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Stacy Fuller(February)
I am the Director of Education at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas. In this role, I work with a talented team of fifteen museum educators to ensure the development, execution, and evaluation of the Amon Carter’s mission-focused educational programs and resources for various audiences. With experience as a museum registrar, in curatorial work, and designing professional development programs for educators, I have a passionate love for works of art and also accessibility—making sure that visitors of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities are able to enter, access, and engage with museum collections.

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January 23, 2009

Inauguration and Spiderman (Guenter)

As art educators, comic strips and comic books offer opportunities for teaching viewpoint and shifts in perspective in drawing. You have close-ups. You have middle grounds. You have the panorama. And you have different sized boxes or shapes to tell your story. You have thought bubbles, bubbles for speaking, and boxes for narration. Sometimes no words are needed at all. The use of color for emotion and feelings is always an option for a lesson, too. There are many ways to approach the use of comics for instruction in art education.

So, it is with great interest that I have followed the Inauguration and Marvel's Spiderman comics featuring President Obama. Just prior to the Inauguration, Marvel indicated that it was going to have a five-page story with Spiderman and President Obama in comic #583. Marvel's original first edition cover (Cover A) for this comic depicts Peter Parker with two friends. The first edition cover featuring President Obama (Cover B) shows a "thumbs up" from the president with Spidey hanging in the blue background.  This particular comic #583 with the Obama first edition cover was sold out before it reached the stores so Marvel ran a second variant cover with a reverse image of President Obama and a yellow ochre colored background instead of blue. The second  and third editions with the image of President Obama reversed have also sold out.  A fourth edition cover is scheduled for delivery to comic books stores on February 4, 2009.   

5covers

Writer Zeb Wells and Artist Todd Nauck
Todd Nauchk's site: http://www.wildguard.com/

Out of curiosity and then because I became somewhat addicted, I went to eBay to see what was happening with these historic covers. Things were calm until just days before the Inauguration and then the bidding seemed to begin in earnest, especially during the final minutes any given auction. The original cover B was really moving on eBay and it, along with the others, are still available as I write this, but the prices are no longer in the original $3.99 range. The winning bids, especially for the original covers are between $75 and $100, depending on when and with whom you bid.

So, not only do comics offer opportunities to teach art education content and concepts. This example offers a chance to understand what editions are, how prints become valuable and how actual events when connected to imaginary stories, can spark unexpected and surprising results.

Marvel Comics
http://www.marvel.com/

Marvel Create Your Own Superhero
http://marvelkids.marvel.com/create_your_own_superhero

Posted at 11:30 AM |

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