Week 14: The Future of Comics

This week we are discussing web comics, motion comics and the future of comics generally. 

Please complete all your blogposts before Friday, Dec. 18 and as the most recent post to your blog include the sum of all the points you feel you have earned by your reading and writing, as well as the number of Zoom classes you have missed. I will be reading the blogs and confirming final grades the next day.  

For reading this week, links to various web comics are listed below.  maintained in the blog entry for this week on the online course syllabus as well as below. You are encouraged to mediate a webcomic, motion comic, or any comic that you want to bring to our attention by describing it and describe who might be interested in it.  Link to it if you can and discuss its value, importance, or defining characteristic.

The Library of Congress maintains an archive of important Web Comics that you can read.  It can take a while to get comics downloaded to your machine, but there are a number of the important Web Comics of the past available.  Be patient as you navigate to the comics.

https://www.loc.gov/collections/webcomics-web-archive/

One of the most interesting multi-modal comics/visual narratives produced recently is 17776 or What Football will Look Like in the Future.  This is well worth looking at as it explores a wide range of possibilities in the web-based visual narrative.

Another major work of comics in alternative formats is Trash Mountain a long form GIF comic by Kelton Sears. It can be read online here.

If you are looking for an augmented reality comic I am suggest Masters of the Sun by the Black-eyed Peas which has to be purchased as well as the downloadable app that is required to unleash its augmented reality aspects.

Here is a link to a review of The Best 15 Web Comics You Should Be Reading, or this recent list of 10 Great Webcomics, or if you can't get enough web comics, here is a curated list of 100 Top Webcomics.

About this time of year the latest retrospective lists will be coming out, I recommend you look at those as a good start.

Here are a few more recent links I have enjoyed reading.

Here is a link to Wind Rose by Aleksandra Ferentc who is in this class this semester and maintains this web comic.

Miss Abbott and the Doctor by Maripaz Villar

Meg, Mogg and Owl by Simon Hanselmann

Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor

Oyster War by Ben Towle

Ducks by Kate Beaton

Falling Sky by Drax Tran-Caffee

Stand Still, Stay Silent a post apocalyptic story with elements of Nordic mythology by Minna Sundberg

Digger by Ursulla Vernon has a large archive and sustains reasonably well through its large number of pages.


Lady of the Shard very interesting monchromatic web based comic experiment

Below is a link to a very interesting flash comic that explored some of the ideas in next generation sequential art:

http://balak01.deviantart.com/art/about-DIGITAL-COMICS-111966969

This is a short comic and I recommend viewing it. Here is another link to a scrolling horizontal comic with excellent special graphic effects called Delta: First Word

http://www.electricsheepcomix.com/delta/firstword/

Here is link to more web comics Activity Page where there are links to some collections of web comics no longer available on the internet.

Most recently there have emerged comics designed to represent true stories and representations of actual situations, often of oppressed people or communities.  Here is an important example in Manga:

What has Happened to Me by Tomomi Shimizu

Week 13: Re-inventing the Superhero

Characters from Watchman artist: Dave Gibbons

This week we will be discussing how the licensed characters from the large commercial publishers were reshaped by the collector's market, the emergence of the graphic novel and the appearance of a number of writers who embraced the traditional conceits and motifs of the comic book while adapting them to adult storytelling. We will focus especially on the work of Alan Moore who along with writers like Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, and Warren Ellis among others, did much to keep mainstream genres like superheros relevant in the decades before the 21st century, and whose influence is reflected in the Superhero storyverses today.

Featured Selection: The syllabus contains a number of reading recommendations for this week but we will focus on the importance of Watchmen. Students who haven't read Watchmen are advised to read it.
  
Required Reading for This Week:  This week everyone is required to read the story, "The Killing Joke," which is a Batman story. After you read it, please reply to the following four questions on your blog:

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?
2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss what elements of the story with which you were able to connect?
3. What changes would you make to adapt this story into another medium? What medium would you choose; what changes would you make?
4. In what ways does this story differ from the typical expectations the reader might have for a superhero story?

Please write your responses in your blog and try to complete a paragraph for each question.

