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.