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

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

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

MONDAY Night: Required film screening, evening.

Due by Class Time, FRIDAY. -- 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 substantially 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 (actually ON) the image strategically. Use no more than one clichéd "Internet meme"-style 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 MailBigFile or Hightail.

Day 2 (Start of Week 2) (Monday, Jan. 6)

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? If I were you, I'd post something just after reading the McCloud, 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 (or Expand on an Existing Definition) at 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 Friday, 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 2) (Tuesday, Jan. 7)

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

Hey, seriously: Have you contributed to the blog yet? 15% of the course grade, folks!

• 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)  ___LIST TO BE FIXT___
  
• "Welcome to ORRA" (Vera Brosgol) (BAC 2019)
  "The Swim” (Anne Emond) (BAC 2016)
  “All the Paintings Here Agree” (Liana Finck)
  "Bike Fast," "Coney Island," and "Dad" (Sophia Zdon)
  "Blanket Portraits" (Geneviève Elverum) (packet)
  Selections from Lynda Barry (inc. Marlys strips) (packet)
  American Elf strips (James Kochalka) (packet)

• Examine/Peruse
  
• PDF Full of Visual Text Projects from 2011 (Give it Time to Load!)
  See Other Visual Text Projects Uploaded at Blackboard (Readings)
  "Mikenesses" (Mike Holmes, 2011ff)  (Online)
• In-Class Screening
• Lynda Barry on Not Being Able to Draw
  Stan Lee on "The Marvel Method"
  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 (Week 2) (Wednesday, Jan. 8)

• 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:
    "Grip" Lale Westvind" (BAC 2019)
     "Louis Undercover" (Fanny Britt & Isabelle Arsenault) (BAC 2019)
     "Killing and Dying" (Adrian Tomine) (packet)
     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) (Friday, Jan. 10)

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

• 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 (Start of Week 3) (Monday, Jan. 13)

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

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)
  "Bitumen or Bust" (Joe Sacco) (BAC 2019)
  "Martin Luther King Was..." (Ben Passmore) (BAC 2019)
  "Being an Artist and a Mother" (Lauren Weinstein) (BAC 2019)
  "By Monday I'll Be Floating..." (Laura Lannes) (BAC 2019)
  "In Search of Water-Boiled FIsh" (Angie Wang) (BAC 2019)
  "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 Wednesday.
• Evening Film Screening!!
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Dir. Persichetti, Ramsey, and Rothman), 6:00-8:00
  

Day 8 (Week 3) (Tuesday, Jan. 14)

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

ALSO tomorrow: Blog entries. Keep bloggin'.

• 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)
  
• "Uninhabitable" (Jed McGowan" (BAC 2019)
  Anti-Gone (excerpt) (Conor Willumsen) (BAC 2019)
  Comics by Ben Katchor (Ben Katchor) (Handout)
  "Deep Space" (John Pham) (packet)
  "Lobster Run" from Johnny Hiro (Fred Chao) (packet)
• In-Class Screening
  
• TBA

Day 10 (Week 3) (Thursday, Jan. 16)

• Read Comics
• Low Moon (Jason, 2007)
  Salamander Dream (Hope Larson, 2005) (@Bb)
  George Sprott (Seth, 2007)
  "Perfect Discipline" (Tommi Parrish) (BAC 2019)
  "Vanguard" (Leslie Stein) (BAC 2019)
• In-Class Screening
• Paperman (Disney Short)

Day 11 (Week 3) (Friday, January 17)

• Head's Up: No Class on Monday! MLK Day
  
• Spend Quality Time with J. Alfred Prufrock for Friday
• "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)

Don't Come to Class Monday. It's MLK Day. And then:

Day 12 (Start of Week 4) (Tuesday, Jan. 21)

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 (Week 4) (Wednesday, Jan. 22)

Every Day: Make progress on your Visual Text Project

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

Day 14 (Thursday, January 23)

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

• Read: CHANGE THIS LIST!
  
• "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)
  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!

Day 15 (Friday, January 24)

Due FRIDAY at Classtime: Visual Text Project.

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

• Friday: Final Exam/Essays Due at 5 PM