ECL 157: Comics and History | MALAS 600D
#nakedsouls23
Comics, Animation, Art, and Photography
in the Worlds of Literature and Beyond
old
onto your hats (and iphones!) as we bravely go where
no one has gone before... Ok, so you know
that’s hype: a total and spectacular exaggeration, the
ravings (potentially) of a madman or a bonkers
professor! But maybe, just maybe, we can actually do
it? Imagine exploring the world of comics, streaming animation, digital storytelling, and AI-designed narrative in a course with the Department of English and Comparative Literature, now known as ECL at SDSU!
“Holy Robot Algorithms, Batman!” “Holy #nakedsouls23, Robin.”
In this class, we will peruse worlds illustrated and cinematic, literary and philosophical, as we sample some of the most outrageous storytelling from the 20th and 21st centuries.
And while we will be concerned with "history" and "comics" throughout the term, this class will not strictly be a history of comics, a survey of the evolution of men in tights and women in spandex! We are more concerned with the souls of this characters, the naked contours of what we can call the mind or the psyche!
The souls we meet will be “naked,” not naked as in the “clothing optional sense” (though there will be a little of that) but naked in the original sense of the word, that speaks ...
“of things, ‘without the usual or customary covering,’ from Old English. Applied to qualities, actions, etc., ‘mere, pure, open to view, unconcealed,’ from c. 1200; phrase the naked truth, from early 15c...”For the stories we read and the characters we meet will be very much unconcealed, revealing the secrets of their lives and their souls as can only be found in Literature, comics included.
We will learn that "Literature" is the antithesis of the world of bullshit we are presently immersed in on television and social media, where fake news and filters are the name of the game.
Our naked souls will be raw, eccentric, controversial, and neurotic. The required works are still being nailed down, but will include the singular amazingness of comics and art by Rene Magritte, Jules Feiffer, Art Spiegelman, Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli, Carlos Fuentes, Jason Adam Katzenstein, and Zoe Thorogood among others!
(in progress)
THE BOOKS APPEAR IN ROUGHLY THE ORDER WE WILL BE READING THEM IN CLASS DURING THE SEMESTER... Though do note that the bookstore has been awful about ordering on time so last minute adjustments are to be expected!
Click each cover below the Aztec Shops Link to see the correct print edition of all the books we are studying together this semester! Should you buy print editions or digital editions -- the University may well recommend that you go the digital route.What about pirated pdfs? In the digital age, anything goes. Bottom line? You are welcome to pursue what you see fit, but, despite the expense, nothing beats working with the best, printed edition of the book. Last question: should you rent or buy? That is up to you! But remember, your personal bookshelf is like a mirror of the journey of your psyche--a snapshot of the evolution of your imagination.
click booklist to enlarge! click here to visit aztecshops
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more info soon!  |
Movies, Screened Free IN CLASS!
(bring your own popcorn!)
Day to Day Calendar
of Nifty Assignments
Fully
clothed and excited for the first day of class, we
stumble into GMCS 333, aka "the Den of Naked Souls," and
we try to find a seat in this massive sea of largely
freshmen humanity. You enter the room having already
completed your first homework assignment -- you've
printed out a copy of this infopage (pick your flavor: jpg
or pdf)
and using pen or pencil or marker or paintbrush, you
have filled out the requested information and included a
self portrait (don't tell me you can't draw, and NO you
won't be graded on your fabulous self portraiture). The bulk of this first day will be me explaining the goals of the class and the meaning of the bizarre hashtag #nakedsouls23! But we will also do some work together!
1. We will learn what the word "semiotic" means -- one of your comixtoolkitwords® for the semester.
2. We will rethink what we think "comics" or "comix" mean.
3.
We will watch a movie --> no need to see it now, we
will watch it together in class --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX27V46eAYM-- An Eye for Annai, by Jonathan Klassen and Dan Rodriguez.
4. We will be treated to a harangue regarding the value of the printed book as opposed to downloaded pdfs.
5. And we
will talk about an actual comic story! By Los Bros
Hernandez genius Xaime
(Jaime) Hernandez! Read "How to Kill a ... by
Isabel Reubens." You can find a copy of the four page
short story here
or by hitting the image of the teetering house opposite
-- and, yes, it's a downloaded pdf! Just read the comic!
You are not expected to read the brief essay that
follows! Oh my god, prof, that's too much! No worries -- it's the first day! We will all keep our expectations to a minimum.
Our first book is a marvelous feat of naked amazingness! EVERYTHING IS AN EMERGENCY by JAK, aka, Jason Adam Katzenstein. Come to class having read to page 84 (no worries for those of you who find books to be a pain in the backside -- this is a comic book class, so it's mostly pictures!). As you read, take notes or use post-its to mark pages you want to explore and talk about in class. Katzenstein's book is a memoir, that is, while a comic book in the strict sense, it is also an autobiography, so we will spend a little time in class figuring out what an autobiography is and why that genre of literature is special.
Genre? That's our comixtoolkitwords® for the day as well!
