Event News: Comics 1964-2024 Exhibition – Paris, May To November 2024 – Who’s In? Who’s Not?

by Richard Bruton

This one looks like being one of the big comic events of the year – Paris’ Pompidou centre launches the Comics, 1964-2024 exhibition on 29 May, running to 4 November. There’s a long list of great artists included… but who’s not?

Here’s what they say about it on their website…

“The Centre Pompidou celebrates the 9th art in all its spaces and on all levels. “Comics (1964 – 2024)”, a major exhibition on level 6, provides a veritable journey through the modern and contemporary history of the medium. Immersion in multiple universes ranging from the clear Franco-Belgian line to Japanese mangas, from the graphical explosions of the underground to the most abstract contemporary styles. The presentation highlights diversity, presenting large ensembles of plates, cover drawings, sketch books and documentary elements.

This exhibition is accompanied by a rich programme of original events. Presentation in the heart of the museum. a live programme in the Forum and on level -1. In a similar spirit, the Bpi presents an exhibition dedicated to Corto Maltese, Hugo Pratt’s emblematic figure.”

The exhibition runs from 29 May – 4 Nov 2024, open daily (except Tuesdays) 11 am-9 pm.

Okay then, thanks to David Roach, here’s the full list of the artists involved in the exhibition…

Okay, I make that 139 names – I could be out by one or two there, blame old eyes.

Of those, there’s a LOT of French artists. Now that’s to be expected I suppose given that it’s a French exhibition and the French have traditionally rather insular when it comes to comics.

Thanks to David doing the work for me, I can tell you that there’s room for just three Brits, Posy Simmonds, Dave Gibbons, and Charlie Adlard. David also points out that there’s just 5 Italians, 2 Argentinians, and no representation from Spain or the Philippines.

From what I can see, the North Ameican names include Neal Adams, Alison Bechdel, John Buscema, Charles Burns, Gene Colan, Robert Crumb, Julie Douchet, Will Eisner, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Jay Lynch, Richard McGuire, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, Gary Panter, Spain Rodriguez, Joe Sacco, Seth, Gilbert Shelton, Art Spiegelman, George Tuska, Chris Ware, Bill Watterson, S. Clay Wilson, and Bernie Wrightson.

So, as with all these things, there’s already a hell of a lot of discourse on who’s missing from the list of names – Sergio Toppi being at the top of many people’s list.

As an artist and a lauded comics historian himself, as well as being the author of the brilliant Masters of British Comic Art, and Masters of Spanish Comic Book Art, Roach has an excellent position on things, adding:

“In any look back at important creators of the past 60 years there could surely have been room to include such giants of the medium as Frank Bellamy (widely regarded as our greatest comic artist), Mick McMahon, Jim Holdaway, Ron Embleton, Brian Bolland, Dave McKean, John M Burns or Brendon McCarthy? Apparently not. (It’s also very hard to understand the omission of Sergio Toppi, Jaime Hernandez, Paul Gillon, Jesus Blasco, Yves Chaland, Serge Clerc, Joe Kubert, Alex Nino, Enric Sio, Luis Garcia Mozos, Milo Manara.”

I’d echo a lot of that list, but could add Gilbert Hernandez, Raymond Briggs, Leo Baxendale, Sergio Aragones, Bryan Talbot, Eddie Campbell, Kevin O’Neill, just off the top of my head. I’m sure all of you are mentally adding names to your own list right now.

However, we can surely agree that any list of this sort is not only subjective as hell but very reliant on the country that puts an exhibition of this sort on, not to mention the availability of art to display.

Finally, there’s also a French and English catalogue in hardback and softback available, published by Centre Pompidou Paris (French) and Thames & Hudson (English) that goes alongside the exhibition and is available from June.

This is what Thames & Hudson have to say about it…

“A brilliantly illustrated survey of the international comic book landscape over the past sixty years. Published to accompany a major exhibition at Centre Pompidou, Paris, in May 2024, this is a timely reframing of the international comics landscape over the past six decades. From the mid-1960s, the world of comics rapidly evolved into a highly creative art form for a sophisticated readership: in France, the magazine Hara-Kiri provided new terrains for graphical humour, while the adventures of Jean-Claude Forest’s Barbarella were published in albums by Éric Losfeld; the launch in Japan of Garo in 1964, an avant-garde monthly, presented the concept of auteur comics; and the release of Robert Crumb’s Zap Comix in 1968 established his reputation as the leader of the underground comics movement in the United States. For the first time, this major historical survey of the ninth art establishes a dialogue between the three leading regions of comic book culture – Europe, Asia and America – and offers an immersive odyssey of the medium through its development over six decades ranging from the explosion of the twentieth-century counterculture scene to the most abstract contemporary styles. Built around twelve themes encompassing the many worlds of the comics imagination, Comics: 1964–2024 features artists including André Franquin, Gotlib, Claire Bretécher, Osamu Tezuka, Moebius, Edmond Baudoin, Alison Bechdel, Ulli Lust, Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi and Chris Ware, as well as introductions on each theme by leading authorities of the form, a brand new interview with renowned cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco and a foreword by Paul Gravett.”