Week Fifteen
Work Due
Anthology Project
The complete final project is due in digital form by 4 PM on Thursday, May 3.
Each group member should upload his or her own work to both the Sakai drop box and Scribd. One hardy and reliable member needs to upload the cover, credits, framing narrative, and list comic to both Sakai and Scribd. This brave collaborator should then link to each of these parts plus the individual chapters IN ORDER in a reply to the "Anthology Project" thread on the Discussion List.
This means that each of the other collaborators will need to email the link information to the One Who Will Reply (to the Discussion List).
The reply to the discussion list should more or less follow this format:
- Title of the Anthology
- One sentence description of what the anthology is about.
- Cover, credits, and framing narrative: LINK
- Author, "Chapter one title": LINK
- Author, "Chapter two title": LINK
- Author, "Chapter three title": LINK
- Author, "Chapter four title": LINK
- Author, Chapter five title": LINK
- List Comic: LINK
The LINKS should be to PDF versions uploaded to Scribd.
Note: If for some terrible reason one (or more) of the chapters is not available for the designated anthology editor by the specified deadline, the editor should post what he or she has rather than wait for the missing work (links).
Those with late work will be responsible for posting a link to their work independently and for notifying the instructor of its posting.
. . .
Update: The statement for the final project mentioned last week has been scrapped. Focus on the other parts instead.
Announcements
Final Office Hour
4:30 – 5:30 PM, Wednesday, May 9, in Loree 010 on Douglass Campus. Stop by for grades, feedback, and conversation.
Retelling The Thing and Other Unassigned Projects
Last week we discussed some projects and exercises we never had a chance to pursue. Among them was an exercise based on Peter Watts's clever retelling of John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), from the point of view of the shape-shifting alien. The assignment would have involved selecting a story, or scene from one, and then making a short comic that presents the story or scene from the perspective of a marginal or background character – or that of the antagonist rather than protagonist.
Other notable examples include Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a background view of Hamlet, and Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's Marvels, a background view of Marvel Comics history.
Splash Page
And by way of concluding, I present this final splash page from an old issue of the 1970s Logan's Run series. It seems to combine aspects of all three of the conversation comic locations: the alien world with its core baby and cyborg city; the ice moon with its deadly underground dungeon; and the flying horse "sancutuary."
Week Fourteen
Work Due
Antholo-gee Project
Progress on your chapter, the framing narrative, and other parts of the project. Have sketches, printouts, or something like those, to show the instructor and your collaborators. Nothing final is due, or needs to be submitted, this week – just work to look at in class. The final project is due next Thursday (see "Homework" below).
Late, Missing, or Revised Work
This is the last chance to submit late, missing, or revised work. After this week's class, the only work that will be accepted are the parts of the final project.
Also, make sure that alll the work that should be on Scribd and Sakai is there. There work needs to be there in order to get full credit for the assignment. I look at this work as part of the process of determining the semester grade. If I can't find the work, that may affect the grade.
Discussion
Of Interest
Productive page layout in the the Crazy Quilt comics of 1914.
Another interesting page layout.
Good comics we never got to reading this semester: Carla Speed McNeil's Finder.
A look at Matthew Allison's Calamity of Challenge (the story so far).
Presentations
Salma and Joe finish off the presentations – with definitive force!
Establishing the Context of a Story (Where, When, Who, etc.)
Some possibilities:
- Full exposition
- Bits and pieces (e.g., via title and dialogue) with the sense that if you keep reading you will learn all that you need to learn to get what you need to from the story
- Some combination of exposition and (2)
Activities
Final Project Workshop
Work continues.
Homework
Anthology Project
The complete final project is due in digital form at 1 PM on Thursday, May 3.
Each group member should upload his or her own work to both the Sakai drop box and Scribd. One hardy and reliable member needs to upload the cover, credits, framing narrative, and list comic to both Sakai and Scribd. This brave collaborator should then link to each of these parts plus the individual chapters IN ORDER in a reply to the "Anthology Project" thread on the Discussion List.
This means that each of the other collaborators will need to email the link information to the One Who Will Reply (to the Discussion List).
The reply to the discussion list should more or less follow this format:
- Title of the Anthology
- One sentence description of what the anthology is about.
- Cover, credits, and framing narrative: LINK
- Author, "Chapter one title": LINK
- Author, "Chapter two title": LINK
- Author, "Chapter three title": LINK
- Author, "Chapter four title": LINK
- Author, Chapter five title": LINK
- List Comic: LINK
The LINKS should be to PDF versions uploaded to Scribd.
Note: If for some terrible reason one (or more) of the chapters is not available for the designated anthology editor by the specified deadline, the editor should post what he or she has rather than wait for the missing work (links).
Those with late work will be responsible for posting a link to their work independently and for notifying the instructor of its posting.
Final Project: Statement
Guidelines and requirements discussed in class.
Week Thirteen
Announcement
Virtual Class
Work Due
Anthology: Your Chapter (UPDATE)
Draft the the start of your comic (the first two pages of so). The work can be fairly rough at this point but should present the action clearly enough for readers to see how you're set up the story. How will you introduce the characters, situation, complications, and so forth? How will you generate narrative interest (curiosity about what happens before, suspense regarding what happens afterwards, motivating inference-making on the part of the reader).
Scan and upload to Sakai (not Scribd). Have copies for viewing in class, including a copy for the instructor. Again: ROUGH but legible work is fine.
Anthology: Cover Exercise
Using your own collection of comics and graphic novels, or the wealth of material online, find three covers as different as possible from each other in terms of style, composition, subject matter, etc. Copy these images into a file and upload to Sakai. We'll then take a look at these in the next class.
Homework
Anthology Project
Progess on your chapter, the framing narrative, and other parts of the project.
Week Twelve
Work Due
Anthology: Your Chapter (UPDATE)
Draft the the start of your comic (the first two pages of so). The work can be fairly rough at this point but should present the action clearly enough for readers to see how you're set up the story. How will you introduce the characters, situation, complications, and so forth? How will you generate narrative interest (curiosity about what happens before, suspense regarding what happens afterwards, motivating inference-making on the part of the reader).
Scan and upload to Sakai (not Scribd). Have copies for viewing in class, including a copy for the instructor. Again: ROUGH but legible work is fine.
Anthology: Cover Exercise
Using your own collection of comics and graphic novels, or the wealth of material online, find three covers as different as possible from each other in terms of style, composition, subject matter, etc. Copy these images into a file and upload to Sakai. We'll then take a look at these in the next class.
Discussion
Presentations
Frank on Kannenberg on Chris Ware. Nicole on Peeters and Page Layout.
Layout as a Resource
The organization of the page as a resource for graphic narrative. Benoit Peeter's essay on uses of page layout in graphic narrative refers mainly to the page, but we've already had some discussion of layout (division, arrangement) as a resource at the rank of strip or tier.
Newgarden and Karasik analyze Bushmiller's rhetorical use of the strip, narrowing and widening the panels to deal with the content. This accords with Peeters's Herge example.