Among the readings for this week are recent examples of Black Panther which have inspired and been inspired by the recent film.  This is a title that has become one of the centers for African-American approaches to writing for the comics . There are many inventive aspects of the approach recent writers have taken to Black Panther and these recent issues are among the featured selections for this week.

Here is the link to the Activiy Page for this week.

Week 12 Comics by Women

This week we are focusing on the contributions of women creators to comics.  The featured reading is a This One Summer by the Tamaki cousins. . There are a number of possible alternate readings including several works that are autobiographical non-fiction. Among the most important of these might be Fun Home, the autobiographical "graphic novel" by strip cartoonist Alison Bechdel which we have considered before.  Also Bechdel's sequel Are You My Mother which is a deeper psychological exploration of the creator's relationship with her Mother.

In class we will look at some of the history of comics written and drawn by women. If you didn't read My Favorite Thing is Monsters last week, it is a good selection for this week as well as are Persepolis and My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. Among other works you might find interesting are Julie Doucet's My New York Diary, Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner, and Laurie Sandell's The Imposter's Daughter. If you are interested in women working in somewhat more mainstream comics you might look at Pretty Deadly, Lumberjanes, and Bitch Planet all which show a greater participation in mainstream comics by female writers and artists. 

I will be discussing a number of other works that relate to the history of women in making comics and I hope that you all are able to read some of the excellent work we are considering this week and be prepared to talk about what you read in class.

For a further list of works check the assignment for this week on the Activity Page for this week.

Week 11 Comics as Contemporary Literature

This week we will discuss how the graphic novel is becoming an accepted part of the literary landscape. In order to explore this topic I am asking you to start reading three choices on the Activity Page for this week.  I would like you write briefly about your experience with each of the three and I expect you to finish reading one of the choices all the way through.  

When you write your response, talk about what you think is literary about the work you chose.  Or if you don't agree with me that it is literary, you can talk about why it is not.

Among this week's featured suggestions are  Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli or My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris. These works are recent landmarks of the literary graphic novel. These works like others, can be considered as not located within genre but within the expectations of a literary audience that is extremely sophisticated about narratives that unfold in both visual and written modes. Other noteworthy works in this category include Jimmy Corrigan The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware, Ghost World and several other works by Daniel Clowes, Fun Home and Are You My Mother by Alison Bechdel, and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

Here is a link to this week's Activity Page

Week Ten: Manga and the Japanese Comics Tradition

This week we are looking at Manga and the comics tradition in Japan. The activity page lists a number of works you can choose to read but please try to make sure you read at least one of the major works by Osamu Tezuka. One of the volumes of Phoenix or the Buddha series is especially recommended.

You can use some links below to go to scanlation sites where there are works by Tezuka.  You will also find some works to read on the Course Resource Page.

I have linked a presentation on Manga to the Activity Page for this week.  Please watch this before coming to class.

Tezuka: I have linked recommended works by Tezuka for this week to the Activity Page.  Here are some other works available on scanlation sites.  Please read one of the Buddha series or Phoenix series as a first choice for this week.

Lost World (1948) one of Tezuka's first successes in long form story manga.

Next World (1951) early science fiction story manga by Tezuka, part of the foundation of science fiction manga.

Tonkaradani Monogatari (1955) Tales in a natural setting.  You might call this emblematic of the roots of shoujo. 

Angels Hill (1960) Early shoujo, merpeople on Angel's Island.

Dororo (1967) very popular shonen classic by Tezuka sets the formula for much of the shonen genre. Three volumes here.

Clockwork Apple (1970) Short stories with Tezuka flexing his new, more mature storytelling style.

Ode to Kirihito (1970) Gekiga influenced medical drama, very hard edged and interesting, an adventure manga focusing on the corruption at the heart of the medical establishment. Not a kid's manga.

Black Jack (1973) based loosely on some of Tezuka's experiences in medicine. A medical themed adventure series in seven volumes.

Hidamari no Ki (1981) historical slice of life samurai medical drama.  There are anime series and live action tv series based on this manga.

