English W412/W510

As I indicated on Oncourse, we’re having a surprise field trip: Scott McCloud is speaking at 7 p.m. on March 7, and we’ll go as a group to hear him. McCloud–about whom you can learn quite a bit at his website–is a comic book artist who is well known not just for his comics but also for his books about comics. Here’s how McCloud describes his own work:

• Understanding Comics. A 215-page comic book about comics that explains the inner workings of the medium and examines many aspects of visual communication along the way. Understanding Comics has done well in stores, is in over 15 languages and, while not universally liked, is about as close to it as I’m ever likely to see. A favorite of interface, game and Web designers despite the fact that it doesn’t mention computers once. (Published 1993).
• Reinventing Comics. The controversial 242-page follow-up to U.C. advocates 12 different revolutions in the way comics are created, distributed and perceived with special emphasis on the potential of Online Comics. Nearly every page seemed to step on somebody’s toes, and the debates in the comics industry over comics on the Web have gotten increasingly heated since its publication. Reinventing Comics is the only book I’ve ever written that’s been actually described as “dangerous.” (Published 2000). (indented material quoted from his own bio page)

I’ll bring part of Understanding Comics to class for you. McCloud lays out some simple–and important–ways of thinking about what comics permit. (He looks at the ways images can repeat what words say, can enhance or intensify what words say or might evoke, or can completely contrast with words, for example.) He’s also written quite a bit about what the developments in computer technology mean for writing and comics.

By reputation, he’s a marvelous speaker. In seeing him, we’ll have a chance to hear someone whose made his career from writing, taking advantage of the interplay between technology, writing, and drawing to make meaning and have fun. We will return to visual literacy after spring break, but this is too good an opportunity to pass up! So we’ll squeeze some attention to McCloud in, and we’ll have to focus hard in our first hour to look at your ideas for your final projects and some writing on blogging and myspace.