Topics

Readings (for following class)

Comic Book Origins

1/13

Intro to course; critiques of comic books as literature

Sheridan, “Standing Behind the Drawing Board”

1/15

Early history/ prehistory; comic strips, collections, penny dreadfuls, dime novels, early pulps (1920s)

Wright, Chapter 1
Waugh, “In the Beginning”

Week 2

 Comic Book Origins (cont.)

1/20

Platinum age, Yellow Kid, earliest comic books; great depression; rise of the pulps

Fingeroth, “It Started with Gilgamesh”

1/22

Big Little Books, earliest comic books, early historical figures, quasi-superheroes and costumed adventurers

Fingeroth, “The Dual Identity”

Week 3

 Superheroes and their Creators

1/27

1938 – Superman: history, origins, mythos; the psychology of dual identities; hero narratives and superheroes

McCloud, Understanding Comics

1/29

Superman’s imitators and competitors; comic book production and publication; studios, ownership, professional status

Eisner, “‘Comics’ as a Form of Reading”
Eisner, “Timing”

Week 4

 Comics as Discourse

2/3

Understanding Comics -- Rhetoric of the comic book; the medium, vocabulary, grammar, defining terms

David, Writing for Comics

2/5

Understanding Comics (cont.)

O’Neil, “Write Ways: An Unruly Anti-Treatise”
Eisner, “Writing and Sequential Art”

Week 5

 Writing for Comics

2/10

Writing for Comics – characters, scripts, narrative, dialogue; working with artists

David, “Incredible Hulk #82” (script and comic book)
 

2/12

Writing for Comics (cont.)

Bendis, Fortune and Glory

Week 6

 Analyzing Comics

2/17

Analyzing Fortune and Glory – pacing, layout, scripting, characters, and plot

2/19

MIDTERM EXAM #1

Week 7

 Comics and Prewar Cultural Values

2/24

2/26

OPEN (schedule uncertain - J)

Wright, Chapter 2
Simon & Kirby, “Spy Ambush”    (Captain America #10, 1942)
Superman #34 (1945)
Exciting Comics #36 (1944)

Week 8

 Comics in WWII

3/3

WWII – the “Golden Age”; comics as propaganda

“The Gay Ghost” (1943)
“Wonder Woman” (1943)
“Patsy Walker” (1945)

3/5

WWII – stereotypes, racial profiling, politics, and gender

Wright, Chapter 3, 5
Savage, “The Red Menace”
“Chop Chop” (1954)
“Buffalo Belle” (ca. 1950)
Women Outlaws #1 (1948)

Week 9

 Comics in the Postwar Period

3/10

The Cold War, the Red Scare, and the emergence of new genres

Nyberg, “Comics, Critics and Children’s Culture”
Crist, “Horror in the Nursery”

3/12

NO CLASS (CONFERENCE)

Crime Does Not Pay #57 (1947)
“The Body Maker” (1952)

Week 10

 SPRING BREAK

Week 11

 “Horror in the Nursery”

3/24

Attacks on comic books – literary, psychological, cultural, political

Wright, Chapter 4
“Murder, Morphine, and Me” (1947)
Wertham, “The Wrong Twist”

3/26

Sex, violence, crime, drugs, juvenile delinquency, and the funnybooks

Wright, Chapter 6
“Foul Play” (1953)
Wertham, “I Want to be a Sex Maniac!”
Goldwater, excerpts from Americana in Four Colors

Week 12

 Comic Book Censorship

3/31

EC Comics, Seduction of the Innocent, the Kefauver hearings, and the Comics Code

Wright, Chapter 7

4/2

MIDTERM EXAM #2

Savage, “Korea”

Week 13

 Superheroes Reborn

4/7

The “Atomic” Age and the Silver Age; collapsing companies

“The Postman Never Rings” (Zatara) (1946)
“I Tangled with a Spiteful Blonde” (1952)
“Wake Up and Dream” (1952)

4/9

Embedded politics: war, cultural imperialism, liberal values, domestic containment

Wright, Chapter 8
Ro, Chapters 7-9
“The Treasure of Marco Polo” (Uncle Scrooge)
Dorfman and Mattelart, “From the Noble Savage to the Third World”

Week 14

"Excelsior, True Believers!"

4/14

The Marvel Age of Comics; Vietnam, student protests, civil rights, and feminism

Estren, “An Attempt at Definition”

4/16

Underground Comix

Franklin, “Coming Out in Comic Books”

Week 15

 Independents Day

4/21

Wright, Chapter 9
Yang, American Born Chinese

4/23

Week 16

 Revenge of the Nerds

4/28

Creators’ rights, Jack Kirby, and Image Comics; critical recognition; Wall Street leveraging; comics and new technologies

Pustz, “From Speculators to Snobs”

4/30

Comics fandom and the rise of fan culture
Research/Creative Project Due