Page Layout and George Herriman
Some Herriman Krazy Kat Sunday Pages via Golden Age Comic Book Stories:- Conventional: April 14, May 5, and November 10, 1940;
- Rhetorical: May 23, 1916;
- Decorative: April 28, 1944;
- Productive (?): April 13, 1941
Mini-Anthologies
As you work on your full-scale anthologies, you might want to take a fond look your strange and amusing mini-anthologies of long ago.
Covers
We'll look at some of your cover examples. Our goal here will be to determine some of the main cover conventions and also some of the different genres of cover.
List Comics
The last simple comics genre we'll look at this semester is the List Comic. List comics are an instance of graphic infranarrative. They realize the following structure:
LIST COMIC STRUCTURE
Key: ^ = "is followed by" and parentheses indicate that the stage is optional
The Topic stage introduces the topic organizing the list. The topic may appear in the title, in the first panel(s), or be strongly implied by the first panel of the List stage. Often the topic takes the form of a question to which the list provides a series of different answers.
The List is a sequence of panels, of any length greater than one, in which each panel presents a different response to the topic. Responses may be only slightly different (e.g., the same verbal response by different characters to the same question, as in Dash Shaw's "Gorgonhead"); or they may be very different but clearly related to the topic (e.g., different pieces of information about the same person, or place, or thing, or event).
The optional Coda stage adds a final, non-list element to the comic: a summary, a conclusion, a surprise twist, a new topic, a negation of the topic (e.g. "Wait! Sorry! That's the wrong question"), etc.
Some list comic variables:
- Single topic or initial topic with multiple sub-topics
- Complete or incomplete
- Ordered or unordered
- Single respondent, multiple respondents, no respondent
Some list comic variants: inventories, gnomic lists, atopical lists, silent lists.
List Comics Examples
Next, we'll look at some examples. List Comics are either self-contained, or (as with many other minor genres) embedded within longer stories.
Non-Embedded:
- Florence Cestac, "New York. 8 Decembre 1980." Harry Mickson nettoie ses pinceaux (Futuropolis, 1982).
- Daniel Clowes, "Give It Up" and untitled. Eightball #8 (Fantagraphics, 1992)
- Kieth Giffen, "The
RevengeReturn of the Legion of Super-Pets." Ambush Bug #? (1980s). - Rick Geary, "Wandering the Galaxy." Cheval Noir #46 (Dark Horse, 1993).
- Marti, "Within Three Seconds ..." and "Claudia." Drawn and Quarterly #10 (Drawn and Quarterly, 1992), pages 8-9 and 34.
- Tom Kaczynski, "Noise: A History." Mome #12 (Fantagraphics, 2008).
Embedded:
- Daniel Clowes, "Grist for the Mill." First page. Eightball #8 (Fantagraphics, 1992)
- Dash Shaw, "Gorgonhead." C'est Bon Anthology, vol. 2 (C'est Bon Kultur, 2006).
- Alexious Tjoyas and Nicolas de Crecy, Foligato (Les Humanondes associTs, 1998), page 26.
- Ron Rege, Jr., from "We Must Know, We Will Know" (2001), reprinted in Against Pain (Drawn and Quarterly, 2009).
Non- and Quasi-Comics Graphic Lists:
- Alan Ruppersberg, Where's Al? (1972).
- Kiki Picasso, "Crash Skriii ... Bang" (1977).
- Jim Shaw, The Girls in Billy's Class #1 (1986).
- Robert Crumb, "The Girls in My Class." ID #1 (Fantagraphics, 1990).
Your comics anthologies will each include at least one collaboratively produced list comic.
Anthology Project Workshop
Review of story starts. Plan list comic. Plan cover. Plan collaborative FRAMING narrative.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical, historical
- TBA
Comics in Brunetti
- Woodring - "Particular Mind" (77)
- Clowes - excerpts from Ice Haven (362)
- Speigelman - "The Malpractice Suite" (60)
- Tomine - "Hazel Eyes" (342)
- Porcellino - excerpt from King-Cat Comics (178)
Linked Comics
- Ryan Cecil Smith - "Two Eyes of the Beautiful" (via What Things Do)
Anthology: Layout Exercise
Peeters, in the article we read, distinguishes four modes of page layout in comics: Conventional, Decorative, Rhetorical, and Productive.
For the next class, as part of your work for the anthology, prepare four DIFFERENT rough layouts for ANY ONE PAGE of your story-in-progress, each according to one of Peeters's four kinds of layout. Consider the advantages and limitations of each of the four modes of layout for the kind of story you're trying to tell and the kinds of interest you're trying to achieve in your work. Which layout is best for what you want to do, which most limiting?
Here is an example of a rough layout (using a more or less Conventional grid layout) by Jim Woodring.
Scan and upload the four rough layouts to the Sakai drop box (preferably as a single document) and bring copies to turn in and look over in class.
Anthology: Cover
Design and draw a cover for the anthology. The cover should be in COLOR. Add color manually or digitally. Scan and upload the finished cover to Scribd and Sakai. Link to the Scribd version in a replyb to the "Anthology Cover" thread on the Sakai discussion list.
Anthology: Framing Sequence
Complete your panels for the framing sequence. Scan and bring to class.
Anthology: List Comic
Complete this part of the anthology for the next class. Agree on layout and panel dimensions in advance. Scan panels at 300 dpi or greater.
Bring your panels and scans to the next class. The comic can be put together in class.
Week Eleven
Work Due
Anthology Project: Story Outline
Produce a preliminary story outline, at least a page. Describe the characters, their backgrounds. Describe location(s), times, changes in time. Outline the progress from beginning to middle to end. Also: your presentation of the story, which may not progress from beginning to end in a straight line. What complication(s) does your main character confront? Things like that.
Bring one printed copy for the instructor, one to circulate through your group.
Discussion
Presentations
Kenny and Lucero present on two aspects of EC Comics.
Short Stories in Comics
In recent weeks we've looked at some very short stories in comics -- usually a single page or less, comfortably realizing one of the elementary genres. This week we start with the classic graphic short story as perfected by the craftsmen of EC Comics. One thing we might consider is the relation between these genre stories (I'll have a few more examples to look at in class) and the postwar American short story appearing in literary and not-so-literary periodicals (many of them illustrated).
But I also want to compare the EC material, which develops resources from the contemporary prose short story, with Stanley's Little Lulu stories. Between, say, Little Lulu and Krigstein's "Master Race," or one of Kurtzman's war stories, or even one of his early Tales Calculated to Drive You Mad, we have to different directions, or possibilities, for the short story in comics at mid-(twentieth)-century. How do these directions, then, relate to the more recent stories we've been reading? And what (further) possibilities do they suggest for the final project?
For further reference: Harvey Kurtzman (writer), John Severin (penciller), and Will Elder (inker), two war comics: "Night Patrol!" and "First Short!" (1950s).
