Communication professor explains his work to help Marvel celebrate 80 years

CEHD Interim Dean Matthew J. Smith will speak on the With Good Reason public radio program about his involvement as co-curator of a major museum exhibit chronicling the history of Marvel comics.
Co-curated by Smith (fifth from left), the exhibit celebrates Marvel’s “print and on-screen legacy” with a mission to persuade the public that comics are a serious art form worthy of scholarly attention and preservation.

Radford University College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences Interim Dean Matthew J. Smith is co-curator of a major museum exhibit chronicling the history of Marvel comics.

The exhibit celebrates Marvel’s “print and on-screen legacy” with a mission to persuade the public that comics are a serious art form worthy of scholarly attention and preservation.

Smith will speak about his work on the museum project and his love for comics in an upcoming interview on the With Good Reason public radio program.

“I feel like I’ve been training my whole life to do this kind of work; comics are my avocation,” said Smith, who has more than 16,000 comic books in his collection. “It’s been a combination of me being a lifelong reader and a scholar for nearly 20 years in this area.”

The Marvel exhibit opened in April in Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture.

Smith’s interview will air Dec. 8-14 on more than 60 With Good Reason stations across the United States.

Listeners in the New River Valley can hear the show at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 11, on Public Radio WVRU 89.9.

Programs are available as podcasts at withgoodreasonradio.org.

With Good Reason is produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium and is broadcast on public radio stations in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

With Good Reason has won five Gabriel Awards for Best Documentary or Public Affairs Programs, and is the recipient of top honors from the Public Radio News Directors, Radio and Television Digital News Association and the Virginia Association of Broadcasters.

 

Dec 6, 2018
Chad Osborne
540-831-7761
caosborne@radford.edu