Long John

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Aside from the expected promotions and, perhaps, professional development workshops, there aren’t many major milestones on a person’s resume that genuinely stands one out from the pool.

My resume isn’t that impressive. My academic resume––called in the industry a Curriculum Vitae––shows the classes I’ve taught over the years as well as work done directly with the English department. My artistic resume is, arguably, less impressive. Sure, over the years––and stretched between two series––I’ve published ten books, appeared at a smattering of conventions (I was even a guest at a few), hosted a few panels and workshops, but nothing that really makes me stand out from the shadows of the many other ambitious, socially and artistically talented, and business savvy local creators on the scene.

To my surprise, a few recent developments have occurred that make me proud to add a new line to my creative resume, and it’s one that I never intended nor expected to add.

Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum is one of the premier art galleries in California if not only for being the longest continually-operating art gallery since it opened in 1885, then for being home to a collection of a wide variety of cultural and creative expressions from across the world. In the last few years, they have played host to traveling exhibitions from the prints of Toulouse-Lautrec to the modern esoteric art of Hi-Fructose.

Since 2013, the museum has hosted its own unique brand of comic book convention, called Crocker-Con, that is mostly a pop culture celebration that focuses on local talent and art. It’s one of my favorite shows and I have been lucky enough to exhibit at most of them.

For the first time this year, the Crocker has opened up its walls to local comic art, and I am lucky enough to be included.

Located in the Community/Studio section of the museum, the halls have been lined with framed comic book art by people like Jon Williams (Space Oddities, B-Squad), Justin Greenwood (The Last Siege), Lauren Gramprey (Nickelodeon storyboard artist, The Slightly Askew Adventures of Inspector Ham and Eggs, B-Squad), Michael Calero (B-Squad), Sean Sutter (Relic Blade, B-Squad), and many others. More than that, local comic shop, A-1 Comics, brought in a stack of comics from the medium’s history to highlight major moments and developments of the art form (I took pictures of the X-Men books, of course).

The show runs through Crocker-Con at the end of September, with a reception event for the gallery on September 7.

I never had any expectation or goal to have my work hanging in an art museum, much less in a frame on somebody’s wall. And, sure, it’s not like I’m not a new, permanent addition to the Crocker’s collection, hanging next to the likes of Raymond Dabb Yelland’s sublime Yosemite Valley or Evelyn McCormick’s astounding Arizona Gardens (two of my favorite paintings in the museum), it’s still amazing to realize I’m in the building if even for a short while because I doubt there will be very few things that will continue to make me chuckle to myself in disbelief in the future than saying, “D. Bethel had work hanging in the Crocker.”