Time in Comics
One interesting difference between the Little Lulu and EC examples is the use they make of time, and the resources they draw on, for representing and making use of time in narrative. How do the other, time-focused readings for this week compare?
Anthology Project Workshop
Discuss stories, scripts, outlines, character designs. Plan list comic. Plan cover. Plan collaborative FRAMING narrative.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical, historical
- Kannenberg - "Comics of Chris Ware" (A Comics Studies Reader)
- Benoit Peeters, "Four Conceptions of the Page", trans. Jesse Cohn (ImageText 3.3).
Comics in Brunetti
- David Collier - "Artist" (90-97)
- Chris Ware - from Building Stories (372-81)
Linked Comics
- TBA
Anthology: Your Chapter (UPDATE)
Draft the the start of your comic (the first two pages of so). The work can be fairly rough at this point but should present the action clearly enough for readers to see how you're set up the story. How will you introduce the characters, situation, complications, and so forth? How will you generate narrative interest (curiosity about what happens before, suspense regarding what happens afterwards, motivating inference-making on the part of the reader).
Anthology: Cover Exercise
Using your own collection of comics and graphic novels, or the wealth of material online, find three covers as different as possible from each other in terms of style, composition, subject matter, etc. Copy these images into a file and upload to Sakai. We'll then take a look at these in the next class.
Week Ten
Work Due
Conversation Comics
Complete comic due. Bring a paper copy to class (only one copy required per group, but with BOTH splash/cover pages attached). Upload an e-copy to the drop box of each member. However: You need to upload only a single copy to Scribd. Link to this copy in a reply to the "Conversation Comic" thread on the Class Discussion.
Discussion
Presentations
Katherine presents on Goodman's "Twisted Tales."
Superheroes and Narrative
A follow-up, dare we say a sequel, and perhaps even a re-clarification of last week's discussion. We'll look at some of the readings ("Onion Jack" and friends) and a slideshow history of Batman vs Superman stories.
Activities
Simple Genre Exercise
For this in-class acitivity, we'll explore, enjoy, and employ a typical Golden Age comic section (actually three of them) courtesy of Animation Resources.
We'll also use this exercise to go over some Photoshop lore.
Anthology Project
Introduction and planning session for the final project.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical, historical
- Nyberg - "William Gaines and the Battle over EC Comics" (A Comics Studies Reader)
- Benson, Kasakove, and Spiegelman - "An Examination of 'Master Race'" (A Comics Studies Reader)
Comics in Brunetti
- Harvey Kurtzman stuff (51-59)
Linked Comics
Comics to do with time, temporality, the representation of time:
- Dalrymple - "Fotogloctica" (Sakai)
- Eisner - "Ten Minutes" (Sakai)
- Huizenga - "Time Traveling"
- Krigstein - "Master Race" (Sakai)
- Kurtzman and Davis - "Murder the Husband/Story" (Sakai)
- Moore and Veitch - "Grey Shirt" (Sakai)
Anthology Project: Story Outline
Produce a preliminary story outline, at least a page. Describe the characters, their backgrounds. Describe location(s), times, changes in time. Outline the progress from beginning to middle to end. Also: your presentation of the story, which may not progress from beginning to end in a straight line. What complication(s) does your main character confront? Things like that.
Bring one printed copy for the instructor, one to circulate through your group.
Week Nine
Work Due
Conversation Comics
Progress on this project. The final draft can be turned in this week or next week.
Discussion
Presentations
Alex presents on the concept of the superhero.
Forms of Infranarrative
According to Thierry Groensteen there are five "primary distributive functions" (roughly, basic resources for generating an ordered distribution of panels of graphic content on a page):
- Amalgam
- Inventory
- Variation
- Declension (iconic, plastic)
- Decomposition
More recently, Groensteen has added to the list two additional modes: seriation and fragmentation.
Recall the Wrong Planet plot. How might the plot, or some parts of it, turn out under each of the modes? Alternatively, how might a version of the story incorporate one or more of the infranarrative modes within its narrative?
More Simple Story Genres
Some basic story genres are:
- Recount: A-B-C-D
- Surprise: A-B-C-X
- Puzzle: A-B-C-X-S
- Anecdote: A-B-C-X-R
- Narrative: A-B-C-X-R-D
A "super" suprise comic (with some framing) by Kate Beaton (via Cat Park).
Elementary Story Genres and Diary Comics
We'll look at some pages from your diary comics in relation to the forgoing discussion of genre.
Activities
Simple Genre Exercise
For this in-class acitivity, we'll explore, enjoy, and employ a typical Golden Age comic section (actually three of them) courtesy of Animation Resources.
We'll also use this exercise to go over some Photoshop lore.
Conversation Comic
If time: some brief final workshopping of this project.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical, historical
- Goodman - "Twisted Tales" (Sakai)
Comics in Brunetti
- French, "ZZZ" (32-34)
- Prewitt, "Funny Bunny" (46)
- Tomine, "Hazel Eyes" (342-48)
Linked Comics
- Bell - "I Feel Nothing" (Sakai)
- Richard McGuire - "Here" (Sakai)
Conversation Comics
Complete your collaborative comic. Bring a paper copy to class (only one copy required per group, but with BOTH splash/cover pages attached). Upload an e-copy to the drop box of each member. However: You need to upload only a single copy to Scribd. Link to this copy in a reply to the "Conversation Comic" thread on the Class Discussion.
Week Eight
Work Due
Conversation Comics
Progress on the drafting of your comics. Bring pages to class for in-class review and workshopping.
Discussion
Of Interest
Presentations
Marion presents on David Carrier's "Cariacature" and Martha presents on Roger Sabin's "Ally Sloper: The First Comics Superstar."
Forms of Infranarrative
According to Thierry Groensteen:
- Amalgam
- Inventory
- Variation
- Declension (iconic, plastic)
- Decomposition
More recently, Groensteen has added to the list two additional modes: seriation and fragmentation.
Recall the Wrong Planet plot. How might the plot, or some parts of it, turn out under each of the modes? Alternatively, how might a version of the story incorporate one or more of the infranarrative modes within its narrative?
Simple Story Genres
Take this strip by Harvey Kurtzman:
This short but effective strip is a mix of the elementary surprise comic that we'll get to shortly and the kind of character-based surprise story you prepared for this week.
What kind of interest does the strip sustain? What resources does it use to create this interest?
Some basic story genres are:
- Recount: A-B-C-D
- Surprise: A-B-C-X
- Anecdote: A-B-C-X-R
- Simple Narrative: A-B-C-X-R-D
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical, historical
- Coogan - "Definition of the Superhero" (A Comic Studies Reader 77–93)
Comics in Brunetti
- TBA
Linked Comics
- Priddy - "Onion Jack" (Sakai)
- Moore and Gibbons - Watchmen (excerpt, Sakai)
- Moore and Simpson - "Pictopia" (Sakai)
- Ware - "I Guess" (Sakai)
Week Seven
Work Due
Conversation Comics
Three related pieces of work for the conversation comic project:
1. Story outline. What happens? Summarize both the primary and secondary action. Include complications, resolutions, re-complications, etc.
