English 26-399
Comics Theory
Dr. Dale Jacobs CHN
2114; ext. 2309; djacobs@uwindsor.ca
Fall 2014 Office
Hours: T 10-12, M 1-3, or by appointment
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and
pictures.
— Harvey Pekar
Course Description
Over the last several years, comics and graphic novels have
been an ever more visible and well-regarded part of mainstream culture,
reviewed in major newspapers and featured on the shelves of both independent
and chain bookstores. Major publishing houses now publish work in the comics
medium, while both school and public libraries are building graphics novels
collections in order to try to get adolescents into the library. Through a
combination of sequential art and words, comics function as multimodal texts that
both create and communicate meaning. This combination of words and images –
what Gunther Kress calls multimodality – creates meaning in very particular and
distinct ways that play out differently in a variety of genres. In this course
we will read a number of comics theorists and examine a number of comics and
graphic novels in order to think about how meaning is created in the comics
medium, how we read comics, how narrative operates in comics, how comics differ
across genres, and why we should take comics seriously. In particular, we will
explore the following questions: To what purposes are comics used? In what
situations? With what audiences? How do writers and
artists create multimodal meaning – through the interaction of words and images
– within specific texts? How do we read them? How does the sequential nature of comics work to create
meaning and structure narrative? What
is the relationship in these texts between the writer and his or her social
context, and how is that represented by the visual codes and multimodal
rhetorics of these texts? How do word and image work together to create
narrative within the comics medium? How do stories function within comics? In
what ways do comics participate in multiple genres? In
what ways does the multimodal form change the genres and vice versa? How do
multimodality and the material form of comic books and graphic novels
intersect? How does the production and consumption of these texts represent a
distinct form of multimodal literacy? How can thinking about these literate
practices complicate our ideas of literacy and of rhetoric? In pursuing these
questions, we will read a range of comics and think about them in relation to a
variety of theoretical ideas so that we will be continually making links
between theory and practice. Through our readings, writings, and discussion, we
will explore the possibilities of word and image in contemporary comics.
Course Texts
Ba, Gabriel and Fabio Moon. Daytripper. New York:
Vertigo, 2011.
Brunetti, Ivan (ed). An Anthology of Graphic Fiction,
Cartoons, and True Stories, Volume 2. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2008.
Carroll, Emily. “Out
of Skin.” (Available at http://www.emcarroll.com/).
Clowes, Daniel. Eightball
#23. Seattle: Fantagraphics, 2004. (Available through the Underground and
Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels database).
Fraction, Matt and David Aja. Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon. New York: Marvel Comics, 2013.
Groensteen, Thierry. A System of Comics. Jackson, MS: University Press of
Mississippi, 2007.
Lemire, Jeff. Trillium. New York: Vertigo, 2014.
Matz and Luc Jacamon. The
Killer #1. Hollywood: Archaia Studios Press, 2007 (Available free from
Comixology.com).
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994.
Rucka, Greg and Rick Burchett. Batman: The Ten Cent Adventure. (Available free from
Comixology.com).
Smith, Jeff. Bone #1.
Columbus, OH: Cartoon Books, 1991. (Available free from Comixology.com).
Tamaki, Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. This One Summer. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2014.
Vaughan, Brian K. and Marcos Martin. The Private Eye (Volume 1). The Panel Syndicate, 2013. (http://panelsyndicate.com/).
Please note that An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons,
and True Stories, Volume 2
contains some graphic
images and adult subject matter.
Each of you will also purchase one current
monthly title for the duration of the course.
Reserve Reading
Some of these readings are available as ELECTRONIC RESERVES
(see attached list). Simply go to the library homepage and click on Course
Reserves. You can search for the readings under 26-399 or Comics Theory. All
materials on reserve are available as pdf files or web pages that you can
print.
