3/29/2011: Autobiographical Art Challenge!

Please don't forget to begin working on the strictly optional autobiographical art challenge: write and draw a one-page, black-and-white comic about your own life. It can be as seemingly important or insignificant as you choose. And your artistic ability need not be professional or polished by any means; remember that Harvey Pekar developed American Splendor through simple stick figures.

Which is to say, any style of sequential art will do!

And as always, there are prizes involved, including the kind of amazing grand prize: a copy of the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus!

Due in class on Monday, April 4th.

3/29/2011: Not Quite Hilarious Existential Despair

For anyone interested in weird meditations on sadness and loss (or, on the brighter side, the sheer dynamics of sequential art), I would like to recommend 3eanuts. By omitting the last panel from the daily strips of Charles Schulz's classic Peanuts, we see the kind of existential and/or ontological dimensions of the strip without the redeeming humor at the end.

Anyone interested in a similar experiment is encouraged to see also Garfield Minus Garfield.

3/7/2011: Suggestions and strategies for the first paper...

... can be found here, which is a Word document that you can download and review. This is not comprehensive by any means, but merely a few reminders of what you have learned from your previous literature and writing courses.

Remember that Paper #1 is due on Friday of this week!

3/2/2011: The Original Batwoman, Kathy Kane

As we discussed in class, the character of Batwoman debuted in 1956. She's clearly no Kate Kane, who is awesome. But at least we didn't have to worry about Batman and Robin any more...

(More classic images of Batwoman can be found here.)

3/2/2011: Short Writing Assignment due on Friday

To elaborate on the short essay for Friday just a bit... As a kind of preparation for the first paper (which is due next week), please write a short paper that examines one page or panel of Batwoman: Elegy. You can loosely follow the prompt for the first paper listed under "Writing Assignments," although this short paper should be significantly more concise -- maybe just a half-page or so. Above all, try to focus on how the layout influences and informs our understanding of the story's effect.