Art has been in the news lately in big ways. Even global ways.

This always interests me. I studied art and architecture in college and have been a lifelong enthusiast.

In July, San Diego hosted Comic-Con International.

It’s a comic book and pop culture celebration drawing more than 130,000 fans.

This year, the event received extra publicity when a famous guest, actress Jennifer Garner, got stuck inside a hot, muggy elevator.

She was trapped for an hour and 15 minutes.

Thankfully, she and a few other riders were rescued and are OK.

Days later at the Paris Olympics, a world-televised welcome featured a comical spoof of a classic painting, “Feast of the Gods.”

The beloved artwork projects, in a sense, an aura of paganistic indulgence.

The early image hangs in a French museum. It actually was part of my art study at Penn State.

Some Christians believed the Olympics parody poked fun at a different painting, “The Last Supper.”

There are definite similarities between the two. Both paintings include people gathered around a long banquet table.

But “The Last Supper” features fewer characters. And the artwork isn’t located in France. It’s in Italy.

The French were clearly celebrating their own French culture and the history of the Olympics, which began nearly 800 years before Jesus Christ.

So I believe the Olympic organizers when they say the intent wasn’t to belittle Christianity or any other religion, even if some refuse to acknowledge so.

Their fun-filled fantasy simply reflected on a time of whimsy and decadence, part of the human condition.

And speaking of art, I recently stopped at Hanover Township in the Wyoming Valley to look at improvements at Mount Joe Palooka.

It’s a site honoring a once-popular comic strip about a heavyweight boxer. The series appeared in newspapers from 1930 to 1984.

Palooka was a clean-living role model who joined the Army in World War II and actually boosted enlistments in real life.

He raised troop morale and promoted the sale of war bonds.

His impact was so significant he was acknowledged by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Truman S. Truman.

He was created by Ham Fisher of Wilkes-Barre, a few miles from the monument.

The comic strip was so revered that when an earlier historical marker vanished, volunteers banded together to not only replace it, but make it better.

Hazleton native Dave DeCosmo was a driving force in the project during his television journalism career.

“I did an editorial calling for restoring the bronze marker that had been stolen years before,” he said. “The old Sunday Independent newspaper picked up on the idea and formed the committee to raise public funds to get the job done.

“It was decided to use a granite memorial rather than bronze lest it be taken again.

“We also moved the site slightly south where a pullover spot was available for anyone who wanted to stop.”

Today, thousands of vehicles whiz by on busy Route 309. I’m not sure how many actually stop to see the marker. There’s no way to gather an official count.

And today’s younger generation wouldn’t even know who Joe Palooka was.

Heroes change. Time marches on.

But one thing is certain.

Whether it’s a painting by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or a parody of “Feast of the Gods,” art impacts our emotions.

Art may be taught. But creativity is a trait with many influences. It might even be part an artist’s genetic code.

Whatever the case, never doubt the power of art in our world.