Week 1

Comic Book Origins

Read for NEXT class mtg.

8/23

Intro to course; critiques of comic books as literature

8/25

Defining “comics”

Sheridan, “Standing Behind the Drawing Board”

Week 2

Comic Book Origins (cont.)

8/30

WE WILL HAVE CLASS TODAY!!

9/1

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

Wright, Chapter 1
Waugh, “In the Beginning”

Week 3

Superheroes and their Creators

9/6

Platinum age, Yellow Kid, earliest comic books

9/8

Great depression; rise of the pulps

Fingeroth, “It Started with Gilgamesh”

Week 4

Comics as Discourse

9/13

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

Fingeroth, “The Dual Identity”

9/15

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

McCloud, Understanding Comics

Week 5

Writing for Comics

9/20

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

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

9/22

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

David, Writing for Comics

Week 6

Analyzing Comics

9/27

Understanding Comics (cont.)

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

9/29

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

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

Week 7

Analyzing Comics (cont.)

10/4

Writing for Comics (cont.)

10/6

Week 8

Comics and Prewar Cultural Values

10/11

MIDTERM EXAM #1

10/13

Prewar cultural values, gender, and ethnic stereotyping in comics

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

Week 9

Comics in WWII

10/18

WWII – the “Golden Age”; comics as propaganda

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

10/20

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 11

Comics in the Postwar Period

10/25

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

Nyberg, “Comics, Critics and Children’s Culture”

Crist, “Horror in the Nursery”

10/27

The Cold War, the Red Scare, and the emergence of new genres (cont.)

Comic story and paper due

Crime Does Not Pay #57 (1947)

“The Body Maker” (1952)

Week 12

“Horror in the Nursery”

11/1

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

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

11/3

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 13

Comic Book Censorship

11/8

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

Wright, Chapter 7

11/10

MIDTERM EXAM #2

Savage, “Korea”

Week 14

Superheroes Reborn

11/15

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)

11/17

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 15

THANKSGIVING

11/21-11/25

Week 16

Excelsior, True Believers!

11/29

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

Estren, “An Attempt at Definition”

12/1

The 1980’s and 90’s – independents and the creation of direct marketing; graphic novels, “savage” heroes and adult readers

Wright, Chapter 9

Eisner, Dropsie Avenue: The Neighborhood

Week 16

Revenge of the Nerds

12/6

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

McGrath, “How Cool is Comics Lit?”

Pustz, “From Speculators to Snobs”

12/8

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