batman’s history, with several items devoted to his creation. The exhibit does a very nice job of explaining the character’s origin, including the reason that Bob Kane initially received sole credit for the character, Bill Finger’s contributions, and the important work of other artists during the early years of the character’s development. It includes not only finished artwork, but also some evidence of the artistic process, such as two sketchbooks kept by Lew Sayre Schwartz during his time working on Batman comics in the late 1940’s to 1950’s. Some examples of newspaper comic strips are also included in the exhibit to represent the early years. This exhibit offers background on all of the important periods in Batman’s history and an assortment of examples of art from each as well. As such, it is a good introduction to the development of this important character, though it may not offer much that is new for those with serious Batman knowledge. 

Bat-Manga!: The Secret History of Batman in Japan is focused on Jiro Kuwata’s artwork for a manga version of Batman, which was published in Japan beginning in 1966. Created at a point when Batman was extremely popular in Japan, the manga was not long-lived, but does offer a glimpse into a Japanese interpretation of the character. The original art from the manga shows how Kuwata developed his own style for both Batman and Robin and brought them into a manga universe. While this is a fairly small exhibit, the interpretive text notes that it includes many pieces of original art that have not previously appeared in the U.S. The pieces displayed feature full pages from the comic, allowing viewers to get a sense of the way the story moves from panel to panel and also offers ample opportunities to see how this manga combines traditional Batman elements with Japanese stylistic elements from the time. It is a great introduction to a piece of Batman’s history that many fans may not know much about. However, the gallery in which the works are displayed is the smallest of all of the exhibits, making the experience of viewing the works feel a bit cramped.

Working with book designer and author Chip Kidd, the museum has also curated an exhibit entitled Batman Collected: Chip Kidd’s Batman Obsession, which showcases items from his personal collection of Batman art. This is the exhibit that is likely to have the most surprises for even serious Batman experts because it includes several works that Kidd has personally commissioned and pieces that have been personalized for him by Batman artists that he knows. He has art by artists of well-known Batman works, such as Frank Miller, Dave Taylor, and Alex Ross, as well as some by less expected artists such as alternative cartoonists Chris Ware and Daniel Clowes. His interesting collection is a mix of examples of Batman in products, including a 1966 ad for All Star Dairies’ Dairy Chocolate featuring Batman, a Batman board game from Japan, at least one rejected cover illustration, and sequences of original art for multiple pages of a single issue.

In addition to these three exhibits, the museum also has a display entitled Batman: Black and White <https://www.societyillustrators.org/exhibits/batman-black-and-white>, which showcases several examples of original cover art that Chip Kidd commissioned artists to draw on blank covers of the Batman: Black and White comic. Though Kidd owns over 100 of these works in total, only a selection are on display on the second floor landing, but they offer an opportunity to see Batman as interpreted by a wide range of artists in a diverse set of styles, including examples by Roz Chast, Peter de Sève, Jaime Herandez, Liniers, and Anders Nielsen to name just a selection. These offer a fun look at Batman through the lens of very different art styles, making it a highlight of the exhibit series. 

One thing that this trio of exhibitions does very well is showing Batman in many different styles and at virtually every point in his history. The exhibits also showcase a range of pieces that are held by private collectors and therefore rarely seen in some cases. Taken together, the exhibits will offer something new for all but the most knowledgeable of Batman followers, making them worth a visit for any fan or scholar. The three exhibits will be on display until October 12, 2019 at the Society of Illustrators’ Museum of Illustration.

Carli Spina

(This review was written for the International Journal of Comic Art 21:1, but this version appeared on the IJOCA blog on July 2, 2019, while the exhibit is still open for viewing.)