Comics at the museum

On the west coast, San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum is debuting an exhibit on Osamu Tezuka tomorrow. Creating over 700 manga titles during his lifetime, he is best known in the West for his cartoons of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. His prolific manga work contains two main streams: manga ‘comic pictures’ for a youth audience, including Astro Boy, Kimba and Princess Knight; and gekiga ‘drama pictures’—more seriously-toned, adult oriented narratives such as Song of Apollo and Ludwig B, that stress realistic effect and emotional impact. Tezuka: The Marvel of Manga ends September 9th, with a parallel exhibit, "Manga in the making" ending September 2nd.

On the east coast, the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey is premiering two exhibits tomorrow as well: Reflecting Culture: The Evolution of American Comic Book Superheroes and Comic Book Legends: Joe, Adam, and Andy Kubert, featuring over 150 comincs and drawings from 1938 to the present. The Museum will also be running comics-related movies under the stars over the summer, from the original Adventures of Captain Marvel serial this Tuesday to Superman and Batman Begins in August.