Manga Seibutsugaku educational manga from Tezuka combining his manga skill with his interests in biology, especially insects. Two volumes.

Astro Cat (1986) In case you didn't get enough of Astro Boy, here are the adventures of his cat.


I can also recommend Bakuman which is an interesting "backstage at the manga" story which explains the context of contemporary shonen comics in Japan and can provide insight on the publication dynamics of popular Japanese manga and anime as the industry was constructed until recently.

Here is a link to a very in-depth discussion by manga professionals as to the future of manga in Japan.

Here is a link to the Activity Page for this week which will link to this week's presentation , to possible readings and other resources.

Week Nine: European Comics

From Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

This week we are considering other traditions of the comics, especially the work of European artists.  The American magazine, Heavy Metal, was instrumental in bringing a number of European artists, especially fantasy illustrators, to the attention of the American audience. These artists had a great influence on the development of graphic science fiction and fantasy worldwide which has been especially apparent in movies. 

The autobiographical genre of comics has also been strongly pursued by a number of contemporary European cartoonists. On the syllabus listing for this week and the course resource pages you will find a wide range of works that encompass a number of genres.  Some stories are personal, some stories are in classic genre like westerns or sci-fi.  Most are in the long form of European comics called the "album," a cardboard bound book. 

While occasionally suppressed for political or religious reasons, the comics as a medium in Europe generally shared the same distribution system as typical books or magazines. Graphic storytelling assumed an audience that included adults. This meant that European comics always had modes of storytelling that included serious subjects and works that received serious consideration by critics and readers.

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi is a must read for anyone interested in the Graphic Novel.  If you haven't read it before you might want to read it now.  And if you didn't read any TinTin before now, please read some this week, he is the fundamental figure in Franco-Belgian Comics. 

But European Comics (Bandes Dessinées) are especially effective in genre graphic narratives like adventure stories, westerns, science fiction, fantasy, noir, erotic comics and satire.  In part, because storytelling for adults through comics was able to develop more directly in main stream publishin and distribution in Europe.

Among the artists and works you should consider reading this week are anything by Moebius, perhaps the most influential artist in post-war European comics; the Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal; Ranxerox by Tambourini and Liberatore (very adult content warning on this work); any Asterix album, some of the adventure tales of Hugo Pratt and Milo Manera; the erotically charged narratives of Crepax; and some of the Space Operas of Barbarella or Valerian & Laureline.  There is a fullsome set of resources for you to read and some background videos to watch and enjoy on this week's Activity Page.

Here is a link to a new archive of Heavy Metal magazine on the internet.

For a more complete list of alternate readings and resources for this week look at this week's Activity Page.

Non-Fiction Comics

 

Panel from Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza

This week we are considering the issues and ethics of representation especially in relationship to non-fiction comics, when real people and real historic events, whether personal or public, individual or community, must be represented as honestly and accurately as possible while still retaining the aspects of style and visual narrative to be good comics.

The featured reading for this week is March the story of the civil rights movement in the United States as told through the life of John Lewis. There is also an entire range of non-fiction, long form comics from which to choose alternative readings or extra credit for this week linked on this week's activity page. I have also linked several nonfiction animated features to the Activity Page as well. You can earn a point for everyone you watch and write about in your blog.

Click Here to Go Directly to this Week's Activity Page

Week Seven: Maus and the Legitimization of the Graphic Novel

Cover of Maus by Art Spiegelman

The assignment for this week is to read Maus and to post an extended response on your blog. This is required reading for all students in the class. Maus is the watershed work that brought the graphic novel into the mainstream of the literary marketplace. It was reviewed by book reviewers from major newspapers and magazines, it was sold primarily in bookstores and not comic book shops, it was embraced by teachers who put it on reading lists. This constitutes the process of legitimization which, in this case, helped to create the new literary genre of the graphic novel. Spiegelman's work is representative of the movement from underground comics to literary or "art" comics. This new generation of comics looked to tell longer stories to adult readers on a wide range of topics. These topics included subjects traditionally associated with the novel such as the experience of time or the nature of memory. The unique way that the graphic novel addresses such subjects is to the heart of what we are discussing in this course.

