Just finished teaching a graphic novel course

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

One of the assignments I gave had students work collaboratively to create their own comic.

 

Here are the first three pages of one group's work and a link to the rest of the comic. Thoughts about this first-time effort at comics creation by some young college kids?

 

 

 

 

Link

[gyro-1]

very cool story idea

[Dr. Balls]

That's awesome!

[sckao]

 

Initial thoughts? She's Asian and underwater metaphorically. She blames her mother for walking out on her. Completely glosses over the faceless father who evidently raises her and her brother. Their lives are literally a car wreck.

 

Yet she is "saved" by a blonde caucasian who also shows up symbolically as a blonde finch.

 

 

Other than that, it was an interesting quick read. (thumbs u

 

 

[Pirate]

I thought it was a giant booty call, hmm

[Senormac]

I liked it, but I don't think I understood it

[Doohickamabob]

Sounds like the students are also taking a class in statistics!

[Kevin.J]

[ChrisInBaltimore]

Very cool. I took an awful graphic novel course in college so hopefully this was better. I even turned down an internship because I was so excited for the course and the guys were just awful. They were comic book elitists and insisted that mainstream super hero comics weren't nearly as good as indies; unless it was Batman for some reason.

 

The original comic book is a neat end point.

 

What was your reading list? Syllabus?

 

I had come up with an idea for a graphic novel course at a Catholic School I worked in last year. It was going to be "Contemporary World History and the Graphic Novel." I was going to have them explore identity and non fiction works (ie Persepolis, Maus, Barefoot Gen, and a few other ideas). I got offered a job in a public school though and it was a better opportunity for my family. I would have gotten the course though which would have been a blast.

[bb8]

Definitely cool, but hard for a pleeb like me to understand...

[Dr. Balls]

Definitely cool, but hard for a pleeb like me to understand...

 

I like it. Reminds me of an arthouse film. I think there are three types of relationship metaphors in that assignment. That's what I get from it.

[Ijiwaru Sensei]

Very cool. I took an awful graphic novel course in college so hopefully this was better. I even turned down an internship because I was so excited for the course and the guys were just awful. They were comic book elitists and insisted that mainstream super hero comics weren't nearly as good as indies; unless it was Batman for some reason.

 

The original comic book is a neat end point.

 

What was your reading list? Syllabus?

 

I had come up with an idea for a graphic novel course at a Catholic School I worked in last year. It was going to be "Contemporary World History and the Graphic Novel." I was going to have them explore identity and non fiction works (ie Persepolis, Maus, Barefoot Gen, and a few other ideas). I got offered a job in a public school though and it was a better opportunity for my family. I would have gotten the course though which would have been a blast.

 

Reading list this time around included the following:

 

Understanding Comics

The Contract with God Trilogy

Maus

Blankets

Nat Turner

A Distant Neighborhood

Journey to Pyongyang

Epileptic

Persepolis

Zahra's Paradise

Years of the Elephant

 

I had students do presentations on other comics creators. They could choose from a list of about 20 that included Herge, Jason Lutes, Chris Ware, Osamu Tezuka, and others. I try to give students a broad international view of comics.

 

I'm a mini-elitist. I don't downgrade superhero comics, but I don't assign them either, well, except that Alan Moore is on the list for presentations. We do talk about superhero comics early on as I spend several classes discussing the development of the medium. I'm a lit guy, so I tend to push students toward works that attempt to say something about the human condition. You know, pretentious sounding heady stuff--blah, blah . . . blah, blah, blah.

 

I actively recruit English majors along with graphic design and studio art majors just so we can have the necessary skill set to do a creative project in the class.

 

It's a blast to teach, though I feel quite inadequate to be doing so. I''ve never taken a graphic novel course and started this one from scratch. A lot of times the students have read much more broadly than I have, especially with manga.

[Unca Ben]

You and your students are doing a very nice job. Keep up the good work!

[Lebowski]

Yet she is "saved" by a blonde caucasian who also shows up symbolically as a blonde finch.

 

 

Pretty sure you got that one wrong. The man is the angler fish and certainly not represented as any sort of salvation. Not sure how that it isn't apparent. Maybe you're looking for something that isn't there.