2. Script with dialogue and related actions, divided by page and panel. Indicate setting and changes of setting.
2. Script with dialogue and related actions, divided by page and panel. Indicate setting and changes of setting. The script can still be fairly rough, provisional, in progress. Expect to revise/modify it, at least a bit, in light of feedback and class discussion.
3. Avatar designs.
Turn in a printed copy of the outline and script (single-spacing, double-sided printing is fine). Avatar desgins and any breakdowns you sketch will be looked at and discussed in class but won't be collected (so having them in your sketch for the instructor and others to look at will be fine).
Turn in a printed copy of the outline and script (single-spacing, double-sided printing is fine).
Discussion
Of Interest
Here is the promised link to the conversation comic from last semester that we began to look at last week: Soccupy! (Anna Krasner and Chris Mills).
Presentations
Larissa presents on Kunzle's "Rodolphe Topffer's Aesthetic Revolution."
Note: Extended examples of Töpffer's work can be accessed via the Töpfferiana blog.
Coloring Your Comics
Here are some tutorials for coloring comics using Photoshop.
- Zander Cannon, Tips and Tricks: Computer Coloring
- Zander Cannon, Tips and Tricks: Coloring Comics to Look Old
Activities
Conversation Comic
Continue planning and begin making the new project.
Again: Each comic should comic should contain the following:
- A good title
- A graphic representative (avatar) of each participants
- Each participant: Twelve or more panels and your own version of the title page (= one full splash page featuring a view of the location and, at least, your and your partner's avatars; see the Matsumoto example)
- At least six pages plus the splash page
- Collaborative scripting
- Alternating panel drawing (i.e., particpant A draws panel 1, participant B panel 2, A panel 3, B panel 4, and so on)
- Two lines of action, one primary and one secondary, set in the location comic setting
Again: The Splash page should contain the title, creator credits for both the comic and the location, and a full page image of the participants in the setting. See the Matsumoto title page for an example (minus the credits).
See the assignment description for more information.
Special Conversation Requirements
These requirements are intended to complicate the scripting and motivate revision of your initial script. They are based on the examples drawn from the Taiyo Matsumoto story we looked at above.
- At least one instance of setting interfering with, or interrupting, the conversation.
- At least one change of topic, however brief.
- At least one panel illustrating not the action but the topic of conversation.
- At least one instance of a conversant repairing the conversation = getting back on topic.
- At least one instance of the secondary action echoing the primary action.
Location panorama and non sequitur are optional.
Keep track of these features of your story. You'll need to indicate in a supplementary text exactly where (page and panel) each occurs in the final version of your story.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical, historical
- David Carrier - "Cariacature" (A Comics Studies Reader 105–15)
- Roger Sabin - "Ally Sloper: The First Comics Superstar" (A Comics Studies Reader 177–89)
Comics in Brunetti
- Burns - "Biology 101" (99)
Linked Comics
- Selection of Ally Sloper cartoons at the University of Alberta library.
- W. Ralston - The Trials of an Artist in Tangier (1895)
- Assorted nineteenth-century comics from illustrated weeklies (Sakai)
- Moutarde - "I Ate Fungus and Woke Up a Bloody Mess" (Sakai)
Conversation Comics
Progress on the drafting of your comics. Bring pages to class for in-class review, workshopping.
Week Six
Work Due
Diary Comic and Everyday Life Analysis
About a page or two of analysis of your diary comic in which you evaluate your comic in terms of Greice Schneider's article, "Comics and Everyday Life" (Sakai). How (well) does your comic work as a representation of everyday life as that term is explained by Schneider? Quote in support of your case. Selecting two or three moments from your comic to make your case (for or against your comic as a representation of everyday life) should be enough; but feel free to say more.
Again: Be sure to refer to specific claims and ideas in Schneider's essay and quote (a few short quotes).
Submit a printed copy in class.
Location Comics
Scan your work and consolidate group work into a single file (the consolidation into a single PDF can be done at the start of the class). Upload the file to Sakai and Scribd. Each member should upload his or her own contribution to their Sakai drop box. The complete version should be on Scribd. Link to this version in a reply to the "Location Comic" thread on Sakai.
Bring the orignal copy (or a print from the scan) of your work to the next class.
Discussion
Of Interest
Edddie Campbell shows how comics are sometimes really made.
Presentations
A two-person presentation on the R. C. Harvey article and a one-person presentation on the Pascal Lefevre article.
Conversation in Comics
Examples of conversation in comics from:
- George Herriman - Krazy Kat (1922)
- Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons - a page from Watchmen.
- Jack Cole - Plastic Man (Plastic Man #7, Spring 1947).
Some Features of the Conversation Comic
Setting interferes with the conversation.
Change of topic. Details of setting.
Details of setting again. The point being that panels of conversation don't always need to show the conversation. The picture can focus on the setting instead (or on the secondary action) while presenting the words of the conversation in unanchored word balloons or caption boxes.
Panel illustrating not the action but the topic of conversation (i.e., "The other night I dreamed that Jimi Hendrix told me to open a tofu shop" [172.5]).
Repairing the conversation = getting back on topic.
Secondary action echoing primary action.
Location panorama, here via a composite panel.
Non sequitur.
Activities
Conversation Comic
Continue planning and begin making the new project.
Again: Each comic should comic should contain the following:
- A good title
- A graphic representative (avatar) of each participants
- Each participant: Twelve or more panels and your own version of the title page (= one full splash page featuring a view of the location and, at least, your and your partner's avatars; see the Matsumoto example)
- At least six pages plus the splash page
- Collaborative scripting
- Alternating panel drawing (i.e., particpant A draws panel 1, participant B panel 2, A panel 3, B panel 4, and so on)
- Two lines of action, one primary and one secondary, set in the location comic setting
Again: The Splash page should contain the title, creator credits for both the comic and the location, and a full page image of the participants in the setting. See the Matsumoto title page for an example (minus the credits).
See the assignment description for more information.
Special Conversation Requirements
These requirements are intended to complicate the scripting and motivate revision of your initial script. They are based on the examples drawn from the Taiyo Matsumoto story we looked at above.
- At least one instance of setting interfering with, or interrupting, the conversation.
- At least one change of topic, however brief.
- At least one panel illustrating not the action but the topic of conversation.
- At least one instance of a conversant repairing the conversation = getting back on topic.
- At least one instance of the secondary action echoing the primary action.
Location panorama and non sequitur are optional.
Keep track of these features of your story. You'll need to indicate in a supplementary text exactly where (page and panel) each occurs in the final version of your story.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical
- Abel and Madden, chapters 11 and 12.