Here is a link to an interview published a few days ago of Art Spiegelman in The Guardian.

If you have read Maus recently than you can read something else this week.  Alternatives are listed on the Activity Page. In class we will watch the entirety of Barefoot Gen a feature length animation .

Click here to go directly to the Activity Page for this Week

Post for the Midterm

Midnight, Friday Oct. 23 is the deadline for posting all your work before Mid-term grades.  I will be reading your bogs and assigning letter grades this weekend.  Before Friday night please post on anything you have read or viewed for this semester.  To complete your preparation for mid-term evaluation please post as the most recent addition to your blog, a post that counts all your points accumulated so far this semester.  Relate the number of points you feel you have earned from your reading and viewing.  List a point for every zoom class you attended, list any extra points (for example points earned by cosplay) and please list the number of classes you have missed so far.  I will then read your blog and see if I agree with your point count based on what I read that you have posted.  I will then post a letter grade for you which will be released at the mid-term and which represents the grade that, if you continue at the current rate of reading and writing, you should achieve by the end of the course.  

Email me with any questions.

Week Six: Underground Comics



Cover from Cheech Wizard by Vaughn Bode

Underground Comics originated in the campus humour magazines of the early 1960s and were given popular exposure in the alternative newspapers that grew up in most cities during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Just as the comic strips of the early part of the 20th century helped establish the readership of mainstream newspapers, underground comics had a similar symbiotic relationship with underground newspapers, helping to create a wider and regular readership for alternative papers like the East Village Other, The Berkeley Barb and the Los Angeles Free Press. When excess capacity was available on the printing presses that were used to print rock posters, the opportunity arose for the creation and distribution of underground comic books. The primary distribution system for underground comics was the networks of head shops that grew up around the country in response to the spreading youth counter-culture of the early 1970s. With the enaction of anti-paraphernalia laws and the suppression of the "head" shops in the late 1970s and early 1980s, underground comics began to morph into the alternative comics and art comics movements that established new channels of distribution in comics collectible shops and mainstream bookstores. The underground comics helped create an audience for adult storytelling in graphic narrative which led directly to the development of the graphic novel and literary expectations for long-form comics.
For this week's class read from the underground comics on the Course Resources page. We will be discussing the work of Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky Crumb and a number of other important underground comics and comics artists especially Mr. Natural,  Zap and Air Pirates Funnies. Listen to the appropriate soundtrack while reading the Underground Comix for a more virtual 60s experience.

As stated in class, most underground comics are by definition offensive, they are intended to offend and to push the borders of taste and propriety.  You will find nudity, sex, violence, racism, sexism, pretty much any and all offensive material you can imagine represented here.  For those who wish to limit the offensive material they encounter might try the following suggestions, these works are related to underground comics but don't directly feature sex, nudity, drug use or significant violence:

Howard the Duck
Barefootz by Howard Cruise
Yellow Submarine
Comics by Basil Wolverton

click here to go directly to this week's Activity Page for resources and a more detailed explanation of this week's assignment

 "If you feel safe in the area that you're working in, you're not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in; go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting."

David Bowie as quoted by Eric Stephenson

Week Five: Body Talk: Eisner and Thompson

Self Portrait by Will Eisner

Will Eisner's theory of graphic narrative emphasizes the conveyance of mood, emotion, and state of mind of a character by use of the language of the body. Everything in Eisner's rendering of a character is designed for a clarity of emotion. At times in Eisner's panels it is as if we are looking at key frames of a movie and yet many of the visual effects and organizations of information would be impossible in a movie. In Craig Thompson's Blankets we can see the same devotion to clarity, although the narrative itself is often soaked in ambiguity--ambiguities about time, memory, belief. For me there is a striking similarity in the narrative approach of these two creators.

Before Zoom Class: This week we will consider Eisner and his contribution to comics and to the emergence of the long form of comics, the graphic novel. We will also consider Eisner's contribution to educational comics and the graphic narrative as an information medium. Please read at least one of Eisner's graphic novels, such as A Contract With God and earn 3 points. Also read Craig Thompson's Blankets and earn another 3 points when you write about what you read for this week.

