The Museum Exhibit That Actually Interests Me

The "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is getting lots of hype, but the more I read about it, starting with a bare mention in this issue of Vogue, the less it interests me. This exhibit led to Michael Chabon's New Yorker essay on superhero costumes--which I thought missed the point. Today's New York Times review reveals that, although the show claims to be about American superhero influence on fashion or vice versa, it includes only two American designers. The superhero theme looks like nothing but an excuse to dress manniquins outrageously.

Here's the museum exhibit that I'm sorry to be missing: the combined "Jeff Smith: Bone and Beyond" and "Jeff Smith: Before Bone" show opening today in Columbus, Ohio. Smith's website has featured many images of the exhibit being assembled. This page has a video about his start as a comics artist and how the exhibit came together.

For souvenirs, there's a poster, a catalog featuring articles by Scott McCloud and Neil Gaiman, and even a small, back-up catalog, among other stuff. Here's a Newsarama article on the exhibit with more detail, which is where I first learned about it.