Course Description
A study of the medium of comics, with an emphasis on composition and production. Focus will be on the process of producing and analyzing finished comics work.
Athena Title
Comics Theory and Practice
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will develop a creatively-based understanding of comics as a medium, learning the process whereby comics are made and the various conventions, arts, and practices that make comics work. Students will engage in brief analyses of examples of the comics form, but their primary work will be to make comics themselves. Over the course of a given term, students will begin with the basics of visual design and cartooning, with an emphasis on legibility of meaning; drawing skill will not be at issue. Student creative projects, and student analysis of their own and each other’s work, will become more complex as the term progresses, leading to a capstone project submitted at the end of the term. The scripting, composition, and design work accomplished over the course of the term will be equivalent to twenty to twenty-five pages of traditional essay writing.
Topical Outline
The focus of students’ work may vary from one project or student to another, but major genres of focus will be autobiography and comedy. Specific formal issues to be addressed will include cartooning, word/image design, panel composition, page design, and narrative progression.