Writing Assignment: Do you see anything similar in Eisner's approach to graphic storytelling and Thompson's?  As a possible topic for your blog this week, describe the similarity and comment on how it affects the reading of the works. In another approach you could simply describe how something in one of the works affected you at the personal level. Describe the affects and what produced them during your experience of the text.

There are more details and links to resources on the Activity Page for this Week.  Click here to go the activity page or use the schedule to get there.

Next week we will look at the explosion of possibilities for content brought about by the emergence of underground comics. There are a number of underground comics available to be read on the password protected course website. There are also links to appropriate soundtracks with which to read these comics. These comics were almost always read to accompaniment of music of the period.

WeeK Four: The Comic Book

Cover of Little Lulu by John Stanley

This week we will consider the history of the comic book. 
The comic strip introduced mass readership to the pleasures of the graphic narrative with stories or episodes that unfolded serially, a few panels at a time. When offered the opportunity to buy reprints of comics in which entire story arcs or adventures could be read at once, or even just having the opportunity to read more comics at one sitting than could be experienced on the pages of the newspaper, audiences responded. and the comic book emerged.
First comic books were generally issued as advertising giveaways, but soon they flourished as independent publications, distributed through newstands and magazine outlets regularly offering a collection of comics for a dime or 15 cents. Coinciding with the decline of the pulp magazine, comic books often took the shelf space and the financial backing freed by an audience that was gradually turning away from print as a primary source of high adventure and going to the movies or switching on their radios.

As this new form of graphic narrative took hold, the comic book quickly exceeded the content available from the leftovers of comic strip production.  New characters, artists and production methods began growing up to support the format of the comic book. One of the killer applications deployed within this new environment was the costumed hero who quickly became closely associated with the new medium. During the Second World War the comic book increased in popularity and widened its appeal in part due to the easy portability of its format. It's popularity among the members of the military during the war created a demand for a new level of realism and adult subject matter among readers during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The conflict between the demands of the expanding and maturing audience for comics and public perception of the comics as a medium for children resulted in the creation of a strong censorship system for the comics that restricted mainstream comics to child appropriate subjects and representations. A number of creators, like Carl Barks for example, were able to produce compelling and effective stories within these limitations, but the medium itself was restricted in such a way as to frustrate its evolution into a genre that might appeal to a more mature and educated audience. Comic books became associated with illiteracy, juvenile storytelling, and lack of graphic sophistication. By the middle of the 1960s, comics were largely considered as something like a folk art, lacking in literary or cultural legitimacy, but a good source for expropriation or study as a sub-culture.

Please read some comic books from the course resources page. This week the featured artists we will consider are Jack Kirby, some EC comics, some Carl Barks stories, and some TinTin stories by Herge. Read some additional examples in any of the sub-genres you might enjoy. 

Options will be posted on this week's Activity Page here.

Want to see what comics were coming out the same month as you were born? Or maybe when your mom was born? Or your grandmother? Try Mike's Amazing Comics Time Machine and just fill in the proper data to see a list of covers of those comics.

Week Three: The Comic Strip

Over the next few weeks we will look at work representing various changes in the format of comics covering the last 125 years of the medium. Among our topics will be how sequential art has been shaped by the technology of its reproduction and its means of distribution. We will also consider how comics change and don't change when the format changes. We will begin by looking at the comic strip and its linkage to the history of the newspaper.

Google does Little Nemo, Oct. 15, 2012

This week you will need to read a sampling of comic strips from the course resource page.  As a general overview please read The Smithsonian Book of Comic Strips or the library. Please read at least some of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo, George Herriman's Krazy Kat,  Charles Schultz's Peanuts and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes is also highly recommended. You can consult the syllabus for recommendations as to comics strip artists to read. 

For your blog post this week you can write about any aspect of what you have read, as is the case every week.  If you are looking for a prompt for this week's writing you can discuss the defining characteristics of the comic strips you read for this week.