[nwpassage]

Yet she is "saved" by a blonde caucasian who also shows up symbolically as a blonde finch.

 

 

Pretty sure you got that one wrong. The man is the angler fish and certainly not represented as any sort of salvation. Not sure how that it isn't apparent. Maybe you're looking for something that isn't there.

 

I'd have to agree. If that's how women are "saved" by men, there are a lot of lucky ladies who resent the hell out of me.

[sckao]

 

He literally pulls her out of the water. That they break up later or that she feels used (Page 13) is secondary.

 

Note that he is the only outsider to have a face (eyes). The ambulance driver doesn't have a face. Her parents don't either.

 

Her brother who comforts her as a child has a face. The person who pulls her out of the water and saves her from "drowning" has a face. These people have an emotional connection to her.

 

What can we conclude?

 

She grows up to be her mother... abandoning the finch and allowing it to resuscitate on its own. She does not help the finch. She simply walks away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PeterPark]

Very cool. I took an awful graphic novel course in college so hopefully this was better. I even turned down an internship because I was so excited for the course and the guys were just awful. They were comic book elitists and insisted that mainstream super hero comics weren't nearly as good as indies; unless it was Batman for some reason.

 

The original comic book is a neat end point.

 

What was your reading list? Syllabus?

 

I had come up with an idea for a graphic novel course at a Catholic School I worked in last year. It was going to be "Contemporary World History and the Graphic Novel." I was going to have them explore identity and non fiction works (ie Persepolis, Maus, Barefoot Gen, and a few other ideas). I got offered a job in a public school though and it was a better opportunity for my family. I would have gotten the course though which would have been a blast.

 

Reading list this time around included the following:

 

Understanding Comics

The Contract with God Trilogy

Maus

Blankets

Nat Turner

A Distant Neighborhood

Journey to Pyongyang

Epileptic

Persepolis

Zahra's Paradise

Years of the Elephant

 

I had students do presentations on other comics creators. They could choose from a list of about 20 that included Herge, Jason Lutes, Chris Ware, Osamu Tezuka, and others. I try to give students a broad international view of comics.

 

I'm a mini-elitist. I don't downgrade superhero comics, but I don't assign them either, well, except that Alan Moore is on the list for presentations. We do talk about superhero comics early on as I spend several classes discussing the development of the medium. I'm a lit guy, so I tend to push students toward works that attempt to say something about the human condition. You know, pretentious sounding heady stuff--blah, blah . . . blah, blah, blah.

 

I actively recruit English majors along with graphic design and studio art majors just so we can have the necessary skill set to do a creative project in the class.

 

It's a blast to teach, though I feel quite inadequate to be doing so. I''ve never taken a graphic novel course and started this one from scratch. A lot of times the students have read much more broadly than I have, especially with manga.

 

Push for an educational Miracleman reprint (thumbs u

[Comicopolis]

One of the assignments I gave had students work collaboratively to create their own comic.

 

Here are the first three pages of one group's work and a link to the rest of the comic. Thoughts about this first-time effort at comics creation by some young college kids?

 

 

 

 

Link

 

There's more imagination and creativity in that than in the whole of DC's 'New 52'.

 

Congrats

[Davenport]

What can we conclude?

 

She grows up to be her mother... abandoning the finch and allowing it to resuscitate on its own. She does not help the finch. She simply walks away.

I concluded the finch was a metaphor for "acceptance". Mom walked out when she was a child, Loverboy walked out on her as an adult.

Abandonment hurt as a child, hurts as an adult, have to deal with it and live her life.

 

Also concluded a lot of needless effort goes into making college courses "smart", at the cost of being exciting, inspirational and fun.

 

Not really a criticism, just an observation. Somewhere along the way higher learning linked engaging storytelling to the mindless masses. Pity, that.

[Senormac]

 

Note that he is the only outsider to have a face (eyes). The ambulance driver doesn't have a face. Her parents don't either.

 

Her brother who comforts her as a child has a face. The person who pulls her out of the water and saves her from "drowning" has a face. These people have an emotional connection to her.

 

What can we conclude?

 

I think its a complete rip off of Charles Schultz whos adults never had faces either.

 

Now if we could only hear them talk in that waa waa waa waa waa voice...