Submitted photo / Jim Steranko Paintings that Jim Steranko created to help design the look of Indiana Jones for the Steven Spielberg / George Lucas film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” will be among the works featured in “Steranko and the American Hero.”

YOUNGSTOWN — Jim Steranko is credited with introducing numerous innovations for how comic book superheroes are presented.

The artist turns his attention to American heroes in an exhibition opening March 13 at the Butler Institute of American Art. “Steranko and the American Hero” will include paintings of comic-book characters, literary figures and cinematic icons by the 83-year-old artist who helped create the look of Indiana Jones for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and worked with Francis Ford Coppola on his version of “Dracula.”

The Butler, which originally planned to open the show in May 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic forced its postponement, is expecting big crowds.

“His appearances for two years have been canceled,” Wendy Swick, public relations director, said. “He’s got a very strong connection with his fan base. … We’ve had a lot of inquiries. They’re really champing at the bit for a book, and there will be a book and a poster.”

Those inquiries have come from as far away as Australia, and the Butler will have both a catalog for the exhibition and a poster, including a limited number of signed copies available for purchase.

Linda Macala, executive director of the Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau, said, “We’re very excited. It should be an enormous draw. We’re just starting to get the word out. It’s featured in our March newsletter, and we’ll be doing a digital campaign to reach fans it will appeal to.”

The excitement of Steranko’s fans is mirrored by the artist himself.

Steranko tweeted to his followers last week, “The ‘Steranko and the American Hero’ exhibit is no Comic-Con back-room show, but a fully sanctioned, first-class, elegant event hanging on the same walls as the country’s most celebrated artists, from Turner to Warhol! I see it as a breakthrough moment in pop-culture history!”

Steranko will attend a reception for the exhibition from 6 to 8 p.m. April 9 (tickets are $35 for Butler members and $50 for nonmembers and are available at butlerart.com). He will not be signing autographs at the event, but an autograph signing is planned at Doubletree Hotel in downtown Youngstown following the reception (details to be announced).

It won’t be Steranko’s first appearance in the Mahoning Valley. Greg Bartholomew, who owns All-American Cards and Comics in Warren and Boardman, had Steranko as a guest at Packard Music Hall in 2014 for his All-Ameri-Con and again in 2019 at the Covelli Centre for the Youngstown Comic Con.

“In 2014 the line lasted for him the whole day, from 10 (a.m.) to 5 (p.m.),” Bartholomew said. “When he came back in 2019, we had lines out the door, as they say. Jim brought a sense of realism into his art and into his stories. Some of his early comic book covers have almost a Salvador Dali feeling to it. … He was just a huge innovator. He broke the mold in terms of what was being done in comic books in the late ’60s.”

Featuring Steranko’s work continues a long tradition at the Butler of bringing in exhibitions that will attract new visitors to the museum.

“We want to make the non-fine-art audience comfortable visiting a fine art museum and getting that exposure to fine art,” Swick said. “We want to expand the audience and make them feel more welcome.

“This art is very much a part of pop culture right now. People need heroes, even the ones with a dark side to them, the flaws we all can relate to, and this artist has brought that to us.”