George Lucas \u2014 the man who launched an iconic era in pop culture nearly 50 years ago \u2014 received a rapturous welcome during his debut Comic-Con appearance Sunday, where he offered a preview of his long-awaited Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
The 81-year-old icon was joined Sunday in the San Diego Convention Center\u2019s Hall H by fellow filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro and art director Doug Chiang for a panel discussion moderated by Queen Latifah.<\/p>\n
Co-founded with Lucas\u2019 wife, businesswoman Mellody Hobson, the museum broke ground in March 2018, adjacent to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and is scheduled to open in 2026. It\u2019s meant to \u201cbring together mass-produced images with academically rooted art forms to unpack visual storytelling in its richness and complexity,\u201d officials said.<\/p>\n
The museum will feature works by artists including Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Jessie Willcox Smith, N. C. Wyeth, Beatrix Potter, Judy Baca, Frida Kahlo and Maxfield Parrish; comic art legends such as Winsor McCay, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware and R. Crumb; and photographers Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Dorothea Lange.<\/p>\n
According to the panel, display items will include a life-size Naboo starfighter and General Grevious \u2014 a character from the 2005 \u201cRevenge of the Sith\u201d movie \u2014 on his wheel-bike, \u201cPeanuts\u201d comic sketches from the 1950s and \u201960s, original concept art for Indiana Jones, vintage comic books from Marvel and DC, Lucas\u2019 own Frida Kahlo paintings, two theaters, a library, an event venue and 33 galleries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is sort of a temple to the people,\u201d Lucas said during the panel.<\/p>\n
When asked about what he thinks art is, Lucas said, \u201cI think it\u2019s more about an emotional connection with the work, not how much it cost or if a celebrity did it, or whatever. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything that anyone else can tell you.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that people can tell you what art is, and talk about it, I\u2019ve discovered just from my experience of making movies that other people\u2019s opinions don\u2019t mean much,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cIf you see that other people react to it in a very emotional way you say, `I did my job.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
Lucas said he has worked with hundreds of illustrators and \u201cthey\u2019re all great, \u201d but they don\u2019t get recognized for anything.<\/p>\n
Before Lucas strolled onto the panel stage wearing a long-sleeved plaid shirt \u2014 to a standing ovation and cheers \u2014 singer and actress Queen Latifah introduced him as a man who \u201crevolutionized filmmaking and not just through spectacle, but through a deeply human lens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHis magnum opus `Star Wars\u2019 has shaped our lives through generations and taught us that we should trust our instincts,\u201d Latifah said. \u201cOne person can change the course of history. And the Force is always within us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1976, Comic-Con hosted its first \u201cStar Wars\u201d panel, with fans seeing images from the upcoming film, then known as \u201cA New Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are beyond thrilled to welcome George Lucas to Comic-Con for the very first time,\u201d event spokesman David Glanzer said. \u201cNearly five decades ago, `Star Wars\u2019 made one of its earliest public appearances at our convention, along with a booth featuring Howard Chaykin\u2019s now legendary `Star Wars\u2019 poster as a promotional item.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, to have Mr. Lucas return \u2014 this time [in person] to debut the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art \u2014 is a true full-circle moment. His lifelong dedication to visual storytelling and world-building resonates deeply with us and our community, and the museum\u2019s mission to celebrate narrative art in all its forms perfectly reflects what Comic-Con has championed from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comic-Con is the largest comic book and popular-arts convention in the world, with more than 460,000 square feet of exhibit floor space and more than 1,000 exhibitors each year. It began Thursday and concludes Sunday.<\/p>\n
A full schedule of events can be found at comic-con.org\/cc\/things-to-do\/programming-schedule\/sunday\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Lucas \u2014 the man who launched an iconic era in pop culture nearly 50 years ago \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,15661,19277,2197,2961,224,5337,384,64036,25647],"class_list":{"0":"post-97776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-comic-con","11":"tag-george","12":"tag-gets","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-lucas","17":"tag-warm","18":"tag-welcome"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114927485967167024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}