Other Comics Theory Resources

I think McCloud will be very useful to us this term, but there is a growing body of comics theory on which we can draw this semester, as well.  Below are links to some resources that might be of interest to those of you with both scholarly and artistic investment in comics.

Hillary Chute's Graphic Women

A Comics Studies Reader, Ed. Jeet Heer and Ken Worcester

Michael Chaney's Graphic Subjects

Jared Gardner's Projections: Comics and The History of 21st Century Storytelling

Charles Hatfield's Alternative Comics

Frederick Aldama's Multicultural Comics

Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics

Thierry Groensteen's The System of Comics

Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art

Neil Cohn's The Visual Language of Comics

Randy Duncan's The Power of Comics

Blog Post #2 Time Frames, Living in Line, and Show and Tell

As the facilitator for Blog #2, I know that I am posting this early. However I wanted to open blog #2 early due to the holiday weekend so that others have more than enough time to respond.

     I found it vastly interesting how in Scott McCloud’s ‘Understanding Comics’ he stated that, “As children, our first books had pictures galore and very few words because it was easier. Then as we grew we were expected to graduate to books with much more text and only occasional pictures…and finally to arrive at real books. Those with no pictures at all.”

     It felt as though in this moment Scott McCloud was speaking to the evolution of reading on a maturity level and not on a literacy level. It is true that historically we often used pictures more often than not in order to tell a story or to express a message. However this had more to do with the level of literacy than it did maturity.

     This notion of reading books without pictures as being something that “adults do” is a common social concept found in European and Western nations and not as much in Eastern nations.  In fact adults are often seen buying and reading manga in public in Eastern nations. 

     I have always found it fascinating how American society stereotypes comics and animation as something for children. There are many modern comics and manga that are modeled with the intention that older audiences will read them. In fact many comics nowadays have ratings so buyers/sellers are aware that the material within is not suited for all audiences.

How do you feel about the notion of comics being a medium for younger audiences?

Superman DC Comic

     Scott McCloud also often noted, how comics began to transform after their creators began to ‘borrow’ techniques from their Japanese counterparts. The different techniques are used tell time or to show emotion, such as larger cells, thought bubbles, open and closed panels. 

     Often while reading various comics time becomes relative. The relativity of time is a common issue found in novels and books without pictures. The author often has to tell the reader “such and such time has past.” While in comics we tell time via the background (seasons, holidays, day/night) and other methods.

Kuroko no Basket (Japanese Manga)

     Based on the readings and/or your own experiences with comics and manga do you feel that the image techniques found in comics and manga have the ability to invoke all our senses? Do you think that comics have the ability to invoke an emotional response like that of novels or movies? Do you think that altering the shape of panels changes our perception or interpretation of the story while its being told?

Superman 1957

Superman 2013

Formal Discussion Post #1: First Comments due by 8pm Thursday

 As mentioned in an earlier post, McCloud's definition of comics is quite broad.  Do you think it's too broad? Why do you think he leaves his definition so open? Would you include the examples he does under the category of comics? Why/ why not?

One thing we can all agree upon, however, is the centrality of his theory of the icon to his idea of comics.  How does McCloud use the term "icon"? How does it relate to the comparative imporance of the cartoon to comics?

Finally, what is the gutter in comics? How does it function, like more iconic/ abstract images in McCloud's estimation, to encourage reader participation? What is the concept of "closure" relative to the gutter?

Obviously, there's no need to engage with ALL of these questions, but try to weigh in on the three topics in some regard.  Your first comments should be added by 8pm Thursday, but we can hopefully keep the conversation going for awhile! I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

WHAT ARE COMICS?

According to Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics, com.ics (kom'iks) n. plural in form, used with a singular verb. 1. Juxtaposed pictoral and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.

Why is this simple definition so important?

Mainly, because, as McCloud says:
The secret is not in what the definition says but what it doesn't say! For example, our definition says nothing about superheroes or funny animals. Nothing about fantasy/science fiction or reader age. No genres are listed in our definition, no types of subject matter, no styles of prose or poetry. Nothing is said about paper and ink. No printing process is mentioned. Printing itself isn't even specified! Nothing is said about technical pens or bristol board or Windsor & Newton Finest Sable Series 7 Number 2 Brushes! No materials are ruled out by our definition. No tools are prohibited. There is no mention of black lines and flat colored ink. No calls for exaggerated anatomy or for representational art of any kind. No schools of art are banished by our definition, no philosophies, no movements, no ways of seeing are out of bounds!

Under McCloud’s definition, many things we don’t normally consider comics can be read as such. 

For, example, there’s A Harlot’s Progress (1731-1732), a series of paintings and engravings by William Hogarth about a woman’s progression from innocent to prostitute.

And, many single panel comic strips, like The Family Circus, would not be considered part of the medium.

Getting to Know You, Getting to (E-) Know All About You

Despite the fact that we might not get to meet one another in-person, I thought it made sense to open the semester by introducing ourselves.  Below, please post a brief introduction: your name, major/ year, knowledge of or interest in comics (if any), and a line or two about a favorite book/ movie/ television show/ comic to give us a sense of your taste. 

I can start: I'm a professor in the English department at UC. I teach classes on contemporary American literature, especially comics, the modern novel, literary theory, and race and ethnicity.  I am happy to talk to you more about the department here at UC or other fun classes you might take or (gasp) careers you might pursue with an English degree. I love teaching this course because I really enjoy comics, particularly what has come to be called "the graphic novel," and think that comics have forever altered the contemporary literary scene and made us think about how images, like words, can tell a story.  I have countless favorite books, movies, television shows, and comics; like a lot of you, I imagine, I am a bit of a culture junky.  I'd have to say, though, that I am obsessed with the newish show, Orphan Black, and can't bear that there won't be a new season for awhile. Any other Orphan Black obsessives out there?

Are comics a medium or a genre? And, why does it matter?

Read the following excerpt from Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics about the question of whether comics (it sounds strange to make it singular, I know) is a medium or a genre. What is the difference between a medium and a genre? Why does Wolk suggest it matters which one we label comics?  What does he mean by "highbrow" comics?  Can we put a work like Spiegelman's Maus, with which we will begin the semester, and Archie (seen above) alongside one another?

Welcome!

Welcome to ENGL 3084, Comics and Graphic Novels!  I'm excited to work with you this semester in this online course devoted to thinking about the ways in which words and images work together to make up the medium we call comics. 

To get us started, we will start by reading Scott McCloud's germinal work, Understanding Comics.  Understanding Comics is dated in some ways--it was published during the 1990s and it seems like it. You can almost imagine it being carried to the coffee shop under the arms of flannel-shirt-wearing, grunge-listening 20-somethings. Still, I think it explains what comics are (or maybe what they're not...) better than many more recent publications do.  And, if nothing else, it will set the stakes and the vocabulary for much of what we will discuss subsequently.

Here is some more McCloud to help set the scene! 

I'll make a subsequent post with more resources about comics if you are interested in reading more about their origins and about graphic novels (we will talk more during the semester about the "graphic novel" and whether, as a category, it really suits what we're discussing).


For more about the format of this course, see the links under "course information" to your right!  These links will give you information about assignments, the reading schedule, and--MOST IMPORTANTLY--how and when to post to the blog.