- Kunzle - "Rodolphe Topffer's Aesthetic Revolution" (A Comics Studies Reader 17–24)
Comics in Brunetti
- TBA
Linked Comics
- Purvis - "Vulcan & Vishnu" (Sakai)
- TBA
Presentations
Next week's presentation continues our look at the early history of comics. It will be on Kunzle's "Rodolphe Topffer's Aesthetic Revolution" (A Comics Studies Reader 17–24).
Conversation Comics
Three related pieces of work for the conversation comic project for next week:
1. Story outline. What happens? Summarize both the primary and secondary action. Include complications, resolutions, re-complications, etc.
2. Script with dialogue and related actions, divided by page and panel. Indicate setting and changes of setting.
3. Avatar designs.
Turn in a printed copy of the outline and script (single-spacing, double-sided printing is fine). Avatar desgins and any breakdowns you sketch will be looked at and discussed in class.
The completed comic is due in two weeks time.
Week Five
Work Due
Diary Comic
Complete the two-week diary comic project. You'll submit the diary comic in two weekly stages:
- You'll upload a PDF of the first part of the comic to your Sakai drop box and to Scribd by 6 PM on Friday, Feb. 10. Also: post a link to your comic on Scribd in a reply to the "Diary Comic, part one" thread on the Sakai discussion list.
- You'll submit a PDF of your completed diary comic to your Sakai drop box and to Scribd by class-time, Feb. 16, and turn in a paper copy in class.
Setting/Environment Reading Question
Again, for this homework, refer to the following comics in Brunetti:
- Mazzucchelli - "Near Miss" (259)
- Gary Panter - excerpt from Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise (107)
- Matt Thurber - "Island of Silk and Ectoplasm" (141)
- Ron Rege, Jr. - "We Must Know, We Will Know" (esp. 131)
- Ben Katchor - excerpt from The Beauty Supply District (270)
- Frank Santoro - excerpt from Storyville (279)
- Bill Griffith - "Is There Life After Levittown" (301)
Reading Question: Each of the seven comics above makes strong, often focal use of setting. In some cases the setting is essentially what the story is about. Select four of the comics and compare the role setting plays in each. How does the presentation of setting differ (vary) from comic to comic? Refer to some specific details/panels in your analysis. Print your response (about a page) and bring it to class.
Diary Comic and Everyday Life Analysis
Turn in either this week or next. Either is fine.
About a page or two of analysis of your diary comic in which you evaluate your comic in terms of Greice Schneider's article, "Comics and Everyday Life" (Sakai). How (well) does your comic work as a representation of everyday life as that term is explained by Schneider? Quote in support of your case. Selecting two or three moments from your comic to make your case (for or against your comic as a representation of everyday life) should be enough; but feel free to say more.
Again: Be sure to refer to specific claims and ideas in Schneider's essay and quote (a few short quotes).
Discussion
Locating Comics
Let's start thinking about resources for locating a narrative, as well as the effects of setting, with another look at Newgarden and Karasik's How to Read Nancy. And while we're at it, this Krazy Kat strip from 1922 as well.
In preparation for today's "location comic" activity, we'll look at some examples from the reading for this week as well as some previous readings, e.g., the Hellboy story.
Another Ben Katchor example. And another.
Activities
"Wrong Planet Revisited" Reviewed
We'll take a look at your comics via Scribd.
Location Comic
First, an example: Ruppert & Mulot, La Maison Close - Guided Tour.
Basically, you're presenting a tour of a specific (interesting) location in comics form. However, you're providing this tour, not for any reader, but for a specific audience – other cartoonists, graphic authors, comic-makers who will set their narratives in the location you describe. Consequently, you'll tell them about its dimensions, its sub-locations, its history and peculiarities, its inhabitants – and you'll remind them about things they should keep in mind when drawing the location and when setting their stories there. Often, what a storyteller or artist needs to know about a place will be different from what a tourist might need to know about the place.
Work in groups of four. Each member should complete at least four panels. More panels are welcome. Complete in class.
In terms of process: first, choose a place. It can be any place, real or imaginary, historical, contemporary, or futuristic. It can be above ground, under water, floating in space, wherever.
Once you've agreed on a location, make a list of some rooms, zones, distinct spaces within the location.
- Also: what kinds of activities there.
- Also: a list of objects, possible props.
- Also: different inhabitants, etc.
- Dangers?
Next, decide who will focus on which areas or aspects of the location so that your contributions don't overlap or contradict each other.
Finally, design avatars for yourselves and get to work. Use both words and pictures. Remember, your avatar is giving a tour, pointing, touching, interacting with the environment.
Special requirement: Each of your avatars should encounter one or more of the other avatars at least once during the tour. After all, you're all walking around inside the same place. However, no fights should follow from these encounters.
Again, each member should produce at least four panels. Make sure your avatar clearly identifies each location in the dialogue.
Formatting. Use standard letter size paper (8½ × 11). Make either two or four panels per page, depending on the scale you prefer.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical
- Abel and Madden, chapter seven (on lettering).
- Harvey Sacks - Lectures on Conversation (via Sakai)
- David Herman - "Dialogue in a Discourse Context" (via Sakai)
Comics in Brunetti
- Re-read Mazzucchelli - "Near Miss" (259)
Linked Comics
- Deitch - "Ready to Die" (Sakai)
- Matsumoto - "The Family Restaurant Is Our Paradise" (Sakai)
- Crumb and Pekar - "Lunch with Carmella" (Sakai)
- Steurling and Steranko - "The Conventioneers" (Sakai)
Note: The Matsumoto story, being manga, reads right to left rather than left to right.
Diary Comic and Everyday Life Analysis
If you didn't finish for this week, then finish for next.
About a page or two of analysis of your diary comic in which you evaluate your comic in terms of Greice Schneider's article, "Comics and Everyday Life" (Sakai). How (well) does your comic work as a representation of everyday life as that term is explained by Schneider? Quote in support of your case. Selecting two or three moments from your comic to make your case (for or against your comic as a representation of everyday life) should be enough; but feel free to say more.
Again: Be sure to refer to specific claims and ideas in Schneider's essay and quote (a few short quotes).
Location Comics
Scan your work and consolidate group work into a single file (the consolidation into a single PDF can be done at the start of the class). Upload the file to Sakai and Scribd. Each member should upload his or her own contribution to their Sakai drop box. The complete version should be on Scribd. Link to this version in a reply to the "Location Comic" thread on Sakai.
Bring the orignal copy (or print from the scan) of your work to the next class.
Presentations
Two-person presentation on the Harvey article and a one-person presentation on the (very short) Pascal Lefevre article.
Presentations should be about 8–12 minutes in length and use slides (format: PowerPoint, Keynote, a PDF or web page) to illustrate your points. Also, presentations should not try to encompass the entire reading. Rather follow a brief overview with a focus on content of particular interest or value.
Week Four
Announcement
Virtual Class
Work is due on Friday and again for next week. No class meeting this week; just "fieldwork" and other research for your diary comics.
Work Due
Diary Comic – Part One
Due on Scribd and Sakai by 6 PM, Friday, Feb. 10.
