Comic Book History

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Comic Book Artist Arlen Schumer is one of the foremost historians of comic book art—Comic Book
Artist magazine named him "one of the more articulate and enthusiastic advocates of comic book art
in America,” and his coffeetable art book The Silver Age of Comic Book Art (Collectors Press) won
the Independent Book Publishers Award for Best Popular Culture Book of 2003. He is a recognized
expert on the work of Hall of Fame comic book artist Neal Adams—see especially The Neal Adams
Sketchbook (Vanguard) below, among other articles and VisuaLectures.

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Print Magazine Comics Issue :: Image 1 of 15

PRINT MAGAZINE COMICS ISSUE

PRINT Magazine special issue on comics, November-December 1988; conceived issue, designed cover and wrote article, "The New Superheroes: A Graphic Transformation."

Superfraud: The Warhol Super-Forgeries :: Image 1 of 3

SUPERFRAUD: THE WARHOL SUPER-FORGERIES

1989 illustration promoting articles about fraudulent Superman artworks in the Warhol collection—collages dated 1961 using panels from comics published years later!

Superhero to Antihero :: Image 1 of 2

SUPERHERO TO ANTIHERO

Superhero to Antihero: Comic book art in the 1960s: An invitation to VisuaLecture at The Art Directors Club of New York, October 21, 1992.

BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Article on the new Warner Bros. cartoons for Print magazine, February 1993

ComiCulture ::

COMICULTURE

Invitation to VisuaLecture at The Art Directors Club of New York, May 24, 1995.

20th Century Comic Book Art ::

20th CENTURY COMIC BOOK ART

Logo for proposed continuing education course of VisuaLectures at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Fall 1995.

EULOGY FOR CURT SWAN ::

EULOGY FOR CURT SWAN

VisuaLecture eulogy delivered at the Connecticut chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, with the Swan family in attendance, Weston, CT, September 18, 1996 (Swan died on June 17); see Curt Swan in Color, below..

NEAL ADAMS: THE DC YEARS :: Image 1 of 4

NEAL ADAMS: THE DC YEARS

Special issue of Comic Book Marketplace #40, October 1996; designed cover (colored by Bill Sienkiewicz ), and conducted, edited & designed 48-page interview.

The Graphic History of Batman :: Image 1 of 9

THE GRAPHIC HISTORY OF BATMAN

Ten 27"x 55" hanging glass panel designs for the Words and Pictures Museum's retrospective Batman exhibition, Northampton, Mass., Spring 1997; see them here.

The Art History of Superman :: Image 1 of 6

THE ART HISTORY OF SUPERMAN

Six 27"x 55" hanging glass panel designs for the Words and Pictures Museum's 60th Anniversary of Superman exhibition, Summer 1998; see them here, and read the article here .

NEAL ADAMS: THE MARVEL YEARS

This interview was conducted, edited & designed for Comic Book Artist magazine #3, Winter 1998-99.

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Neal Adams: The Sketchbook :: Image 1 of 8

NEAL ADAMS: THE SKETCHBOOK

Conceived, edited & designed for Vanguard Productions, 1999.

Alter-Ego Batman Cover Story :: Image 1 of 7

ALTER-EGO BATMAN COVER STORY

ALTER-EGO Vol. 2 #5 - Flip side of Comic Book Artist Vol. 1, #5), Summer 1999 cover design for my article, "The Bat-Man Cover Story.".

Neal Adams on Batman ::

NEAL ADAMS ON BATMAN

Article for Comic Book Marketplace #70, August 1999, designed with Batman sketches and text edited from interviews left over from The Neal Adams Sketchbook.

SUPERMAN VS. MUHAMMAD ALI

Interview with Neal Adams for Comic Book Artist Special Edition, December 1999.

CARMINE INFANTINO

8-page color section written & designed for Comic Book Marketplace #75, January 2000; reformatted as color section for The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino, Vanguard Productions, 2001.

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LOUIS NACKE: SUPER MAN

Portrait for the Society of Illustrators' 9/11 Memorial Exhibition, New York City, February 2002, and text of speech given opening night; see it here.

CURT SWAN IN COLOR

16-page color section written & designed for Curt Swan: A Life in Comics, Vanguard Productions, 2002.

SUPERHEROES IN THE '60s ARTICLE

SUPERHEROES IN THE '60s: Comics & Counterculture article for Comic Art magazine #1, Fall 2002.

SUPERHEROES IN THE '60s
LECTURE SERIES

Poster for a 4-session VisuaLecture series (that became the basis of the book, The Silver Age of Comic Book Art) at the City University of New York's Graduate Center, Manhattan, Fall 2002; read the New York Press article.

THE SILVER AGE OF COMIC BOOK ART

Coffeetable art book conceived, written, edited and designed for Collectors Press (Portland, Ore.), that highlights the 1960s work of eight legendary artists who drew definitive versions of the industryʼs greatest characters, including thoughts, ideas, and quotes from the artists themselves; winner of The Independent Book Publishers Award for Best Popular Culture Book of 2003; read the New York Times review; see its VisuaLecture and related interviews on YouTube.

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MR. X INTRODUCTION

introduction written for Dean Motter's Mr. X Volume One, ibooks, 2004.

THE SPIRIT: ELEGY FOR EISNER

4-page color feature written & designed for the Will Eisner memorial issue of Comic Book Artist Vol. 2 #6, Spring 2005.

JOE SINNOTT TRIBUTE

Essay for Brush Strokes with Greatness: The Life and Art of Joe Sinnott, Two Morrows Publishing, 2007.

IRON MAN INTRODUCTION

Introduction written for Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Vol. 4, 2007, covering issues from 1967-68.

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SPIDER-MAN ESSAY

"How Could a Teenager be a Super Hero?" for Spider-Man Omnibus, Marvel Comics, 2007, collecting the entire Stan Lee/Steve Ditko Spider-Man run.

GRANT MORRISON INTRODUCTION

VisuaLecture introduction delivered at the NY Comicon, April 19, 2008, made up of Morrison's own words from interviews and images from the comics he's written.

THOR

Introduction written for Marvel Masterworks: Thor Vol. 7, 2008.

JACK KIRBY: GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Essay for The Jack Kirby Collector #50, TwoMorrows Publishing, 2008.

GREAT COMIC BOOK TYPOGRAPHY

VisuaLecture at The Type Directors Club, New York, September 17, 2009.