Also in class we will look at Winsor McCay as an animator.  Please watch some of his animations linked to the Activity Page. 

Here is a link to the Activity Page for this week.

The Following Week we will consider the history of the Comic Book. We will be reading work by Carl Barks and Herge as well as selected comic books in the Course Resources area.

If you haven't sent me a link to the URL of your blog, please do so right a way.

Week Two: Understanding Comics

Detail from A Harlot's Progress by William Hogarth

This image is a detail from William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress. This week we are looking at the history of some early comics.  We will also be talking about some of the ideas in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. Please read Understanding Comics for this week. If you already have read Understanding Comics or if you just want to know more about  how to make them, then read Making Comics by Scott McCloud. When you write your blog this week, talk about an idea or insight that McCloud presents and that you find interesting. Focus on discussing that one idea with a bit of depth instead of trying to cover several ideas from the book. 

Here is a link to an excellent 17 minute talk by Scott McCloud that recounts some of his perspective on Comics and seeing the world through comics. This talk was given at the TED conference which is an amazing conference of short talks and performances that are often completely mind-blowing. 

Link to Scott McCloud TED talk.

22 Panels that Always Work by Patrick Alexander

Here is a link to a Comic about Visual and Spatial Language

Assignment for next class: Next week please read The Smithsonian Book of Comic Strips and/or some features from the selected list of comic strips. . Please read at least some of Winsor McCay's Little Nemo, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, Charles Schulz's Peanuts and Bill Waterson's Calvin and Hobbes as essential reading for next week's class.

Link to The Adventures of Obidiah Oldbuck

Link to Hogarth's The Harlot's Progress

Before the First Class

The new website for this course is now open.  There are active links to the Course FAQ and to the Weekly Schedule for this Course which links to the Teaching Modules for each of the 15 weeks of the course.  Currently only 3 modules are open, but this is sufficient to start reading and writing for the course anytime you want to start.  The point system is explained in the FAQ.  You have to create a blog on Blogger and write your responses there before you earn points for the reading you do. You can start by going to the Landing Page here.

Before coming to the first class please read The Comic Book History of Comics.  You should also read The Arrival by Shaun Tan.  There are other readings on the first Activity Page which is here.   You have to use your Ringling username and password to access the activity pages and the course resources.  There are links to Reading resources on the activity pages and on the Course Resource Page.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at dsteilin@c.ringling.edu.

If you will be studying this semester online while living outside the U.S. let me know if you will have trouble accessing these sites.  I will try to work things out so you don't have to use a VPN if it is illegal for you to do so. Email me about your situation. 

I do not use Canvas for this course.  There will be links on Canvas to the course sites.

The website for this course has been completely revised to better facilitate online learning.  If you find any dead links or other errors please let me know and I will fix them as soon as possibler. 

Summer Reading

The Reading Program for the Summer and the Fall is under construction.  I hope to have it finished soon. And it will include a new website dedicated to the reading program and a new syllabus for the Fall. Meanwhile, the first of the books I would like you to read are ready and you can go to the Course Resource Page to read them.  I will ask you to read two books before school starts.  You will also have the opportunity to read more comics this summer.  You can choose to read works that we will be discussing during our Zoom sessions or you can read some works for extra credit. This will be explained when the Reading Program is ready; meanwhile to start reading now, please read,  The Comic Book History of Comics which is a background text for this course.  It tells the history of comics from an American perspective but it is one of the most accurate overviews currently available and it is based on scholarly work.  We will be reading a number of works and creators referred to in the History and I largely agree with most of its assumptions.  I highly recommend you read this book before class begins in the Fall.

The first topic we will take up will be Wordless comics and we will read a few examples, the most important being The Arrival by Shaun Tan.  If you would like to read this now, please do so although you may want to reread it before the first class.  This is a masterpiece of the graphic narrative and well worth your attention.

If you want to get a further jump on the semester, you may also want to read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud which we will discuss, along with some other works of comics theory during our second Zoom session.

I will let you know as soon as the new Reading Program site is ready.  You can go to the Resource Page here, or using the link in the Links box of this blog.