Jim Steranko invented cool.
Don’t remember if I mentioned this before, but I was scolded by my junior high art teacher for praising comic book art, especially Steranko and Kirby. Sadly, similar incidents occurred in my art class in college..
They were wrong and you were right and much smarter art critics and teachers have said so. Steranko has been featured in a couple hundred galleries, including an exhibition at the Louvre in 1967 and the Sydney Opera House in 1986. Kirby practically invented an entirely new dialogue within the realm of pop art. Having said all that, pop art is rarely appreciated by any academic establishment in its own time. Just wait a couple more decades and the truth will bear out. Academia is about fifty to a hundred years behind everyone else, you’ll see.
(The same thing happens among lit professors, most of whom forget that Shakespeare was the very image of a populist, trendy and disposable playwright in the Elizabethan era, in both his lack of validity among the established arts community of the day and his tremendous popularity with everyone else.)
