by Jon Gorga
Last Thursday night, June 19th, life-long devotees, personal friends, casual fans, and fellow creators alike came through the rain to the Philippe Labaune Gallery in Manhattan to celebrate an opening reception and artbook release party for one of the few artists of the comics medium who has continued to bring the heat for three decades.
The book is Pulp Hope 2: The Art of Paul Pope and the comicsmith is none other than Paul Pope.
Pope exploded onto the scene in 1994 with the first parts of his ongoing science fiction epic THB and the flames have shown no signs of slowing. Only a fairly small sample of Pope’s vibrant work is on display but it covered most of his career and it is certainly well-chosen.
These include the test page that eventually grew into his knock-out graphic novel Battling Boy, a cosmicly weird coming-of-age story that released in 2013 and led to a handful of spin-offs.
Superhero fans, we aren’t left out! A surprising page from the wild take on the Caped Crusader he made with DC Comics in 2006, Batman: Year 100, is hanging just nearby!
Plus, four absolutely incendiary sequential pages, showing the character Haitous in a scene of sci-fi sports violence from the fifth issue of Pope’s mini-series 100%, grouped together in their original order to great effect. This alone is worth a subway ride to see the intensity in the original pen and ink in person.
Not to mention an entire wall of sexy stand-alone portraits: a poster for the Diesel fashion brand, a character from his comic-book Heavy Liquid, and the cover for a collection of the aforementioned THB.
Pope himself was in attendance and spoke about the show, Philippe Labaune’s space, and the cultural shift for comics in this country over the past 30 years, saying, “I think this is more of a coronation of comics art in general and I’m just happy to be the front man for it today.” The inimitable ‘Pope’ of comics has once again shown us that he belongs in the upper echelons of creators in sequential art and he can be classy while doing it.
In true rock star fashion, the party refused to end and only finally spilled out onto the sidewalk in front of the gallery long after the official closing bell once the rain evaporated. The show will continue in the Philippe Labaune Gallery at 534 West 24th Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood until July 26. Go so you can feel the burn for yourself.
No photo of Paul?