MOOC: Comic Books and Graphic Novels The Syllabus

Professor William Kuskin University of Colorado Boulder

Visual story telling has been around as long as representation. Comic books and graphic novels, as separate from engraved tableaus, cartoons, and comic strips, appear to have two intertwined moments of origin. In Geneva, a school principal named Rodolphe Tpffer (1799-1846) published the first graphic novel, the Histoire de Monsieur Jabot in 1833, which he termed histoire en estampes (stories in pictures). Exactly one hundred years later, Harry Wildenberg, Max Gaines, and George Janosik created an eight-page pamphlet of reprinted comic strips called Funnies on Parade for Eastern Color Printing as a give-away for Proctor and Gamble toiletries. Shortly afterwards, Wildenberg and Gaines created a thirty-six page version, Famous Funnies: a Carnival of Comics, for Woolworths department store as a freebie or sold for ten cents. Famous Funnies is arguably the first comic book. More recently, comics have entered into a process of transformation, moving from a species of pulp fiction on the margins of childrens literature to an autonomous form, one Will Eisner popularized as the Graphic Novel. They have won a range of major awards in this form, such as Art Spiegelmans 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Maus, Chris Wares 2001 American Book Award and Guardian First Book Award for Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbonss 2005 Time Magazine All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels for Watchmen, and Alison Bechdels 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fun Home. Yet, comics remain the grist for mass entertainment; movie companies own Marvel and DC, and comic book writers and artists easily pass into and out of television and video game production. Comics stand on the boundary line between art and entertainment. MOOCs also exist on a boundary line. They depend on the research university and professorial faculty of the established educational system. They also circumvent the traditional gatekeepers of this system, the admissions and bursars offices that define who has access to knowledge and who does not. Comics and MOOCs both depend upon and flout traditional authority, and in this they are transformative mediums. You are now part of this transformation. Comic Books and Graphic Novels has four goals. First, it presents a survey of the history of American comics and a review of major graphic novels circulating in the U.S. today. Second, it reasons that as comics develop in concert with and participate in humanist culture, they should be considered a serious art form that pulls together a number of fieldsliterature and history, art and design, film and radio, and social and cultural studies. Third, it argues that these fields come together materially in the concept of the book and intellectually in the importance of humanism, both of which allow the human mind to transcend the limitations of time. Finally, it concludes that because they remain on a transformative boundary line, comics should remind us that art is generative and that there is always hope. COURSE POLICIES & REQUIREMENTS Two 750-1,000 Word Essays (20% each; 40% total) Comic Project (30%) Comic Shop Collaborative (ungraded requirement) Two Tests (15% each; 30% total) Participation in the Discussion Forums is optional.
Captain America by Jack Kirby Fantasy Masterpieces #5 (October, 1966), Created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (March, 1941).

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SCHEDULE WEEK ONE: WELCOME Video 1: Welcome to the Course Video 2: The Syllabus (Overview) Video 3: The Syllabus (Logistics) Video 4: What is a Comic? Video 5: Collecting (w/Jim Vacca) Video 6: Teaching Comics (w/Barry Barrows) Survey WEEK TWO: TERMS AND CONDITIONS Lecture 1a: Reading the Grid 1b: Two Comics Masters Lecture 2a: The Golden Age 2b: Golden Age Master Lecture 3: The Virulent Art WEEK THREE: CRASH AND REBIRTH Lecture 4a: Big Brother Steps in 4b: The CCA Video 7: Fredric Wertham and the Atomic Age (w/Jim Vacca) Lecture 5a: The Silver Age Rises 5b: Silver Age Master Lecture 6a: Underground Comix 6b: Black and White Video 8: Comics Economics (w/Wayne Winsett) First Essay Due

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (William Morrow, 1994), p. 68

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WEEK FOUR: PATERNITY AND CREATIVITY Lecture 7a: The Death of the Father 7b: The Birth of the Children Lecture 8: Art Spiegelmans Maus 8a: An American Artist 8b: How to Read a Book Lecture 9: Alison Bechdels Fun Home 9a: Finding Yourself in a Book 9b: What Defines Art Lecture Test One Essay Assessment Due WEEK FIVE: GENRE Lecture 10: Frank Millers DKR 10a: Innovation and Originality 10b: The Rules of Genre 10c: Who is The Batman? Lecture 11: Ellis and Cassadays Planetary 11a: The Possibilities of Genre 11b: The Limits of the Page Lecture 12: Gaiman, Willingham, and the Vernacular Canon of Fantasy WEEK SIX: MEDIA Lecture 13: Moore and Gibbons Watchmen 13a: The Media 13b: The Poetics of the Page 13c: Graphia Lecture 14: Joe Saccos Palestine 14a: Faces tell Stories 14b: Dead Ends Lecture 15: Millar and Hitchs The Ultimates 15a: War Machine 15b: Star Power Second Essay Due
Rodolphe Tpffer, The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, 1842: pirated American version of British edition of Histoire de M. Vieux Bois (1827; printed 1837).

WEEK SEVEN: CONCLUSION Video 9: The Community of Comics Lecture 16: Chris Wares Jimmy Corrigan and Building Stories (w/Chris Angel) 16a: The Aesthetics of Loneliness Essay Assessment Due 16b: The Book of Honesty Comic Due Beginning of Week Comic Assessment End of Week Lecture 17: Comics Energy Lecture Test Two

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