Border Comics Artists, Noted Afrofuturist Featured in New Exhibits at Comic-Con Museum

Charles Glaubitz has lived his whole life as a border crosser, growing up in Baja California, Mexico and commuting to San Diego to study and work.

The Tijuana resident has built a career as a comic book artist whose work has been featured in art museums and magazines. Now, Glaubitz is sharing his work with a wider audience at a new exhibit at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park.

I’m overjoyed and delighted that I get to share my story,” said Glaubitz.

Glaubitz is one of three Mexican artists, along with Alejandra Yépiz Portillo and Urbano Mata, who will be featured in “Border Blitz: Artistas del Comic del Tijuana,” one of three new exhibits opening this month and in June.

The exhibit was brought to the museum with the help of the Mexican Consulate in San Diego and is part of the World Design Capital San Diego Tijuana 2024, a year-long celebration of design in communities in the San Diego-Tijuana border region.

Glaubitz has long been a comic book fan and his work focuses heavily on mythology and draws from psychedelic imagery.

“Comics can be art,” he said.

Several large pieces of Glaubitz’s works adorn the walls of the top floor of the museum, along with key phrases in English and Spanish like “And Despite” and “Then Almost.” As a viewer walks along the panels, the effect is like that of reading an oversized comic book.

“It begins to tell a story,” Glaubitz said. “But you make up that story. The way it’s set up is for the viewer to interpret the story as it’s seen.”

Another exhibit that opened this week is “Collaboration(s)! A Journey with John Jennings.”

The exhibit spotlights the graphic novels and comic art of John Jennings, an artist and a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Jennings is an advocate of Afrofuturism, which seeks to advance the work of artists who are black, indigenous and persons of color and to improve their representation in the industry.

“It’s more of a movement and a mindset,” said Jennings.

The exhibit features recent art and illustrations by Jennings, who has been a New York Times bestseller and Eisner Award winner and who helped create Megascope, a line of graphic novels showcasing science fiction, fantasy and horror works by artists of color.

The exhibit also features a collaboration table where visitors will be able to color samples of Jenning’s work.

“I want people to realize that when you’re making a story and you share it with the world, you’re collaborating with the world, for good or ill” he said. “It’s the stories that make us human. It’s the stories that actually make us relevant to history and to the future. And we make those stories together. We collaborate on the future together.”

The museum will be opening a third new exhibit in June on the cartoon character Betty Boop. “Becoming Betty Boop” will highlight the history and evolution of the comic book character who became the first female animated screen star.

For more information, visit Comic-Con.org/museum.