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.