Upload a PDF of the first part of your comic to your Sakai drop box and to Scribd by 6 PM on Friday, Feb. 10. Post a link to your comic on Scribd in a reply to the "Diary Comic - Part One" thread on the Sakai discussion list.
Homework
Homework Note
A few modifications to the diary comic requirements for next week will be circulated via an email and/or a Sakai announcement by the end of Friday. (Again: this will apply to the work due on the Feb. 16.)
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical
- Abel and Madden, chapters 5 and 6.
- Harvey - "How Comics Came to Be" A Comics Studies Reader 25–45)
- Schneider - "Comics and Everyday Life" (Sakai)
Comics in Brunetti
- Mazzucchelli - "Near Miss" (259)
- Gary Panter - excerpt from Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise (107)
- Matt Thurber - "Island of Silk and Ectoplasm" (141)
- Ron Rege, Jr. - "We Must Know, We Will Know" (esp. 131)
- Ben Katchor - excerpt from The Beauty Supply District (270)
- Frank Santoro - excerpt from Storyville (279)
- Bill Griffith - "Is There Life After Levittown" (301)
Reading Question: Each of the seven comics above makes strong, often focal use of setting. In some cases the setting is essentially what the story is about. Select four of the comics and compare the role setting plays in each. How does the presentation of setting differ (vary) from comic to comic? Refer to some specific details/panels in your analysis. Print your response (about a page) and bring it to the next class meeting.
Linked Comics
- Gilbert Shelton, Graveyard Ghosts
Diary Comic
Complete the two-week diary comic project. You'll submit a PDF of your full diary comic (all pages) to your Sakai drop box and to Scribd by class-time, Feb. 16, and turn in a paper copy in class.
Week Three
Work Due
World Knowledge and Story Knowledge Exercise
Br sure to identify each panel or sequence you select by author, story title, page number, and panel number. Print your response.
Righting "The Wrong Planet"
Upload a digital copy to Scribd and your Sakai drop box. Include a link to the version on Scribd in a reply to the "Wrong Planet" thread on the Class Discussion on Sakai. And bring a paper copy to class for the instructor.
Discussion
A Little History
Brief overview of comics history in America.
Transitions in Graphic Narrative
Types of panel-to-panel transition:
- Moment-to-moment
- Action-to-action
- Subject-to-subject
- Scene-to-scene
- Aspect-to-aspect
- Symbolic (e.g., real-to-imaginary, actual-to-abstract)
- Non-sequitur
Example of an action-to-action panel transition.
From Pink Tentacle: A graphic narrative that makes extensive use of non sequitur transititons: Maki Sasaki, Desert Eyeball (Garo, 1970).
Where do subjective and objective shifts backwards in time (perceived-to-remembered and present-to-past respectively) fit in to this breakdown?
And here's a page of symbolic transitions from Eddie Campbell:
And in a Wrong Planet story from a previous semester.
Activities
Transitions Mini-Anthology
Working in a group of four or five members, you'll produce a mini-anthology consisting of several six-panel stories, one story for each member of the group.
Once you've formed your group, decide on a two-word theme for your anthology ("isolated houses," "hidden treasures," "evil twins," "robot dictators," "missed connections"; something like that) and get the instructor's approval.
Next, as a group, determine the initial situation. This is what the first panel of all the comics in the group will present. The situation will need to specify:
- A distinct location in time and place
- One or more main characters
- A clear activity in which the character is engaging (anything from, say, watching television to conquering the universe )
Each group member should then draw this panel on a sheet paper of paper.
Once the first panels have been drawn, each group member should devise a final situation to be presented by the last panel of the story. This new situation will need to specify:
- A new and different location in time and place, fairly remote from that of the initial situation
- One or more changes in the physical, mental, and/or social condition(s) of main character(s)
- A new activity in which the character is engaging (walking, waiting for the bus, nursing wounds, etc.)
Record and share your final situations. Then pass your sheet of paper to the group member to your left. When you receive the new sheet of paper (with the first panel by your neighbor to the right), draw the next panel. The objective is to move the story from the initial situation to one of the final situations by the sixth panel.
After you've completed the second panel, pass the sheet of paper to the group member to your left and take the sheet of paper from the group member to your right. Add the next panel. Continue doing this for each panel until you reach panel six and complete the story.
Use words and pictures. Add new characters, objects, complications, as needed.
But WAIT! There is one more rule. Each new panel has to complete a different kind of transition. Select any of the previously unused transition types from the list below and indicate in a caption or underneath the panel which one you're using.
Types of panel-to-panel transition:
- Moment-to-moment
- Action-to-action
- Subject-to-subject
- Scene-to-scene
- Aspect-to-aspect
- Symbolic (e.g., real-to-imaginary, actual-to-abstract)
- Non-sequitur
Note: Avoid using the non-sequitur transition for the final panel.
As you select a transition, keep an open mind. And action to action transition, for instance, can span seconds, hours, years, or decades (think, for example, of the rocket launching in one panel and then landing on the moon in the next in some interpretations of last week's exercise).
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical
- Abel and Madden, chapters 5 and 6.
- Harvey - "How Comics Came to Be" A Comics Studies Reader 25–45)
- Schneider - "Comics and Everyday Life" (Sakai)
Comics in Brunetti
- Mazzucchelli - "Near Miss" (259)
- Gary Panter - excerpt from Jimbo: Adventures in Paradise (107)
- Matt Thurber - "Island of Silk and Ectoplasm" (141)
- Ron Rege, Jr. - "We Must Know, We Will Know" (esp. 131)
- Ben Katchor - excerpt from The Beauty Supply District (270)
- Frank Santoro - excerpt from Storyville (279)
- Bill Griffith - "Is There Life After Levittown" (301)
Reading Question: Each of the seven comics above makes strong, often focal use of setting. In some cases the setting is essentially what the story is about. Select four of the comics and compare the role setting plays in each. How does the presentation of setting differ (vary) from comic to comic? Refer to some specific details/panels in your analysis. Print your response (about a page) and bring it to the next class meeting.
Linked Comics
- Gilbert Shelton, Graveyard Ghosts
Diary Comic
Complete the two-week diary comic project. You'll submit the diary comic in two weekly stages:
- You'll upload a PDF of the first part of the comic to your Sakai drop box and to Scribd by 6 PM on Friday, Feb. 10. Also: post a link to your comic on Scribd in a reply to the "Diary Comic, part one" thread on the Sakai discussion list.
- You'll submit a PDF of your completed diary comic to your Sakai drop box and to Scribd by class-time, Feb. 16, and turn in a paper copy in class.
Have fun with the assignment. Avoid simply recording a pictorial list of what you did. For example, something like this:
Instead, think about how the combination (or conflict) of words and pictures (and layout) can make the record of even the most common events (e.g., going to class, then driving home) a source of curiosity, suspense, or surprise, of genuine narrative interest.
