Day 1 (Week 1) (Wednesday, Jan. 3)

Due by 5:00, Thurs. -- Contribute a critical definition to the course wiki.

Due by 5:00, Fri. -- Single ¶ explanation of your initial "Visual Text" project idea.

Thursday Night: Required film screening, evening.

Due by Class Time, Mon. -- First three contributions to the course blog. 

• Homework Reading (for Christmas Break, due at class time)
• Kodak's Top Ten Hints for Photography
  Guidelines for Better Photographic Composition
  "Liar, Liar Pants on Fire" (Errol Morris)
• Something to Do
• Introduce yourself at the course blog. (This is not one of your three posts for the first week, but is a good way to begin things.)
• In-Class Screening
• "La Jetée" (Dir. Chris Marker, 1963)
• In-Class Groups: Two Exercises (Mission 1)
  
• Shoot a series of images which can be rearranged to mean different things when viewed in different orders; make sure the images display a variety of angles, and be sure to use the rule of thirds more than once. Put those images into a PowerPoint (or Keynote) document, one image per slide, and create at least two different narratives by placing them in two different orders.
• Choose one or two images for a second exercise. Use your slideware app again to add meaning to the image using words. Do a few variations (at least three, with no upper limit). For at least one, add meaning to the image by adding a caption. For at least one, add meaning by inserting words on top of the image strategically. Use no more than one clichéd "Internet meme" caption.  
• Both your narratives and your "words-added" images should be turned in using one slideware (PowerPoint or whatever) file. If the school email server won't let you send it, use a service like Hightail or MailBigFile.

Day 2 (Week 1) (Thursday, Jan. 4)

Due by 5:00, TODAY -- Contribute a critical definition to the course wiki (based on your McCloud reading, mostly, at this point). (Instructions are at the wiki itself. Go there an' read 'em. Go!)

Hey, have you contributed to the blog yet? I'd post something just after reading the McCloud, if I were you, and then maybe pop right over to the wiki/glossary with my head full of insights.

REQUIRED MOVIE SCREENING! Tonight.

• Read
• Understanding Comics (Scott McCloud, 1993) , Chapters 1-6 ONLY
      (Apparently, it can be found online here.)
  Seth on poetry + graphic design + comics. (A summary.)
• Do
• By 5:00, Contribute a Definition to the Course Wiki
• In-Class Reading and Screening
  
• "Sonic Medicine" (Scott Kolbo, 2012) (Handout)
  "Graphic Novels: A Visual Language" (Artists @NYT) (Dead link!)
• Evening Film Screening!!
• Comic Book Confidential (Dir. Ron Mann, 1988)
  **6:00-8:00, Robinson Science Hall, Room TBA**
• In-Class Groups
• Create a photo story using each of McCloud's transitions + @ least three of the "9th Grade Modes" (discussed in class). As on Monday, assemble your story using slideware. Label each slide using the comments field, so that I can tell which transition you have in mind. Traditionally, these stories are often about something bad happening to someone, though you might choose to either honor or defy tradition on that count.
  

Day 3 (Week 1) (Friday, Jan. 5)

Due by 5:00, TODAY -- Single ¶ explanation of your "Visual Text" project idea.

Hey, seriously: Have you contributed to the blog yet?

• Read Ideas
  
• "Perspicuous Objects" Sections 1-5 (Fred Johnson)
       (Read from "Defining Comics" to "La Ligne Juste"; SKIP long intro.)
  "Pictures, Words, and..." (Douglas Wolk, 118-34)
• Read Comics (Anthology + @Bb)
  
• Syllabus (Excerpt) (Lynda Barry) (BAC 2016)
  Selections from Lynda Barry (inc. Marlys strips) (packet)
  American Elf strips (James Kochalka) (packet)
  "The Swim” and “Today” (Anne Emond) (BAC 2016)
  El Deafo (Excerpt) (Cece Bell) (BAC 2016)
  “All the Paintings Here Agree” (Liana Finck) (BAC 2016)
  Powdered Milk, Vol. 14 (Keiler Roberts) (BAC 2016)
  Wendy (Excerpt) (Walter Scott) (BAC 2016)
  "Blanket Portraits" (Geneviève Elverum) (BAC 2016)

• Examine/Peruse
  
• PDF Full of Visual Text Projects from 2011 (Give it Time to Load!)
  "Mikenesses" (Mike Holmes, 2011ff)  (Online)
• In-Class Screening
• Lynda Barry on Not Being Able to Draw
  Stan Lee on "The Marvel Method" (from Mutants, Monsters, and Marvels)
  Phil Jimenez on the drawing process.
  Jimenez on working with inkers.
  Jimenez on the page layout process.
  Mark Morales inking spidey.
  
• In-Class Worktime
• Be prepared to work on your Visual Text project.

