Artists Alley
The 2010 Artists Alley will once again be back at The Four Rivers Church building again this year and with A/C!
Panels will last approximately 45min each. All the programming and events in Artists Alley are free and open to all visitors and do not require tickets.
Comic writers and artists are always a popular attraction at the Superman Celebration, and this year’s featured artist, Carmine Infantino, is sure to be big hit with fans. He will appear during the 32nd annual event in Metropolis, Illinois June 10-13.
Carmine Infantino, born in Brooklyn, New York in 1925, is a comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the creation of the Silver Age of comic books. Infantino started his comics career in the 1940’s drawing Airboy and The Heap for Hillman. He soon came to DC where he became a regular on the Golden Age Black Canary, Green Lantern, Justice Society of America and the Flash.
During the early 50’s, he freelanced for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s company Prize Comics, drawing Charlie Chan. At DC, with the demise of most of the 40’s heroes, Infantino drew within many genres, including westerns, mysteries and science fiction. Infantino developed his clean linear style of almost pure design, aka the Infantino touch – as though one were seeing a fresh blueprint for the future.
In 1956, Editor Julius Schwartz made the decision to bring back the Flash for DC’s newest title Showcase and put Infantino in charge of finding the look for the new science-fiction based Flash with Robert Kanigher scripting the story. Infantino strived to keep the red & yellow uniform as simple as possible. He used the theme of blinding speed as a motif for the lightning bolts and wings on the cowl and boots. He relied upon his design abilities to create a new visual language to depict the Flash’s speed, making the figure a red and yellow blur.
In 1964, Schwartz was handed the fading Batman titles and asked to try and bring them back to life. Tapped for the job were scripter John Broome and Infantino. In addition to Batman, he also worked on Elongated Man, Adam Strange and the Flash.
By 1967, it became obvious that books with Infantino covers seemed to be selling better than others, he was charged with designing covers for the entire company.
When DC was sold to National, Infantino was promoted to Editorial Director. He started by hiring new talent, and promoting artists to editorial positions. Dick Giordano was hired away from Charlton Comics while Joe Orlando, Joe Kurbert and Mike Sekowsky became editors. New titles were started from new talents like Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil. Infantino was made publisher in early 1971.
Infantino attempted a number of changes including starting several new books in the late 1960’s to early 1970’s including new series like Bat Lash, the Secret Six, and characters like Deadman and The Creeper came upon the scene. In addition, older characters were revamped, such as Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Superman, Wonder Woman, & Batman. Sales were not there in the beginning which caused Infantino to cancel the books.
After working with writer Mario Puzo on the Superman movie, (Superman I), Infantino collaborated with Marvel on the historic company-crossover publication Superman vs. the Amazing Spiderman.
In the early 1980’s, Infantino also did runs of Star Wars, Spider-Woman, Nova, and others for Marvel. In the late 80’s, he returned to the Flash at DC, where he was much more at home than in the executive offices.
These days Infantino is retired, but still does interviews and occasionally make convention appearances. He published an autobiography called The Amazing World of Carmine Infantino, co-authored by J. David Spurlock.
Since the early 1960’s, Infantino has been regarded as one of the top 5 comic artists of all time. Infantino has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career which include several Alley Awards and a National Cartoonists Society Award as well as a special Alley Award given for being the person “who exemplifies the spirit of innovation and inventiveness in the field of comic art.”
Members of the Mid-South Cartoonist Association will run the programming at the Artist Alley. Hands-on workshops, discussion panels, mini-seminars, and question and answer sessions will take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Members of the Mid-South Cartoonist Association include: Lin Workman - Bushi Tales; Andrew Chandler - Moth & Ethan and Horatio the Half-Hoofed Horse; Adam Shaw – Bloodstream and Dead in Memphis; Jay Chuppe - The Red Mullet; Trevor Hawkins and Jeffrey Breslauer. The annual Artist Alley Fanfilm Competition will be run by Tim Brown of Inked Monkey Productions.
