Let's Talk Shop for a Moment

I'm still trying to figure out this whole blogspot thing, so bear with me folks, lol. Please feel free to comment if you like! This is a public forum after all. I think you can post, to be honest, I'm not quite sure how exactly, sorry.

I want to talk shop for a few moments. Every week or day, depending on the amount of free time I have at the shop or at home, I will post my thoughts about the industry at large. If you have any questions or concerns you would like to address, please send them my way, and if I can figure out how to answer you, I will.

Weird moment I experienced recently. I went to the Art Institute of Chicago on Sunday to check out the new Modern Wing. For those of you that haven't had a chance to go yet, I highly recommend it, well worth the price increase. It is now $18.00 per person, instead of the $9.00 it used to be (don't quote me on the old price, I'm trying to remember, but my memory isn't what it used to be I'm afraid). I went to the gift shop for the Modern Wing and guess what they had in the gift shop? Graphic novels! Yep, that's right, and what a weird assortment it is! A selection of various Drawn and Quarterly books along with various Fantagraphics books, and a smattering of books about Manga. I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I'm excited that the industry is finally being taken seriously as an art form, at least in serious circles, but until the Art Institute has a comic art related show, I'm finding it difficult to reconcile the fact that they have no problem SELLING comics/graphic novels, but yet I didn't see one comic art piece on display. Does this mean that we will see a Charles Burns, or R. Crumb or Seth exhibit soon? Or rather is the AIC trying to capitalize on what they see as a "trend." Troubling, but interesting at the same time.

There is my two cents for the moment.