The Rhetoric of Comics Weekly Spotlight! "How to Rescue Comics"

Teacher's Note: It's nice when students convert to full-fledged Scott McCloud fanboys. And every semester, I always get at least one. But it was evident from his defense of McCloud from Dylan Horrocks' Inventing Comics that bfarrell was this semester's "one." And it's not something I've quite let him live down, especially since his fandom continued this week when we took a brief look at McCloud's Reinventing Comics.

Reinventing Comics can sometimes feel like a plea for help. Poor McCloud. He releases his first book, Understanding Comics, around the pinnacle of comics popularity, and then comes a major decline in the industry. I cant help but wonder if McCloud asked himself “didn't they read my book?!” In the introduction he cites many possible causes of the comics recession. I wonder if the rising popularity of the internet didn't have something to do with it, though McCloud doesn't mention that as a cause. McClouds appeals, and his “Twelve Revolutions” seem especially suited to those in the comic industry: creators, publishers and the like. Its purpose for comic readers seems to be just informative, not so much a call to action.

Read the Rest Here!

My Own "Toy Story"

Last week, my wife and I took my brother to the midnight showing of Toy Story 3 in 3D for his twelfth birthday. As a preteen, he's quickly entering the phase of being "too cool to get excited about anything." But he was excited about this. Interestingly enough, he'd only just turned one when the second film in the trilogy came out, and like him now, I'd just turned twelve when I went to see the first film in theatres with my family. We couldn't miss it--it was computer animated for cryin' out loud! That just didn't exist back then! I remember being floored. I'm not ashamed to say I was still playing with toys at that age (mostly Legos and Micro Machines) and would continue to do so for at least a couple more years. So the idea that my toys came to life when I wasn't looking was everything my imagination could have ever hoped for.

When the second film came out, yes I was older. But neither it or the first film (which by then was nearly warped from continuous VCR playback) had not lost any of their appeal. I remember seeing the preview for it set to a cover of Thin Lizzy's "The Toys are Back in Town" and my other brother and I being psyched for another adventure with Woody and Buzz. We eventually went to see it on Christmas Day with two of my cousins, my youngest brother missing out, being only a year old.

But that didn't matter. We were a movie family. We watched the same movies over and over. We rented movies every other Friday when money wasn't too tight. And we went to see the biggest ones on Saturday or Sunday afternoons Dad had off. So of course, my family and I grew up with Andy, his little sister Molly, Buster the dog, and their mom.

Of course, I didn't realize this then. Heck, I didn't realize this till last week, in the last ten minutes of the film, as it became clear that this would be Pixar's last foray into the story of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Slinky Dog, and Ham the Piggy Bank. Without giving too much away, in the end, Andy has to say good bye to his toys, his friends. He's grown up now, going to college, and leaving behind his childhood. And despite that Andy's "grown up" about eight years slower than I, felt like I was saying goodbye to my toys, my friends, too.

And I'm not going to lie, it was a teary farewell. But just like leaving your childhood behind, you never leave behind your memories. And perhaps that's where this last installment really hit me. It brought back all those memories of seeing those movies for the first time, as a child. As a sequence of films, I think that's where their value really lies for me. They represent my own growing up. And that's just really cool.

Questions? Quibbles? Controversies?

The Rhetoric of Comics Weekly Spotlight! "Superhero Soup: A Recipe for Greatness"

Teacher's Note: This week we finally jumped into superheroes, with a look at the two greatest in their first appearances ever: Superman in Action Comics #1 and Batman in Detective Comics #27. It was an exciting trip back to the last 1930s that always garners some interesting posts. But none so much so as Beth Meyer's take on the superhero definition as a recipe and the inclusion of this bizarre little pic to touch on the allegations of homosexuality in early superhero comics before she closed. Yeah, it's so bizarre that I defy you not click on the link associated with her post. I couldn't, when it appeared in my blog roll over on the right *shudder*

To Create Your Very Own Superhero from the 1930's You Will Need the Following Ingredients:

One costume (preferably tight-fitting to show off a manly physique)

Physical Strength or Special Abilities

Alias/Secret Identity

Connections (for crime tips)

Desire to Do Good 

Mix together. Throw in some humor, back story, vices, fancy gadgets, or even a sidekick to taste and ...

