Stephen Neil Cooper Comic Book Collection featured

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A. Sue Weisler

Get inspired by the comic book displays at the Wallace Center and create your own world-famous superhero. Drawing materials including pens, pencils, markers and worksheets are provided with some simple guidelines for comic book creation.

Blondie, Archie, Uncle $crooge, Superman, Dick Tracy, MAD, Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Batman, Lassie, Wonder Woman, Felix the Cat.

As a child, you probably read comics on your front porch or hid a cache under your bed. Believe it or not, comic books have been around in one form or another for more than 200 years. Most early comics centered on a humorous theme, hence the terms “comic book” or “funnies.” As time went on, more dramatic themes were created, many with “super-heroes” as key figures.

So here’s your chance to marvel at the comics in the Wallace Center’s second floor display by viewing the Stephen Neil Cooper Comic Book Collection—a complete display of funnies that were on candy store racks and newsstands in April 1956.

The high-grade comic books are rare and were donated last November to the Cary Graphic Arts Collection to be preserved under archival conditions. A special feature of the exhibit (on loan from Cooper) is the original artwork for Mad Magazine, issue #27—which includes the first cover representation of Alfred E. Neuman in color.

Kids and adults: Here’s your chance to be funny and creative during Imagine RIT.

Have you dreamed of being a cartoonist and creating comic books? Have you got a great story to tell with pictures and words? Are you interested in science fiction, adventure, furry animals, westerns, crime fighters, romance, horror or mysteries?

Get inspired by the comic book displays and create your own world-famous superhero—maybe even base it on yourself, your family, your pets, your hobbies. Drawing materials including pens, pencils, markers and worksheets are provided with some simple guidelines for comic book creation.

Need help? RIT students from the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences are on hand to help frame your story, create a dialogue “bubble” and illustrate your ideas. The best part is, you get to take your creation home with you.

Maybe the next time you read the Sunday funnies, you can be in them!