Day 4 (Start of Week 2) (Monday, Jan. 8)

Due by Class Time, TODAY -- Three contributions to the course blog.

Due by 5:00, Fri. -- Contribute a critical definition to the course wiki.

Thursday Night: Required film screening, evening.

Due by Class Time, next *Tues.* -- Three contributions to the course blog.

• Read Ideas
  
• "What Comics Are and What They Aren't" (Douglas Wolk, 3-28)
  "Imagetext, or, Why Art Spiegelman..." (Joseph Witek, online)
  "Töpffer in English" (Chris Ware, 222-27)
• Read Comics
• A Contract with God (Will Eisner, 1978)
• Also:
     "Killing and Dying" (Adrian Tomine) (BAC 2016)
     The Last Saturday (excerpt) (Chris Ware) (BAC 2016)
     Building Stories (excerpt) Chris Ware (packet)
     from Asterios Polyp (David Mazzucchelli) (packet)
• In Class Screening and Viewing
  
• Short videos on image distances and angles (Dir. Dave Monahan).
  Take a look at Crumb's Genesis (full text), Seth's Clyde Fans Book 1, and Chris Ware's Building Stories.
  
• In Class Work Time
• Work time today will go to your group "Loaded Image" projects.
  

Day 6 (Week 2) (Wednesday, Jan. 10)

Have you contributed to the blog yet this week?

• Read Ideas
  
• "How Comics Came to Be" (Robert C. Harvey, 25-45)
  
• Read Comics, Watch Videos
  
• Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, Volume 1
  (Wr. Brian Michael Bendis; Art. Sara Pichelli, 2012)
• Additional Amazing Spider-Man comics
  (Wr. Stan Lee; Art. Steve Ditko, 1962ff)
• Video: "In Search of Steve Ditko"
• Examine/Peruse (In Class)
  
• The Sandman, Volume 1 (Wr. Neil Gaiman)
  The Spirit, Volume 10 (Wr. Will Eisner) 
• In-Class Screening
  
• History of editing in film (Parts 1 and 2) (Dir. Dave Monahan).
  

Day 7 (Week 2) (Thursday, Jan. 11)

Go, Blog, Go!

REQUIRED MOVIE SCREENING! Tonight.

• Read Ideas
  
• "...A Multiplicity of Visual Rhetorical Traditions" (Franny Howes, online)
  "Auteurs...Art Comics...Ugly Drawings" (Douglas Wolk, 29-59)
  "Preface: A Manifesto Anyone?" (from Journalism) (Joe Sacco, xi-xiv)
  "Introduction" (from Safe Area Gorazde) (Christopher Hitchens, 2pp)
• Read Comics
• "The Fixer" (that story only) (Joe Sacco, 2003)
  "Milk" (Joe Sacco) (BAC 2016)
  "R. Crumb and Me" (Drew Friedman) (BAC 2016)
  "Vintage Trash and Horse Bones" (Julia Wertz) (BAC 2016)
  "Fiction Versus Nonfiction" (Chris Ware) (packet)
• Examine/Peruse (In Class)
  
• The Arrival (Shaun Tan, 2007)
  Scott Pilgrim comics (Bryan Lee O'Malley)
• In-Class Screening
  
• Ben Katchor video
  Edgar Wright on Visual Comedy in Films
• Think Ahead
• Your "Loaded Image" group should be planning/scheduling so as to be ready to present next Tuesday, after the MLK day break.
• Evening Film Screening!!
• Scott Pilgrim (Dir. Edgar Wright, 2010)

Day 8 (Week 2) (Friday, Jan. 12)

Due by 5:00, TODAY -- Contribute a critical definition to the course wiki.

Group "Loaded Image" Projects" Due Tuesday in Class, w/Presentations

• Read Ideas
• “The Construction of Space in Comics” (Pascal Lefevre, 157-62)
  "The Arrow and the Grid" (Joseph Witek,149-56)
  “Why Does Chris Ware Hate Fun?” (Douglas Wolk, 347-58)
  “Landsman of the Lost” (Michael Chabon, 133-40)
  
• Read Comics (Anthology Selections)
  
• Comics by Ben Katchor (Ben Katchor) (BAC 2016)
  + More Katchor from the Katchor Handout
  "Deep Space" (John Pham) (packet)
  "Lobster Run" from Johnny Hiro (Fred Chao) (packet)
• In-Class Screening
  
• Ben Katchor video

Day 10 (Week 3) (Wednesday, Jan. 17)

• Read Comics
• Low Moon (Jason, 2007)
  Salamander Dream (Hope Larson, 2005) (@Bb)
  George Sprott (Seth, 2007)
  "Dissident Years" (excerpt) from Fatherland (Nina Bunjevac) (BAC 2016)
• In-Class Screening
• Paperman (Disney Short)

Day 11 (Week 3) (Thursday, January 18)

• Spend Quality Time with J. Alfred Prufrock for Tuesday
• "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (T. S. Eliot, @Modernist Web)
• "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (Adapted by Julian Peters)
• Eliot Reads "Prufrock" (T.S. Eliot Turns in His Grave, B/c YouTube)
• "The Love Song," First Appearance (Consider that the poem originally appeared in an edition of Poetry Magazine. Peruse a bit. Just a bit.)
• Prufrock and Other Observations (Consider how THIS context would change the poem. Don't read all the poems! Just peruse a bit.)
  
