The Charles M. Schulz Musuem has several interesting exhibits planned this year. Starting January 16th the museum will have feature an exhibit called “Beyond Words” that will display 75 Peanut originals that told stories without using words. Exhibit runs through May 12th.
Beginning in February, another exhibit co-curated by Brian Walker (who also co-curated the recent “Masters of American Comics” and works on the Beetle Bailey strip) will delve into non-verbal cartooning – how cartoons use visual iconography (stars in eyes, etc.). The exhibit will include cartoons from Peanuts, Beetle Bailey, Pogo, Mutts, and Pearls Before Swine. This exhibit begins February 2nd and runs through August 11th.
In March, you can check out an exhibit that explores the things never seen in Peanuts: parents, the Red Baron, teachers, etc and how (and why) Sparky kept them out and how he kept the story going without having to see these characters. Exhibit begins in March and runs through July.
In May, Stephan Pastis, creator of Pearls Before Swine co-curates an exhibit that explores Sparky’s use of baseball as an allegory of other things. Exhibit runs May 14 through November 3rd.
And lastly, beginning August 16th through January 26th, 2009 check out an exhibit of Beethoven themed strips.
Will there be any way to see the exhibit pieces without actually having to travel to the museum? Kind of like that one last Calvin and Hobbes book that had scans of the original strips next to the final, colored versions?
The Calvin and Hobbes Sunday Strips 1985-1995 Catalogue, you mean?
That was a great read. Not only did it have the originals and the final versions, but I also enjoyed reading Watterson’s commentary and extensive introduction. Watterson was more than a great cartoonist; he could also write very well. The commentary on the strips brings great appeal to these collections/treasuries, by the way. Stephan Pastis also does the extended introduction/strip commentary thing in his treasuries, and that’s one of the reasons that I enjoy his “Pearls Before Swine” books so much. More cartoonists should do that for their print collections/treasuries.
I would like to echo Danny’s thoughts: I wish there was some way for me to go see these exhibitions or at least see the content, but those interested on the East Coast like me probably have little chance of seeing these exhibitions, I’m afraid. California is a long ways away…. Too bad, because both exhibitions sound very interesting. If only the exhibitions were traveling as the Masters of American Comics did (from LA to Milwaukee, then to NYC). Maybe that could happen if the National Cartoon Museum were to open at last, but who knows where that is going. (Speaking of which, I hope that’ll stay in NYC even if it isn’t in the Empire State Building.)