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