“The Animation Academy – from Pencils to Pixels”
San Diego Comic Convention’s Comic-Con Museum, showcasing comics and popular arts, has announced its 2023 exhibits opening Saturday, February 4, featuring “The Animation Academy – from Pencils to Pixels” and “Cover Story: Five Decades of Comic-Con,” as well as updates to the Comic-Con Masquerade display and featuring the PAC-MAN Arcade.
“Our second year at the Comic-Con Museum will bring more interactive features, historic art, guest artists and entertainment opportunities for all ages,” said Comic-Con Museum Executive Director Rita Vandergaw. “We look forward to welcoming new and returning visitors from San Diego and beyond in February and throughout the year.”
The Museum’s new headline exhibit invites visitors to transport themselves behind the scenes of some of their favorite cartoons and animated characters. Animation Academy has over 20 interactive stations, which allow visitors to experiment and create their own stop-motion animated short, learn about the art of storyboarding, snap photos in the sets of their favorite animated TV shows and movies, and see the world’s largest traveling 3D zoetrope, also referred to as a wheel of life.
From traditional hand-drawn cels to cutting-edge breakthroughs in stop-motion and CGI, visitors can see how characters came to life. The Museum will also feature regular drawing classes with professional artists and animators, included with admission.
“The Animation Academy – from Pencils to Pixels” will debut on Saturday, February 4 with special guests Bill Farmer (the official voice of Disney’s Goofy, Pluto and more) and Disney Fine Artist Manny Hernandez, who will offer painting lessons throughout the day. Advance tickets are on sale now at comic-con.org/museum.
Over the past five decades, Comic-Con has produced a series of souvenir program books for each year’s convention. The covers of these books are a veritable who’s who of comic art. From Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Milton Caniff, and Neal Adams to Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiwicz, Jim Lee, and Alex Ross – with talent as diverse as Dave McKean, Moebius, Steranko, Babs Tarr, Michael Cho, and many more in between – Comic-Con’s five-decade history of celebrating comics is front and center on these covers.
Drawing from Comic-Con’s archives, the exhibition, opening February 4, features art as an integral tool in promoting the organization’s mission of creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular artforms. There will also be a special exhibit on noted comic artist Rick Geary his creation of the famous Comic-Con Toucan.
Exhibit and program enhancements include: “Comic-Con Masquerade,” featuring new and former winners and entrants’ costumes from the Comic-Con Masquerade; and Makerspace Workshops, offering hands-on crafts for visitors of all ages, including new animation art drawing classes. Workshops are free with museum admission and guests can drop in from 10-12 p.m. and 2-4 p.m. every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The Cardboard Superheroes Workshops will also fly back into San Diego with new designs and activities on February 4. Participation is free with admission, as space allows.
The Comic-Con Museum reopens on Feb. 4 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, with the last entry at 4 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in advance at bit.ly/ComicConMuseumTickets.
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