The Brenden Mann Foundation is supporting an exciting public arts program in multiple cities.

This project has in store some engaging elements that hasn’t been done before in this manor, but first let’s talk about the art itself.

Johnny Brenden and his board have backed this public art mural project with the help and management of the nonprofit art group, Three Thirty-Three Arts. Starting in Concord, CA the first of a planned series of larger-than-life Manga (Japanese word for comic) murals was completed in February of 2023.

The Concord mural (images above) spans across the back of the Brenden movie theatre and continues onto the parking structure. It depicts our heroine in the midst of an action sequence, as if you just opened a comic to a random page and are watching the saga unfold. The black, white and red illustrative style done just like a manga tale was designed by John Horton and expertly rendered by John and artist David ‘Hyde” Cho.

The most recent installment of this series (see images below) was just completed in Modesto, CA on the city owned parking structure located on 10th and K street. This is the first mural ever approved on city owned property in Modesto! The abstracted art that has the same recognizable style as Concord gives a glimpse of more of the story unfolding, but head across the street to view directly outside of the Brenden Theatres entrance, two more detailed panels of the story. You’ll spot our Heroine from Concord still being chased by an unknown pursuant.

What is this project and what is the evolution? The concept is to elevate this public art be creating larger than life murals depicting pages of a manga series across multiple cities. Murals have been traditionally one-off pieces of art, and not a continuation of a story, let alone done in this style of art. As our series unfolds across different cities the next planned phase is to animate them through augmented reality. This giant pages out of a manga novel will be

included in the actual pages of a printed comic, which will be for a time exclusively available at Brenden Theatres when released.