ARH (0111) 262 - From Krazy Kat to Maus: A History of the Comics

Credits: 3.00

Students will examine the evolution of graphic storytelling since the early 19th century. Beginning with the first modern comics and concluding with the latest webcomics, students will investigate the formal and stylistic developments of the medium, including the newspaper comicstrip, comic books, manga, and graphic novels.

Repeatable: No Grade Type: Regular
Course Learning Goals: Students will :

1. recognize, analyze, and assess how political, intellectual, and socio-economic conditions of the late 19th and early 20th century affected the development of comics and how those changing conditions continue to impact those forms today.

2. recognize and identify the major modes in which comics have been disseminated throughout their history, and the impact of developing technologies on their aesthetic criteria.

3. recognize and identify the major stylistic periods and comics writers, artists, editors, and publishers in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

4. recognize and identify previously unacknowledged contributions of individuals marginalized on the basis of race, gender, and religion to the development of comics.

5. analyze and interpret depictions of race, gender, and economic class in comics.

6. assess the impact of censorship on the medium.

7. recognize, identify, and compare the changing response of comics publishers and creators to WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

8. recognize and identify the various forms comics have taken in different regions of the globe as well as distinctions in visualization, story-telling techniques and conventions, and subject matter.

9. research, write, and present an evaluation of a work of comics art.