  The Schmoop Page for J.Pru. Watch the awful video and commune just a little bit with the awful line-by-line hey-ain't-we-cool simplification.
• Peruse (For Style and Tone)
  
• Hyperbole and a Half (Allie Brosh) (Recommended by Ana Quiring)
       Ana recommends this one and this one.
       I recommend this NYT video (4.5 mins).
       And take a gander at those comment sections below the entries.
• Cereal with a Fork ( Kyle Courcy) (Recommended by Kayla Harris)
       And maybe check out this review, since it reinforces the idea
       that sometimes "getting" a comic is partly about learning
       to read and appreciate its form, style, and conventions.
• Examine/Peruse (In Class)
  
• Sin City: That Yellow Bastard (Frank Miller, 1996)
  
• In-Class Screening
  
• Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of That Yellow Bastard (Part I)

Day 12 (Week 3) (Friday, Jan. 19)

Every Day: Make progress on your Visual Text Project

Due by 5:00, TODAY -- Contribute a critical definition to the course wiki.

• Examine/Read Some Online Texts
  
• Scott McCloud explains the Infinite Canvas
  

  Yves “Balak” Bigerel on the Potential of Web Comics: One, Two
  "Pup Contemplates..." (Drew Weing)
  "Click and Drag" from XKCD (Randall Munroe) (DO click and drag!)
  (And spend a little time exploring XKCD in general.)
  "Icarus Needs" (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey)
  "Four Derangements" (Daniel Merlin Goodbrey)

• Read a Comic
• Peruse the world of Kate Beaton

• Watch (Before Class)
• "Scott McCloud: The Visual Magic of Comics" (TED, 2005)
• In-Class
• TBA: Be ready to work on your projects!

Day 13 (Start of Week 4) (Monday, Jan. 22)

Every Day: Make progress on your Visual Text Project

Due by Class Time, TODAY -- Three contributions to the course blog.

• Read
  
• Stitches (David Small, 2009)
  
• In-Class
• TBA

Day 14 (Tuesday, January 23)

• Read
• "Can Do" (Maira Kalman)
  Peruse: the work of Emily Carroll (rec. by Caroline Swinford, 2014)
  Peruse: Lackadaisy (rec. by Melissa Johnson, 2018)
  Peruse: Romantically Apocalyptic (rec. by Alexandra Jackson, 2018)
  Peruse: Scurry (rec. by Alexandra Jackson, 2018)
• Experience/Peruse: More Class Recommendations...
  
• Olivia White (2014) contributed this game-like thing. Peruse and ponder. Fiddle and fidget; it may drive you crazy. Kayla Harris offered a game-like thing, too.
• 
  
• Some Perennial Favorite Bonus Web Comics (Enjoy/Peruse/Just FYI)
• The Oatmeal
  JL8
  Penny Arcade
  Dinosaur Comics (Rec. in 2018 by Melissa Voss)
  3eanuts (Rec. in 2018 by Eamonn Eppinga-Neff)
  Garfield Minus Garfield (Rec. in 2018 by Eamonn Eppinga-Neff)
• Some Other Web Comics Recommended by Students Over Time
• Family Man (Dylan Meconis) (Rec. by Caroline Swinford, 2014)
  Nimona (Noelle Stevenson) (Rec. by Caroline Swinford, 2014)
  Cat and Girl (Dorothy Gambrell) (Rec. by Caroline Swinford, 2014)
  Dresden Codak (Rec. by Caroline Swinford, 2014)
  Luke Pearson. (Rec. by Kayla Harris, 2014; Alexandra Jackson, 2018)
  Apocalyptic Nursery Rhymes
  Extra Fabulous Comics
  Books of Adam
• In-Class
• Bring your project-makin' materials!

Days 15 and 16 (Wednesday and Thursday, January 24-25)

Due WEDNESDAY at Classtime: Visual Text Project.

Due THURSDAY at 5:00 PM: Final Exam/Essays.

• Wednesday: Work Time!
  + A Few Stray Comics and Ideas
  + Presentation of Your Visual Text Projects
• Thursday: Final Exam/Essays Due at 5 PM