Diary Comics Reading
Here are some examples of diary comics. They are fairly straightforward in their presentation. As stated in the assignment, however, you are not limited to the straightforward presentation. If you're inspired to experiment, to test the boundaries of what a diary comic can be, then experiment away.
Diary Comics in Brunetti
- McShane, "09/12/04" (154-56)
- Park, "Sunday, April 4th" (157)
- Davis, "September 1, 2005" (158), "September 3, 2005" (159), and "September 5, 2005" (160)
Linked Diary Comics
- Dustin Harbin, Diary Comics
- Virginia Paine, Milkyboots (search her blog for the comics)
The Cartoonist's Diary feature at the Comics Journal website is also a good place to look for examples.
Week Two
Work Due
Bechdel, Spiegelman, and Hellboy in Conversation
Once you've read the three stories, sketch out a brief conversational exchange between Bechdel (young and/or adult), little "Artie" Spiegelman, and (big) Hellboy. A single big panel with each character speaking would be fine. Or a short strip (3-4 panels).
Graphic and Non-Graphic Narrative : What Are the Differences?
Submit a printed copy of your response. About a page. Two pages at most.
Again, the question (or line of questioning) to consider: How does the graphic adaptation change Lord Dunsany's tale? What gets added? What gets taken away? Select a panel or sequence where the adapatation is particularly effective and briefly explain why. (Or, try opposite approach: a panel or sequence where the adaptation is particularly ineffective.) – Also: Note some points where the adaptation is fairly close to (or fairly far from) the sense you had of the story (the look of the scenes, the form of the action) when you were reading the original, prose version.
Fight or Run Comic
Finish your comic. Scan and upload a file of the scan to both (1) Scribd and (2) your Saki drop box. Next, post a link to your comic on Scribd in a reply to the "Fight or Run" thread on the Class Discussion List on Sakai.
Also: Bring either the original drawing, a good photocopy, or a print of the scan for the instructor.
Discussion
Comics Terminology
Review of some basic formal terminology used to talk about comics/graphic narrative.
And while we're at it, we'll also take a look at Nate Peikos's article on Comic Book Grammar & terminology.
This look at some of the conventions for presenting words in comics brings us to the next topic...
Discussion of Reading
In which we discuss the reading. Some topics:
- Coloring (method, palette)
- Protagonist
- Setting
- Narrator
- Compression
- Layout
- Structure
- Time
- Genre
Verbal Narration in Comics
Let's start with your diary comics. Purely written diaries tend to be fairly explicitly narrated in the first-person by the diarist. "I did this. I felt that. I saw ..." But how about your diary comics? How explicitly are they narrated? How explicitly (verbally or pictorially) do you appear in its pages? Obviously you're the one making the comic, constructing its diurnal narrative. But how clearly manifest (if at all) are you as the narrator from panel to panel? What devices, resources, or techniques (if any) make this role or identity clear to the reader?
Not all graphic narratives have (detectable) narrators, but some do. Narrators are an optional resource taking different forms and serving different functions. Narrative theorists, for instance, define several different kinds of narrator (homediegetic, heterodiegetic, extradiegetic, etc.). Over the semester we'll take note of the (many) different kinds and uses of narrator we find in the reading. This week's reading was particularly rich in narrators.
Some questions to ask:
- Is there a narrator?
- If yes: Is he/she/it depicted in the comic?
- Is the narrator a character in the main story being told?
- If so, is he/she/it the protagonist or a secondary character?
- And of course: what is he/she/it doing to/for the narrative?
Story/Discourse
We'll cover the basic, if challenged, distinction from classical narrative theory as a prelude to the Wrong Planet exercise (below).
Closure and Gap-Filling: Graphic Narrative Inference
Let's consider gap-filling, provoking the reader to work at filling in gaps in the information given, as one source of narrative interest. Newgarden and Karasik offer an (unusual) example from Bushmiller's Nancy.
Examples to follow (a short slide presentation).
Activities
Wrong Planet
Work on Pahl Hluchan's "Wrong Planet" activity, described in the Abel & Madden textbook on page 31.
Work in groups of four to six members. Use the colored Post-Its provided.
After you've completed steps 1 – 3, we'll take a break, look at each groups work, and then discuss the role of closure, inference-making, and gap-filling in the narrative process (see the last Discussion topic above).
Then, with these words on inference-making and stretching (slowing down) and compressing (speeding up) the narrative in mind, complete step 4 of activity.
Homework
Reading
Technical, critical, theoretical
- Abel & Madden, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures. Chapters 3 and 4. Read through the chapters, look carefully at the pictures, but don't do the activities or homework assignments.
- Wolk - "Pictures, Words, and the Space between Them" (Sakai, under Resources, in the "Theory & Criticism" folder).
Comics in Brunetti
- Drechsler, "Constellations" (199-203)
- Hernandez, "Mosquito" (74)
- Hernandez, "Jerusalem Crickets" (349-54)
Linked Comics
- TBA
World Knowledge and Story Knowledge Exercise
Select three panels or short sequences from any three of the readings so far (i.e., make one selection from each of the three readings for a total of three selections). However, do not use the first panel of any of the stories.
For each panel, determine what the reader needs to know in order to make sense of the panel.
Distinguish between prior knowledge the reader is expected to have from outside the story ("world knowledge") and new knowledge the reader is expected to have picked up or inferred specifically from his or her reading of previous parts of the story ("story knowledge").
For each of the three panels, list at least three pieces of world knowledge and three pieces of story knowledge – thus at least eighteen pieces altogether.
Identify each panel or sequence you select by author, story title, page number, and panel number. Print your response.
Righting "The Wrong Planet"
The "Wrong Planet" plot makes for a fun exercise, and your illustrated versions add wit and visual interest, but the story remains not very interesting as a narrative. The interest comes at the end, from the surprise ending – and here and there from some of the clever details added by each of you in your interpretations of each of its sequences. But overall, what we can call the specifically narrative interest of the story remains weak. Keep reading.
Week One
Discussion
Syllabus & Class Policies
We'll begin with a review the syllabus, requirements, policies, etc.. Let me know (e.g., in class or via email) if you have questions not covered by the review.
What Is Graphic Narrative?
Let's take a look at a panel by the great Hergé:
I want to consider the anatomy of this panel, the parts that combine to make it work – and to indicate very clearly, I think, that it is a comics panel and not some other kind of image. What are some of the features or elements of the panel that indicate this identity?
Next: What makes this a NARRATIVE panel? Not just a panel in a narrative sequence but a panel that generates narrative interest by itself. What froms does this interst take? How does the panel achieve this?
Next, we'll look at a full page by the same cartoonist.
In a blog post, the blogger Screentone compares this page to Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa. This is a revealing comparison beyond simply the visual similarity: Hergé structures his comics page as a big wave of interest and information consisting of two smaller waves (the half-pages), each itself consisting of smaller waves still (the different tiers).
Graphic narrative structures: Getting started with the Situation^Complication pair. Tendency to focus on the latter, more exciting member of the pair. But the former deserves special attention of its own. Can generate its own interest.
