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Welcome to Comic Book Heroes Featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collection at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis! Thank you for visiting the press web site for this amazing new exhibit. This web site is designed to present you, members of the media, with the most up-to-date and newsworthy information concerning the May 3 grand opening of this exhibit.

Comic Book Heroes Featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collection will give you insight into special powers and everything else that it takes to be a superhero. Created by The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, visitors come face to face with super powers and skills that go into the making of comic books. Did you know that the first comic book was probably created over a century ago? And that the first superhero ever created is still popular today? That’s right! In 1938, Action Comics #1 featured Superman™ on the cover.

Comic Book Heroes Featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collction will be unveiled on May 3, 2008 at 10 a.m. at the largest children’s museum in the world. The exhibitwill run through May 3, 2009.
Comic Book Heroes propels you into a world that goes beyond superheroes to tell the amazing stories that have entertained generations. Please visit the Media Contacts section for information about exhibit spokespeople including how to get in touch with a member of the media relations department at the museum. Press releases and full color images are ready to be downloaded.

Thank you for your interest in this exhibit, we look forward to working with you soon!

For more than a century, comic books and moving animation have entertained, told stories and provided social commentary throughout Europe and America. The “Golden Age” of comic books, 1930s Depression-era America, gave us the iconic figures of pop culture that have inspired imaginations for the last 70 years. Superman, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America – are all part of our collective social consciousness.

Comic Book Heroes celebrates our love affair with comic books. The exhibit features over 19,000 comic books collected by the late Max Simon, the youngest son of local philanthropists Melvin and Bren Simon. The Simon family founded the Simon Property Group, Inc., an S&P 500 company, which is a real estate investment trust engaged in the ownership, development and management of retail real estate. Simon Property Group (NYSE: SPG) is the largest publicly traded retail real estate company in North America with a total market capitalization of approximately $50 billion.

Max Simon began to collect Marvel and DC Comics as a teenager, accumulating extensive runs of X-men, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. As his passion for comics grew, Max began to seek out contemporary and back issue copies of classics like Wonder Woman, Batman, Incredible Hulk, the Justice League and the Teen Titans, and to explore new comics from smaller independent publishers.

Max died unexpectedly at a young age and his family’s generous donation of his comic book collection allows the museum to share his interest with children and families throughout Indiana and the world. The Simon family gift in the face of their loss is heroic – comparable to the courage and strength revealed in the superhero characters of the comic collection that Max loved.

Thank you for your interest in Comic Book Heroes Featuring The Max Simon Comic Book Collection, the new exhibit opening at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. Requests for media interviews, spokespersons or additional information can be requested through the Director of Public and Media Relations or the Public Relations Coordinator. Contact Donna Lolla at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis at (317) 334-4003 or DonnaL@ChildrensMuseum.org or Jaclyn Falkenstein at (317) 334-4007 or JaclynF@ChildrensMuseum.org.

All information, text and images presented in this Web site may downloaded and used as appropriate.

	4/10/08	Comic Book Heroes Featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collection The Max Simon Collection contains more than 19,000 Comic Books Donated by the Simon Family
	4/10/08	Comics Glossary

Artifacts – Comic Book Heroes Featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collection The Comic Book Heroes featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collection exhibit at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis displays much more than unusual comic books. There are related artifacts from popular television shows and movies along with exciting participatory interactives to immerse children and families in the amazing world of comics. Here are some of the artifacts found in the exhibit:There are high resolution images available of the following artifacts for downloading.
Comic Book Cover collage	Silver Surfer figure	Dog wearing Superman costume
Superman Muscle Building Kit	Superman resin model	Batman cereal box
Bat Girl	Astro Boy bank	Plush Baby Mouse
Plush Bone	Scooby Doo	Power Puff Girls
Spider Man Camera	Fantastic Four Lunchbox	Captain Marvel
Black Falcon & Captain American	X-Men #4	Adventure Comic Book: Featuring Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes
Mach Go Go Go	La Abeja Maya – Willie en Peligro (Maya the Bumblee – Willie in Danger) Ecuador	Bessie Coleman Daring Stunt Pilot
The Watchmen comic book	Comic Book Cover collage	The Brownie Clown of Brownie Town - 1908

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis uses PR Newswire for distribution of our national press releases. If you are a working out of a newsroom location, you'll see our releases come in over the wire. If you are interested in a more direct way of receiving our press releases, there is the option of receiving Email alerts. Sign up to receive our Media E-News that will come to your e-mail. You may unsubscribe at any time by using the link at the end of each e-newsletter you receive via e-mail.

Primary museum spokespersons for Comic Book Heroes featuring the Max Simon Comic Book Collection exhibit: Reporters may obtain information about other spokespersons from Public Relations contacts.

Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen, president and CEO of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis	Jennifer Pace-Robinson, vice president of Family Learning
Sarah Cole, Special/Temporary Exhibits Manager International Traveling Exhibits	Janna Bennett, Curator of the American Collection Collections

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Thank You

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve our process in order to make your job as a reporter or editor easier. The Public Relations team at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis would like to thank you for your interest.