Exhibition: UNDERGROUND HEROES: NEW YORK TRANSIT IN THE COMICS

Kerry Drake, 1944, New York Transit Museum Collection

UNDERGROUND HEROES: 
NEW YORK TRANSIT IN THE COMICS
Exhibit opening at the New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn on June 21, 2018

The New York Transit Museum’s newest exhibition, Underground Heroes: New York Transit in Comics is a raucous ride through New York’s transit system from a range of visual storytellers and draws on satirical cartoons, comic strips and comic books from the 19^th through the 21^st centuries.

On view at the Museum in Downtown Brooklyn from June 21^st, 2018 through January 6^th, 2019, the exhibit includes such luminaries as Winsor McCay, Will Eisner, Bill Griffith, Roz Chast, Ronald Wimberly and Julia Wertz. The vivid visual commentary offered through the comics demonstrates the influence that mass transit has on the stories that are inextricably woven into the fabric of the City.

“The Streets of New York,” F.B. Opper, 1884,
Flagler Museum Archives

Underground Heroes: New York Transit in the Comics spans more than a century, allowing visitors to see the continuing influence that subways, buses, and commuter rail lines have had on the stories that astound and thrill us.

The Big Apple is often as important as the people (and creatures) in comics narratives, and the creators of these fantastic stories draw inspiration from the world around them. With New York’s rich visual vernacular providing a colorful setting for illustrated stories, it comes as no surprise that our iconic transportation system plays a starring role in many comics and graphic novels and serves as the scene for heroic rescues, as secret lairs for supervillains, and as the site for epic battles of wills. Subways, railroads, streetcars, and buses can whisk heroes to far-flung corners of the city, or serve as a rogue’s gallery of unusual characters.

Top Two Photos: Newspaper Comics Council ad campaign,
1962 with Milton Caniff and Walt Kelly,
New York Transit Museum NYCTA.
Photo Unit Collection.

“Underground Heroes: New York Transit in the Comics takes you on an incredible journey and highlights the simultaneous coming of age of the region’s mass transit systems and of comic books,” says Museum Director Concetta Bencivenga. “The foundation of each was built by immigrants who made New York their home and the influence of both mass transit and the comic book genre have expanded well beyond Gotham’s city limits. It is an honor to bring this exhibit to the public and share this rich history.”

Throughout the course of the exhibition’s run the New York Transit Museum will present a series of panel discussions, gallery talks, and sketch nights exploring Underground Heroes: New York Transit in the Comics.

Reservations are also now open for the Transit Museum’s annual summer camp program, appropriately themed Transit Hero Academy, and a selection of new products focusing on some of the comics featured in the show are planned to be available for sale in the New York Transit Museum Stores.

Winsor McCay, 1905, San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection,
The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum.

Underground Heroes: New York Transit in the Comics is open to the public through January 6, 2019 at the New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. Located in a decommissioned subway station at 99 Schermerhorn Street, the Transit Museum is open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and is closed Mondays, major holidays and for special events. General admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 2-17 years old, $5 and free on Wednesdays for senior citizens 62 years and up, and free for museum members. For more information on hours, admission and directions, please visitnytransitmuseum.org/visit.

Walt McDougall, 1893,  San Francisco Academy of Comic Art Collection,

The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum

Underground Heroes: New York Transit in Comics is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK TRANSIT MUSEUM:

The New York Transit Museum is the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history and one of the premier institutions of its kind in the world. The Museum explores the development of the greater New York metropolitan region through the presentation of exhibitions, tours, educational programs and workshops dealing with the cultural, social and technological history of public transportation. Since its inception over forty years ago, the Museum – which is housed in a historic 1936 IND subway station in Downtown Brooklyn – has grown in scope and popularity. As custodian and interpreter of the region’s extensive public transportation networks, the Museum strives to share through its public programs this rich and vibrant history with local, regional, and international audiences. To learn more, visit www.nytransitmuseum.org.

What:  Underground Heroes: New York Transit in the Comics   

When:  On view June 21, 2018 – January 6, 2019

Where:  New York Transit Museum, 99 Schemerhorn Street Brooklyn, NY 11201

Info:  www.nytransitmuseum.org/exhibits

“Quarantine the Gumbug!”, Amelia Opdyke Jones, 1948,
New York Transit Museum,  William J. Jones Collection,
Gift of William J. Jones & Margaritta J. Friday.

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