Groundbreaking Comic Book Love & Rockets Turns 40 With New Documentary That Kicks off New Season of KCET’s Original Arts and Culture Series ARTBOUND Premiering October 5 – FIRST COMICS NEWS
Six New Episodes and Three New Screening Events Round Out the New Season
Focusing on Diverse Art Forms and Innovators Including the WPA, Marcel Duchamp,
Giant Robot Magazine, Rubén Ortiz Torres, and Latinx Artists
Pictured: Love & Rockets is featured in ARTBOUND Season 13 (Image courtesy of Fantagraphics).
Additional images from the other five episodes of the season are available at kcet.org/pressroom under “Artbound.”
Select programming will also be available to stream on PBS.org and the free PBS App.
Members of PBS SoCal | KCET get extended access through PBS Passport.
Los Angeles, Calif. – August 31, 2022 – KCET, Southern California’s flagship PBS station and home for award-winning public media programming, announced today the return of the KCET Original Emmy® award-winning arts and culture series ARTBOUND. The thirteenth season of the documentary series kicks off with an examination of Love & Rockets, celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, and one of the first comic book series in the alternative movement of the 1980s. Additional episodes of ARTBOUND from the new season include a look at the Pasadena-based Marcel Duchamp retrospective of 1963, the impact of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the influence of Asian American pop culture magazine Giant Robot, the life of renowned artist Rubén Ortiz Torres and an exploration of contemporary artists in “Arte Cósmico.” The new season of ARTBOUND will premiere with two back-to-back episodes starting with the documentary “Love & Rockets: The Great American Comic Book” on Wed., Oct. 5 at 9 p.m. PT on KCET followed by “Duchamp Comes to Pasadena” on Wed., Oct. 5 at 10:01 p.m. PT on KCET.
All six of the documentaries in the new season will also subsequently air on both PBS SoCal in Southern California and Link TV nationwide with “Love & Rockets: The Great American Comic Book” debuting Fri., Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal and Tues., Oct. 11 at 10 pm ET/PT on Link TV (DirecTV channel 375 / Dish Network channel 9410). The full lineup and descriptions of the 13th season of ARTBOUND are listed below as are details for three upcoming in-person screening events for this season’s documentaries.
Timed to the announce of the new season, ARTBOUND is also offering up a collection of digital shorts that debuts today on kcet.org/artbound. These three short films directed by award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Dolly Li (Historian’s Take, How Chop Suey Saved San Francisco’s Chinatown) include a look at Phung Huynh’s portrayal of the Cambodian American experience, Lauren Lee McCarthy’s thoughtful approach to NFT art and human relationships and artist Emily Barker’s work dismantling the systemic challenges of people living with disabilities.
An ARTBOUND Season 13 private Premiere Screening Event of the season’s first documentary “Love & Rockets: The Great American Comic Book” is slated to take place on Tues., Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. at the Laemmle Noho 7 followed by a panel discussion with Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez along with filmmakers Omar Foglio and Jose Luis Figueroa of Dignicraft. The event is moderated by Carolina A. Miranda, arts columnist, Los Angeles Times. Reception to follow. A limited number of tickets will be available through KCET’s social media accounts on Instagram and to Love & Rockets fans via social media.
Two additional in-person screening events will take place in October. NeueHouse Hollywood will host a screening and panel discussion for “Arte Cósmico” on Mon., Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. (for more details on attending please go to https://rsvp.neuehouse.com/infocusartbound). Panelists include rafa esparza, Gabriella Sanchez, Patrick Martinez, Guadalupe Rosales and filmmaker Antonio Diaz moderated by Pilar Tompkins Rivas, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Curatorial and Collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. And the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) will host a screening and panel discussion for “Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond” on Fri., Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. (for more details on attending please go to janm.org/events).
New episodes of this season of ARTBOUND will premiere as follows (subject to change*):
“Love & Rockets: The Great American Comic Book”– Wed., Oct. 5 at 9 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal / Tues., Oct. 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Link TV
Love and Rockets astounded the alternative comic book scene and garnered a world-wide fanbase by pushing the edge of storytelling through graphic art. Originally published by the Hernandez Brothers, Love and Rockets has been praised for its diversity and nuance. Its storylines have continued for the past 40 years with its characters aging and situations developing in real-time. Directed and produced by Dignicraft.
“Duchamp Comes to Pasadena”– Wed., Oct. 5 at 10:01 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Oct. 7 at 11 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal / Tues., Oct. 11 at 11 p.m. ET/PT on Link TV
In 1963, Marcel Duchamp, considered by many to be the father of conceptual art, was photographed in a museum playing chess against a nude model. This documentary tells the story behind this iconic image as well as reveals how Duchamp agreed to hold his first-ever career retrospective in LA at a time when the city was considered an artistic wasteland. The opening night party would become a defining moment for generations of artists who would go on to revolutionize the contemporary art world. Directed by David Grabias. Produced by Artifact Studios, Inc.
“Arte Cósmico”– Wed., Oct. 12 at 9 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Oct. 14 at 8 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal / Tues., Oct. 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Link TV
This documentary follows noted artists rafa esparza, Beatriz Cortez, Patrick Martinez, Guadalupe Rosales, Gabriella Sanchez and Gabriela Ruiz working in Los Angeles exhibiting both locally and worldwide. These artists have been taking center stage at international art fairs and museums, catalyzing conversations about their place in the history of American art. Directed by Antonio Diaz. Produced with Hector Pacheco at Life & Thyme.
“A New Deal for Los Angeles”– Wed., Oct. 19 at 9 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Oct. 21 at 8 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal / Tues., Oct. 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Link TV
This film explores the importance of art in infrastructure in the WPA era and takes a look at publicly funded arts programs across the city to ask the question: what would a ‘New Deal’ look like today? When Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) as a way to provide opportunities to millions of unemployed Americans recovering from The Great Depression, no one imagined how far-reaching its impact would be. From critical infrastructure to visual art pieces, over 140 projects were completed by the WPA in Los Angeles. However, the WPA also gifted Americans with a lesser known legacy of music, theater and literary works. Directed by Anna Rau and Corbett Jones. Produced by The Range.
“Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond”– Wed., Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal / Tues., Nov. 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Link TV
Founded in 1994, Giant Robot was a bimonthly magazine covering Asian popular culture and soon featured Asian American artists such as David Choe and James Jean. This episode shows how Giant Robot created an appetite for Asian and Asian American pop culture, exploring Sawtelle Avenue as a Japanese American enclave, and ultimately creating a lasting legacy of Asian American artists that achieved worldwide recognition. Featuring interviews with Margaret Cho, Takashi Murakami and Daniel Wu among others. Directed by Dylan Robertson and Dennis Nishi. Produced by Radiant Features.
“A Rubén Ortiz Torres Story”– Wed., Nov. 2 at 9 p.m. on KCET / Fri., Nov. 4 at 8 p.m. PT on PBS SoCal / Tues., Nov. 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Link TV
Since the early ‘80s, artist Rubén Ortiz Torres has been working as a photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, filmmaker and video producer. Often associated with the development of a specifically Mexican form of postmodernism, Ortiz Torres’s life is a collage that explores the social and aesthetic transformations related to cross-cultural exchange and globalization. This episode examines how his past and present informs an uncertain socio-economic future. Directed by Michael Vargas and Moni Vargas. Produced by Friends We Love, Inc.