Skip to main content

Comic Book are American History


Before I know it, I'm sure someone will ask me why a class on comic books. This is the natural question to ask, especially since I and my colleague William Svitavsky are gearing up to teach HIS 235: American Graphic Media. This class is dedicated to studying comic books and what those comics can tell us about U.S. culture in the modern era. While we are both highly skilled intellectuals:), we will still get troubling looks from someone. Nonetheless, the chance to challenge assumptions and create new ways of considering contemporary issue abound studying comics.

Comments

cocoababez87 said…
I have never really gotten into comic books, but I was very interested in the Batman movies and the superman shows. This course will be an opportunity for me to gain knowledge in the fields of comic books, especially since I couldn't distinguish between Marvel and DC comics. I also want to learn about the historical references seen in comic books, the racial aspects of the time reflected in these works. I also wonder what is the fascination with comic books as we see with grown-ups? I hope after this class I will actually appreciate comic books after this course.
January 18, 2008 at 12:53 AM
Anonymous said…
I have always loved comic books. Or, I have always loved the heroes behind them. In chapters one and two I was surprised how much information I learned about comics through such an imaginative text. Ideas such as my driving a car becoming an extension of myself was a concept that never occurred to me. Or how often humans see themselves in inanimate objects, provided they have a circle and dot representing an eye ball. When I saw that 90 pages of total reading was assigned I frowned, but as I got into the reading I was hooked. I look forward to discovering more of the history of comics (such as their origins in hieroglyphics) and the people behind them.
January 18, 2008 at 8:56 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Comics Ch. 1-2 & Comic Book Nation Ch.1

To begin with, I really do like the idea of reading a comic about comics. I think it's a great idea and it's very well executed. As I was reading the first two chapters, I was surprised at how many examples there were of art in recent (and ancient, in some cases) history that are variations of "sequential visual art" and thus the foundations of modern comics. I'd never even thought about it before and it was hard to believe how many different kinds there were. I also love all the discussion about how our human brains automatically interpret certain images in a specific way, how we see others constantly but we identify ourselves when we look at cartoons, and how inanimate objects automatically becomes extensions of our bodies. The pyramid of styles was very interesting too as a way to conceptualize and almost graph or "place" a specific art style in comics. In Comic Book Nation , I enjoyed reading about the evolution of early comics from "funnies...
3 comments
Read more

MegaCon 2011 Mobile Blog Entry

Next up, the Crime Noir Panel hosted by The Rack Pack Comic Podcast . Jimmy Palmiotti, Frank Tieri, Darwyn Cook and Dave Johnson are the speakers. MegaCon has matured as the comic industry has grown in importance in popular culture. Orlando's native convention should be attracting this kind of top talents and now it seem to be doing it.
2 comments
Read more

Mythology and Superheroes in Comics

Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...
2 comments
Read more