Situation descriptions:
- Agent(s)
- Location (time/place)
- Activity
Activities
Fight or Run Comics: Introduction and Definition
Fight or Run is a genre of short narrative comic invented by the cartoonist Kevin Huizenga. Huizenga describes the genre as an "open source" comics game. Good examples of Fight or Run comics can be found in Huizenga's Fight or Run: The Shadow of Chopper (Buenaventura Press, 2008) and on his Fight or Run blog.
In Huizenga's Fight or Run comics two characters encounter each other in an otherwise unpopulated desert-like environment. Either both characters decide to fight or one of them decides to run and the other then pursues the runner. Within a finite number of panels either (a) one of the fighters is victorious (if the decision was to fight) or (b) the runner either escapes and wins or is caught and loses. The comic ends with a panel identifying the winner.
Fight or Run Comic Diagram of Options
Cf. Huizenga's much fancier diagram of the basic structure.
Some examples:
- Fight or Run: Chopper vs. Blinder
- Fight or Run: Seven Seas vs. Kid Torturer
- Fight or Run: Mr. Horse vs. Fatty Pig
- Fight or Run: Three Choppers
- Fight or Run: Chopper vs. Kid Torturer
- Fight or Run: Duck vs. Rabbit
- Fight or Run: Kid Torturer vs. Chopper
- Fight or Run: Bride to Be vs. Chopper
Find more examples of Huizenga's Fight/Run comics, again, are found on the official Fight or Run blog.
Fight or Run Comic: Narrative Structure
The Fight or Run comic realizes the following schematic structure. Essentially, it is a more delicate variant of the Simple Narrative genre.
- Banner: At least one tier in size, containing the title ("Fight or Run") and both picturing and naming the characters (e.g., "Kid Tortuerer vs Chopper"). Huizenga's diagram labels this feature as the "announcement."
- Situation stage: One or more panels showing Character A wandering in the desert (or other environment). Huizenga lables this stage the
"entrance."
- Complication stage: One panel showing the Character A encountering Character B. Huizenga labels this stage the "meeting."
- Decision stage: One panel (immediately following the Complication panel) announcing Character A's decision to Fight or Run.
- Resolution stage: Two or more (usually more) panels showing A and B fighting or A chasing B. Ends with either A or B beating the other, B catching A, or A escaping.
- Denouement: One panel declaring = naming and picturing the winner. (May be expanded into multiple panels.)
In terms of participant roles, character A is Patient prior to the decision to fight or run. After the decision, A is Agent. Character B is a Complicator.
Note: Huizenga's diagram of the basic structure allows for more options. In particular, B can decide to run, with A chasing B. This is not an option within the assignment for this class (see below), so I've left it out.
Fight or Run Activity: Instructions
Here's the procedure for the in-class exercise:
- Form groups of two (or three, if necessary).
- Working on paper, each member designs a distinctive character. Give the character a look, a shape, a size, a name, a personality, and some traits. The character may or may not have powers. But he, or she, or it should have some ability, talent, tool, weapon, spirit companion, or useful pet. Your character may also have peculiar weakness, shortcoming, neurosis, deformity, lack, gap, etc.
- Share your character (all the details) with your partner(s).
- Working on paper, make a Fight or Run comic of at least nine panels in which your character, by whatever means, defeats your partner's character (or, if you're in a group of three, one or both of your partners' characters). Your character wins either (1) by defeating the other character(s) in a violent or non-violent contest of some kind ("fight"), or (2) by definitively escaping the contest ("run"). The "fight" can take any form that the intersection of your character's abilities, the other character's abilities, and the environment allows. Ditto, the running away. Part of the exercise is to discover an unusual solution to the problem.
- Your finished strip should consist of (a) a banner; (b) at least five panels for the Resolution stage (i.e., fighting or escaping); and at least one panel for each of the four other stages (Situation, Complication/Encounter, Decision, and Denouement). So at least nine panels plus the banner.
- When finished (or before the end of class): share your work, even if not yet complete.
- Note: each group member makes his or own Fight or Run comic in which his or her character, whether running or fighting, is victorious.
- For the next class: Finish any remaining work on the comic. Then scan and upload a PDF or high-quality JPG version of your Fight-or-Run comic to both your drop box on Sakai and Scribd. Finally, before the start of the next class, place a link to your comic on Scribd in a reply to the "Fight or Run" thread on Class Discussion on Sakai. That way, we'll all be able to look at your finished work.
Homework
Purchase Books for the Course
These are the main books we'll be using. Purchase them online or from the Rutgers Bookstore ASAP.
Register for Scribd
Register for Scribd. Scribd is a document-sharing website that we'll use to share your graphic work for this course. Most of that work will need to be uploaded to Scribd as part of the submission process. Some of it may also need to be uploaded as part of the drafting and revision process.
You can already log-in to Scribd via your Facebook account, but you might want to create a separate Scribd account for this course (e.g., if you want your comics and your Facebook life to remain separate).
Reply to the Introductions Thread on the Sakai Discussion List
Introduce yourself to the class. You'll find the thread on the Sakai Discussion List under "Class Discussions."
Reading
Critical, theoretical, technical
- Pratt - "Narrative in Comics" (on Sakai)
- Abel & Madden - Drawing Words & Writing Pictures, preface, introduction, and chapters 1 and 2. Read through the chapters but don't do the activities or homework assignments.
Comics in Brunetti
None for this week. We'll start reading the anthology new week.
Linked comics
- Alison Bechdel, "Compulsory Reading"
- Mike Mignola, "Doctor Carp's Experiment" (via Sakai > resources)
- Art Spiegelman, "Eyeball" (New Yorker via Flickr)
Once you've read these three stories, sketch out a brief conversational exchange between Bechdel (young and/or adult), little Art Spiegelman, and (big) Hellboy. A single big panel with each character speaking would be fine. Or a short strip (3-4 panels).
Graphic and Non-Graphic Narrative : What Are the Differences?
First, read Lord Dunsany's short story, "The Bureau d'Echange De Maux" (PDF, 3 pages). Then take a look at a graphic adaptation of the story (on Sakai under Resources). Once you've read both versions of the story, answer a few questions (updated):
How does the graphic adaptation change Lord Dunsany's tale? What gets added? What gets taken away? Select a panel or sequence where the adapatation is particularly effective and briefly explain why. (Or, try opposite approach: a panel or sequence where the adaptation is particularly ineffective.) – Also: Note some points where the adaptation is fairly close to (or fairly far from) the sense you had of the story (the look of the scenes, the form of the action) when you were reading the original, prose version.
Turn in a printed copy of your response next week. About a page. Two pages at most.
Fight or Run Comic
Finish your comic. Scan and upload a file of the scan to both (1) Scribd and (2) your Saki drop box. Next, post a link to your comic on Scribd in a reply to the "Fight or Run" thread on the Class Discussion List on Sakai.