Voila! Bon Apetite!

 Read the Rest (Which Isn't as Creepy as that Pic Would Suggest) Here...

The Rhetoric of Comics Weekly Spotlight! "Unraveling the Complexities"

 Teacher's Note: This week's post comes from bfarrell. His post is, for lack of better explanation, excellent. Below you'll find just the introduction and conclusion of his well-written summaries and thoughts on Chapters 4 and 6 of McCloud's Understanding Comics, but they really represent the work as a whole--as a good intro. and conclusion should!

In Chapters Four and Six of Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Scott McCloud discusses how time is handled in comics, and the interplay between words and pictures in comics. In Chapter Four his examination of time in comics explains different techniques creators use to manipulate time, and convey it to the reader. Chapter Six explores the different ways pictures and words work together to make comics as we know them...

...Both chapters successfully unravel complexity where at first I perceived none. This seems to be another major theme of McCloud's. Apparently Understanding Comics partially means understand how complex they can be, and not taking them for granted.

Read the rest, and comment Here!

The Rhetoric of Comics Weekly Spotlight! "Emotionally Understanding Comics"

Teacher's Note: This is the first of what I plan to be many Spotlights featuring my student bloggers and their work. I'll be taking the best post from each week, copying some of it here, and providing a jump to the full post, at which point I hope you'll follow, read, and comment. The goal is to expose their work to a new set of eyes, get them additional feedback, and hopefully set them on the path of responsible internet publishing with the promise of bonus points! And while new to the subject of comics, I've yet to have a semester of new students who haven't opened my eyes to the study in some new way.

For this first installment, we're taking a look at JoshSilva's summary of and thoughts on the first two chapters of Scott McCloud's opus, Understanding Comics. JoshSilva deftly summarizes McCloud (twice, no less!) then breaks down a key point from the text that most readers (including myself) overlook in their first read. Enjoy.

Emotionally Understanding Comics

Scott McCloud understands that comic books are usually "crude, poorly-drawn, semi literate, cheap, disposable kiddy fare, " but he believes they don't have to be. McCloud thinks that comics contain some kind of hidden power. He feels that people fail to appreciate comics as an art form because they try to define them to narrowly. McCloud then opens chapter 2 with a description and example of the Magritte painting, " The Treachery of Images." Although the subject of the painting is a common pipe, the artist's message reads, " This is not a pipe." As Scott explains, this is really not a pipe, nor is it a painting of a pipe. It is actually ten copies of a drawing of a painting of a pipe, when one considers that each panel on the two opening pages depicting the painting actually represents one copy. McCloud uses this example to demonstrate one of the many uses of icons, or images used to represent a person, place, thing or idea. McCloud also goes on to discuss how varying levels of icon ism and realism are used in comics to achieve various effects.

Click to Read More...

Back to Writing!

So...wow, it's been over a month since my last post. And a month it's been. Of course, May means finals week and all that that implies: grading, outcomes assessment, and whatever random administrative stuff needs to be done before my vacation. And then vacation, which in my household is hardcore. This year, it included somewhere in the ballpark of sixty hours of driving, three cities, and 100%+ humidity in two weeks. Pretty epic. We visited family, of course, but we also checked out my wife's top pick for grad schools--Savannah College of Art and Design--and the Coastal Georgian area. It's pretty amazing. We also returned to New Mexico with a stowaway--my youngest brother Noah--who'll be spending the summer with us in our new apartment (into which we've still been slowly settling).

But I plan to spend a lot more time writing this summer--blogs, stories, essays, whatever--as well as reading, movie watching, and video game playing (and I've succeeding in two of those ventures already!). So I should have plenty to report.

I'm also teaching summer school, which I actually really enjoy--it's much more laid back, and I really feel like I have time for my students (since I only have about a third of them from usual). One new thing I'm trying in my class will be to publish, once a week, the best post from our class blog The Rhetoric of Comics. It's partly an incentive (the chosen student will receive some bonus points) and partly a chance for students to get some more feedback.

So, yeah, I've been pretty absent. But stick around for some more updates. It's gonna be a good summer.