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An Aesthetic History of Comics
This is a class about comics as a medium for expression. It focuses on the aesthetics of comics on and beyond the page. Comics are usually taught in terms of its dominant genres and characters. This class will cover that history minimally, in favor of a strong focus on comics as a mode of expression (discussing drawing/mark making, storytelling mechanics) and as a graphic/commercial culture that defined many pop cultural icons/idioms and in turn influenced fine artists.
-- Contributed by Dan Nadel, School of Visual Arts
Comic Books as Literature
An analysis of the comic book in terms of its unique poetics (the complicated interplay of word and image); the themes that are suggested in various works; the history and development of the form and its subgenres; and the expectations of comic book readers. Examines the influence of history, culture, and economics on comic book artists and writers. Explores definitions of "literature," how these definitions apply to comic books, and the tensions that arise from such applications.
-- Contributed by Dr. Rocco Versaci, Palomar College
Comics and Animation
This course will place the cartoon arts - comic books, comic strips, editorial cartoons and animation - in an explicitly critical and scholarly framework. More specifically, the course will emphasize the historical, formal, aesthetic, and cultural aspects of comics and animation.
-- Contributed by Kenton W. Worcester, Marymount Manhattan College
Comics as Literature, Comics as Art
This course will examine, first, some of the conventions of comics as a medium of narrative, and the ins and outs of the super-hero genre in particular. Understanding Comics will provide us with a vocabulary for talking about the formal concerns of comics as art, and will insist on the division between "sequential art" and "super- hero stories." After taking up some exceptional work within the genre, we will stretch our definitions of what constitutes a comic book, looking at recent work that clearly participates in the pleasures and accomplishments of genuine, enduring literature.
-- Contributed by Isaac Cates, Yale University
Comics in American Culture
An historical survey of American comic art and artists from the 1950's to the 1990's. The course is primarily concerned with how comics has developed and matured as a distinctively American art form, reflecting and commenting on post-W.W. II American society in a variety of narrative forms: comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels.
-- Contributed by William Touponce, Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Explore Chicago: The Art of Chris Ware
This course will focus an analysis and scholarly examination of the "Chicago-based" graphic novel -- Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Its author, Chicago resident, artist / writer Chris Ware is a creator of comic books and graphic novels whose narrative / visual context has received notable critical attention. We will study his work for its important Chicago urban, narrative, history and visual themes
-- Contributed by Ken Bill, DePaul University
History of Comic-Book Art
From the originating educator: "I offered this course--Art History H 150--at Indiana University, Bloomington, five times between 2002 and 2004. When I was first put in charge of it, I was given nothing but its title and the complete freedom to shape it as I wished. As it was an introductory-level course, I decided not to be too literal about the title's exact wording ("Comic-Book Art"), but to make it into a general introduction to comics, with of course higher attention paid to the medium's visual elements as befits a course taught within an art history program. The stronger emphasis on the visual was also meant to compensate for the more text-oriented tendencies of such courses when offered in English, Comp Lit, or Cultural Studies programs."
-- Contributed by Andrei Molotiu, University of Louisville, Kentucky
Media in Cultural Context: Comics, Cartoons, and Graphic Storytelling
This is a course about words, pictures, and stories. We hope over the term to map as broad a range of different things you can do with words and pictures as possible. Our central focus will be on two important strands of graphic storytelling - comix (understood as both comic strips and comic books) and cartoons (understood as moving images). We will also be looking along the way at other forms of graphic storytelling, ranging from tapestries to children's book illustrations.
-- Contributed by Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Reading Comics as Literature
In the last two decades, comics, a medium that most Americans had long dismissed as pulp fantasy and cheap entertainment, has begun to mature into an impressive and promising literary form. The 1980s saw the emergence of the "graphic novel," the long-form comic that aspires not only to narrative coherence and closure, but to formal complexity and psychological depth. The current generation of comics artists has built on this foundation, and is now in the process of creating what may be the major literary medium of the twenty-first century. These so-called graphic novels are the texts we will be studying.
-- Contributed by Isaac Cates, Yale
Studies in Literature and Culture: The Graphic Novel
The comic book medium is one of the most culturally significant but least understood art forms of the twentieth century.? In this course, we will study the history of the medium from its origin in turn-of-the-century newspaper comic strips to the development of graphic novels and what Eisner refers to as "sequential art" -- the medium of words and pictures??at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
-- Contributed by Brian Cremins, University of Connecticut
Survey of Sequential Art
Course Description: This course is a survey of sequential art from its origins. Emphasis will be placed on sequential art in the twentieth century, including newspaper cartoons, comic books, and graphic novels. The aim of this class is to foster an appreciation and understanding of the art and techniques involved in sequential art. The broader social and historical contexts of the works studied will also be explored.
-- Contributed by Mark Kneece, Savannah College of Art and Design
Writing about Comics
This course offers a reading survey of the best comics of the past twenty years (sometimes called "graphic novels"), and supplies the skills for reading comics critically in terms not only of what they say (which is easy) but of how they say it (which takes some thinking). More importantly than the fact that comics will be touching off all of our conversations, however, this is a course in writing critically: in building an argument, in gathering and organizing literary evidence, and in capturing and retaining the reader's interest (and your own).
-- Contributed by Isaac Cates, Connecticut College
Writing Through Media
This course will explore noncanonical literature like video games, hypertext narratives, television, music videos and the like by writing THROUGH media. We will be building websites using what we learn in the class about the relationship between form and content and the relationship between graphics and texts. For these purposes, this class will specifically be studying video games, comic books, hypertext narratives, many experimental websites which rely heavily on flash animation for interaction, and many differing theoretical approaches.
-- Contributed by Laurie Taylor, University of Florida
Cartooning
Cartooning can be a lot more than just having fun drawing and creating jokes; it can also be a means for creative self-discovery, the exploration of ideas, and social and political commentary. The emphasis in this class will be on cartoon humor, but you will also explore the many other dimensions of cartooning. Participants will learn to develop material for cartoons by keeping a sketchbook that will serve as a journal for notes, observations, experiences, memories, and anecdotes. You will then translate this material into various cartoon narratives, ranging from the simple construction of one-panel "gag" cartoons to full-fledged multiple-panel stories.
-- Contributed by Ivan Brunetti, Columbia College
Comic Book Scripting
This is a course in writing and creative visual planning. Students learn to break story ideas down visually into pages and panels with dialogue and captions. The student is taught to think "cinematically" and to understand the relationship between text and image in sequential art. The student is expected not only to know the basic written skills of grammar and composition, but the physical space that writing occupies. In addition, methods for adapting existing stories and for working within the length restrictions of various formats may be considered. Editing with consideration to time, space, and clarity is taught.
-- Contributed by Mark Kneece, Savannah College of Art and Design
Introduction to Comics Art: Gateway to Visual Storytelling
This class is meant to serve as a basic introduction to the elements of visual storytelling. Depending on the school and what best suits its curriculum, this class could be offered as an art studio class, an illustration course, part of a writing program or within a film and video department. If a school is only looking to offer one studio class in comics, an Intro class like this could easily serve as that class.
-- Contributed by James Sturm