But this floated (electronically) across my desk today, and I thought it was worth taking out of context:
There are two Simon & Kirby heroes, The Fighting American and The Guardian, both of them variations on Captain America. (To me that looks like fanzine art, maybe even traced from a couple of different comics, but not Kirby.) In the background, the Smithsonian Castle, in an old postcard image (printed badly, with seriously off-register color).
The creator of this little collage? This man:
Here's the New York Times article, to provide some context.
Discuss.
4 comments:
Unless I'm mistaken, the S&K hero drawings are in fact by Steranko, from the cover of one volume of his History of Comics (which one I don't know, because the books are at the office). Which means that Ashbery somehow had access to those!
That drawing looks pretty weird and clumsy for Steranko, though -- look at the way the Guardian's head meets his shoulders. If you can track down the particular image, it'd be great if you could send it over to me ...
Cool to see, but not a total surprise, given Ashbery's demonstrated interest (in his poems) in both Daffy Duck and Popeye. There may be a bit of his fascination with Darger in there, too. And we know that Ashbery's old Harvard buddy Kenneth Koch created some interesting poetry comics...
I've been to this gallery and seen this show. Fine art, like poetry (Ashberry's especially), goes right over my head. But it's really pretty. The Trevor Winkfield paintings in the main room are amazing.
Yes, the superheroes are by Steranko.
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