Course Requirements
Annotated Comics Page
Assignment (20% of final grade) – For this assignment, each of you will be annotating
a single page of a comic or a two-page spread to demonstrate how meaning is
created in a comics page and how one reads a comics page. Choose a graphic
novel from the Leddy Library collection and then from that graphic novel,
choose either a single page or a two-page spread for your analysis. Think about
these questions: How does the artist/writer create
multimodal meaning – through the interaction of words and images – within this comic
page or spread? How do word and image work together to create narrative within
the comics medium? How do you practice multimodal literacy as you read the
comic? Utilizing the theory we read during the first few weeks of the semester,
examine how the section you have chosen works to create meaning, and how/why
one would read it. Along with your annotated page(s), please include a 2-3 page
reflection in which you discuss the choices you made in choosing the graphic
novel, in annotating, and in presentation format. Use MLA format. This paper will be due Tuesday, October 28, 2014.
Final Project (30% of
final grade) – For your final project, you are free to pursue any question
you like in terms of contemporary comics or graphic novels. You can write on
any comics or graphic novel(s) (including the course texts) for this project
and use any theoretical approach you would like. Use what you have learned in
this class and in the course of your degree as you approach this final project.
You might begin with one of the questions you wrote over the course of the
semester, with class discussion, or with issues that have been raised in the blog;
each of you will come to a conference with me the week of November 4 to discuss
your topic. Use MLA format. This paper should be 6-8 pages in length and will
be due Thursday, November 27, 2014.
Final Exam (30%
of final grade) – The final
exam will ask you to respond to questions that connect the theory and practice
of comics. It will take place on Thursday,
December 11 at 12:00.
Class Participation/Class
Blog (20% of final grade) – Every member of the class is important to our
community of learning and so everyone will be expected to participate fully in
class discussions and activities. In preparation for each class, each of you
will be expected to do all assigned readings and be prepared to discuss them in
class. Each of you will write and bring two questions for discussion based on
the readings for that class; these questions will be used to generate much of
the discussion in class. In addition, each of you will write at least 2 blog
entries for the class blog (http://www.uwcomicstheory.blogspot.ca/) on the
current monthly comic you have chosen to read and 1 blog entry on a graphic novel
from the collection at Leddy Library; in these entries you will connect the
comic to the theories we are reading.
Grade Distribution
Annotated Comics Page
Assignment 20%
Final Project 30%
Final Exam 30%
Class Participation/Class Blog 20%
Semester Schedule
September 4 Introduction
September 9 Understanding Comics Chs. 1-3
September
11 Understanding Comics Chs. 4-7, 9; “Out
of Skin”; AGF 65-67
September
16 *Horrocks;
* Beaty et al; Bone #1; AGF 48-49,
99-105, 140
September
18 *Jacobs;
*Wolk; The Killer #1; AGF 150-53,
187-94
September 23 *Duncan
and Smith; *Hatfield; Batman: TTCA;
AGF 181-84, 209-16
September 25 *Jesse
Cohn; *Lefevré; AGF 9-13, 35-43, 68-70, 130
September
30 *Hill
and Helmers; *Jones; AGF 50-61, 157, 305-10, 328-29
October 2 *Magnussen;
*Rabkin; AGF 154-56, 161, 176-77, 227-41, 259-67
October 7 The System of Comics Introduction and
Ch. 1; AGF 291-304
October 9 The System of Comics Chs. 2-3,
Conclusion; Eightball #23
October 14 Reading
Week
October 16 Reading
Week
October 21 *Baetens;
*Hague; AGF 333-48, 392-97
October 23 *Carrier;
*Kannenberg; AGF 355-81
October 28 Understanding Comics Ch. 8; The Private Eye #1-2
October 30 *Bauman;
The Private Eye #3-5
November 4 Hawkeye
November 6 Hawkeye
November 11 Trillium
November 13 Trillium
November 18 This One Summer
November 20 This One Summer
November 25 Daytripper
November 27 Daytripper
December 2 Review
December 11 Final
Exam
* On
electronic reserve
# Given
as handout
AGF - An
Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories, Volume 2.
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