ABSTRACT
This chapter collects the stories of some of the pioneers that advanced the study of comics art by showing it publicly in new contexts and the resulting catalogs, reviews, and criticism that helped shape comic art into an appropriate topic for serious exhibition and scholarship. It shows that comic art evolve from a castoff genre striving for recognition to an art form accepted in the museums of Paris, London, New York, and Los Angeles. The work was arranged chronologically, and a newsprint brochure was given away that outlined the evolution of newspaper comics and their historical relevance. The exhibition was organized by members of the Civil Society for the Study of and for Research into Drawn Literature, whose mission was to gain recognition for comics as an art form and to advance scholarship. The display explored themes of narrative structure and image, vocabulary and conventions and how specific meanings are combined in the narrative technique.
