The idea is to go backwards.
Pulp and Comic Strip Heroes: Their history and legacy packs a mighty punch! Eduardo Serradilla Sanchis presents, for a few days at the Kirjasto 10 library, an impressive retrospective that explores the genesis and evolution of famous heroic characters, and how they have shifted, from novels and comics to radio serials, to TV shows, to books and films and back again, from golden age to modern times. The expertly, lovely curated collection of rare collector items and relevant accompanying articles features such classics as Doc Savage, The Rocketeer, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, The Lone Rider, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, and many more. Sponsors have graciously provided a generous rack of exclusive comics that can be read at leisure in the cozy premises. Eduardo is present on May 10 and 17, from 12 to 15, offering guided tours and an inexhaustible supply of encyclopedic information on a subject he clearly loves and masters. This heroic exhibition can be enjoyed for free, from 28th of April to 18th May 2014 at Kirjasto 10 (Elielinaukio 2G).
Eduardo Serradilla Sanchis was born in the Canary Islands (Spain) and has been a Helsingite since around 2002. He has a varied background in cinema studies, advertising, and public relations. He has organized many events and exhibitions on the subjects of SF and fantasy, and led an extensive international career writing about film, graphic novels, and narrative, having published many essays, articles and books.
Welcome, Eduardo! Why did you begin offering exhibitions?
It all began in Spain. It wasn’t because I like to hang stuff from a wall (you can do that at home, right?) but because I could not find exhibitions that I was satisfied with. I come from a classical background, I love classic architecture, music… but I also love comics and genre films, and I couldn’t find expos that somehow took into account, explored, how what we see today is deeply informed by the past. And I had been accumulating, since I was a kid, a certain number of items, so one day I managed to get a space in a public center in Las Palmas, and presented my first exhibition: ‘From War of the Worlds to Star Wars’ and haven’t stopped ever since! And I also love to organize events (that’s what my own company does, by the way).
Is everything that can be seen in this collection yours?
Except for the Continental 350 typewriter (graciously provided by the Finnish National Museum of Typewriters), the display cabinets and the wall, yes, everything is mine.
Does your house look like a Planet-Hollywood-fest of SF, fantasy and film?
No, quite the opposite. I have very few things on display, and I like to change them often, according to my needs and moods. Also because it’s a reminder that everything is in motion, that things change. I wouldn’t like to hang something up and leave it on for ages, I would find that terribly boring. Perhaps one day I will own and refurbish an old warehouse or factory, and then I’ll probably put everything on display!
What was your goal with this particular exhibition?
The items seen here date from the 20s, 30s and 40s. The goal is to propose an exploration for “younger” audiences -those of us who were not even a project then- about how ubiquitous characters that today populate our heroic landscape (Batman, Spiderman, Superman, to offer a quick example) did not appear from a vacuum, and there exists behind them, if not another carbon-copy character, a definite inspiration. Stan Lee (the creator of Spiderman) has said that one of his favorite characters in his youth has always been The Spider. Batman’s creators have extensively quoted The Shadow as inspiration. Superman’s Fortress of Solitude is, pretty shamelessly, Doc Savage‘s Fortress of Solitude (they didn’t even bothered to change the Artic location for that one). So, the idea is to go backwards, and to initiate and suggest relationships and inter-connections between characters of today and of the past. A visitor can come and see Batman and The Shadow side-by-side, and perhaps establish, according to their imagination and sensibility, a link. In some cases it’s more obvious (Commando Cody and The Rocketeer, for example). We hope to suggest, perhaps even surprise: “wow, I didn’t know that before this there was THIS!”
This is the website of the event, the Facebook page, and the Kirjasto 10 page.