My comics course at Washington State in the Fall

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Apr 052012
 

English/Honors 298: Researching and Writing About Comic Books

Honors 298 is designed to introduce students to research and writing, but also critical, creative, and collaborative thinking. We will consider these issues investigating the history of comics and the graphic novel. Eddie Campbell has called the graphic novel “an emerging new literature of our times in which word, picture, and typography interact meaningfully and which is in tune with the complexity of modern life.” Our course will engage with the cultural, rhetorical, and aesthetic issues surrounding comics. What, for example, makes comics uniquely suited to produce specific types of arguments? How has the history of comics enabled certain cultural representations of minorities and excluded others, and in what ways do specific authors contest that history? Finally, we will look at how digital technology is changing how we enjoy comics and what possible futures exist for the genre. The final course project will be collaborative and ask students to design, write, and illustrate their own 5-10 page mini-comic that introduces a central argument and supports that argument with both visual and literary rhetoric.

Warning: The comics we’ll read this semester include explicit language and graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. If you feel this would offend you, please find another section of HNRS 298.

Texts
Note: All comics, with the exception of Nat Turner, are available on Comixology, for those of you who prefer to read digitally. I have included the relevant issue numbers for the collections we are reading in parentheses.

  • Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera. Scalped. Vol. 1 and 2 (#1-11)
  • Fred Van Lente. Comic Book History of Comics. (Comic Book Comics. #1- 6)
  • Nate Powell. Swallow Me Whole. (Digital)
  • Greg Rucka and JH Williams III Batwoman: Elegy. (Detective Comics. #854-860)
  • Brian Michael Bendis, Sarah Pichelli, and Chris Samnee. Ultimate Comics: Spiderman. Vol. 1 and 2 (#1-10)
  • Paul Tobin and Colleen Cover. Gingerbread Girl. (Digital)
  • Jason Shiga. Meanwhile. (Available as an application on the iPad).
  • Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. We3. (#1-3)
  • Kyle Baker. Nat Turner. Vol. 1 and 2
  • Jeff Lemire. Sweet Tooth. Vol. 1 and 2 (#1-11)
  • Carla Speed McNeil. Finder: Voice. (Digital)
 Posted by at 9:02 pm
  • http://twitter.com/fearv Tanner Higgin

    Looks great, but I would add some female creators as well: Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry, Lilli Carre, Renee French, Julie Doucet (just to name a few favorites).

    • http://www.rogerwhitson.net/ Roger Whitson

      Tanner,

      Do you know if any of those are available digitally? That was my overriding issue. Gender-wise I had thought about discussing superheroes and gender w/ the Batwoman stuff, and there are a lot of interesting gender issues in Gingerbread Girl.

      • http://twitter.com/fearv Tanner Higgin

        I don’t think any are available digitally, unfortunately. Definitely a challenge with integrating indie/alt work into courses.

        • http://www.rogerwhitson.net/ Roger Whitson

          So, now I’m thinking I’m going to teach Finder by Carla Speed McNeil. Have you read this? The first part of it is really good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finder_(comics)

          I may also try to put some Terry Moore in there. Both Echo and the first collection of Rachel Rising are available, but I haven’t read either. Have you?

 
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