If you have time or any interest in the book and the author and OCD, please check out this recent interview. https://www.anxioustoddlers.com/help-teens-with-ocd/ Will it be on the exam? This interview? No. Then why should you follow the link? Follow it and you'll find out why.
Over the weekend you ponder the cosmos and begin to have a sense of what this class is all about. To celebrate, you plunge into JAK's EVERYTHING IS AN EMERGENCY and finish reading the book. As you read, be sure to select and mark at least two of the pages that you want to see discussed in class. What is Katzenstein goal in authoring this moving memoir?!
Do you do the 'gram!? Check out Jason's Instagram feed! Try to find both connections and disconnects between Katzenstein's memoir and his work as a cartoonist.
Having
finished traveling inside the psyche of Jason Adam
Katzenstein, we are ready to enter the #nakedsouls23
time machine and go back to the 20th century
as we visually devour and emotionally struggle to fathom
the masterworks of Rene Magritte. Read to page 49 of Alexander Adams's carefully curated review of the Belgian surrealist master's career. As important as it is for you to learn from Adams's reading of these paintings, it is equally important that you begin to formulate your own readings of his works. This will not be easy at first, but as you read, I want you find one or two places where you feel you might be able to add to Adams's critique, deepen Adams's analysis.
It's a magnificent Tuesday -- why!? Because you've finished reading Alexander Adams's MAGRITTE book. Congratulations! But have you "read" Adams's book or have you screened it or seen it!? Because as someone who experiences this carefully curated book, you have to make a decision as to whether you focus more on Adams's interpretations, his hermeneutic tendencies, or, if instead, you have focused more on Magritte's paintings, Magritte's renditions of the dance of word and image. Remember to come to class prepared to talk about, explain and break down (analysis!) two of your favorite Magritte paintings as we experience our first episode of YOU'RE THE PROFESSOR!
It's our first movie day -- no reading! Unless you want to ... We enter GMCS 333 and are treated to a screening of JOAN IS AWFUL (Netflix, Jun 15, 2023), starring Salma Hayek. The description suggests this may be a minor contemporary tale, where "an average woman is stunned to discover a global streaming platform has launched a prestige TV drama adaptation of her life - in which she is portrayed by Hollywood A-lister Salma Hayek." But we are in for some narrative amazingness as director Ally Pankiw and writer Charlie Brooker along with stars Annie Murphy, Hayek, and Michael Cera lead us on a whirlwind tour of the future, a digital labyrinth where the differences between reality and streaming media are hard to discern, and even harder to contemplate. In an age of avatars and digital doppelgängers, what does the SELF even mean anymore? Get to the class ON TIME so we have time for quick discussion after it is over!
Read to page 111 in Marc Sautet's (Author) & Patrick Boussignac's (Illustrator) NIETZSCHE FOR BEGINNERS!
As you read consider the connections between what we have been reading and discussing in class with the ideas associated with Nietzsche in Sautet & Boussignac's epic graphic biography.
Note though that their book is both a graphic biography AND a graphic ergography, as it is as much about the evolution of his published works as it is his life or biography proper.
Finish your reading of Marc Sautet's (Author) & Patrick Boussignac's (Illustrator) NIETZSCHE FOR BEGINNERS -- what aspects of the soul does the book reveal? What, really, is a soul (or a psyche, or an unconscious for that matter) and how do Nietzsche's thoughts clarify or make more murky all these matters!?
We leap from the world of
Friedrich Nietzsche (via Sautet and Boussignac) into the
mind, soul, history, and illustrated universe of Art
Spiegelman as we read the first half of MAUS II -- the
curious and overachieving in the class can read MAUS I
online here
if they wish to (not required). The MAUS project was an all-consuming project for Spiegelman, one that left him changed and one that changed the world of publishing, opening up the COMIX and MANGA boom that now consumes the universe. On first glance, the book is a biographical history of Art Spiegelman's father, Vladek, and how he survived the Nazi holocaust. But the book is much more as well. In fact you will be hard pressed at times to know whether you are reading a history, a biography, or something else altogether. It is almost as if Spiegelman has invented a genre, if not a medium. For today's class read to page 100.
Walk into the room having completed
your reading of MAUS II. How does Spiegelman's project
compare to other books we have read this term. How, for
instance, does this Jewish American memoir compare to
Jason Katzenstein's opus? How do the revelations
concerning Nietzsche's biography and philosophical
conclusions mesh or clash with Spiegelman's comix?New Homework: Bring to class a xeroxed page that places side by side one panel from MAUS II that appears near the beginning of the book and a second that appears near the end. Pick panels that you think relate or resonate with each other and that you are prepared to write about.
It is a fine Tuesday in Autumn 2023, and you enter the classroom having read CATARACT BLUES by Roger Rosenblatt and Jules Feiffer -- "read a whole book over the weekend!? you're crazy Professor Nericcio." But, yes, you've done it anyway (and it's a short, moving exercise, so quit the griping).
UPDATE: no need to bring in a printout of an image or passage from Rosenblatt's and Feiffer's book, just come to class with a passage you are ready ask questions about and/or discuss!
Also,
please read the piece from THE NEW YORK TIMES as it
directly relates to the origins, meanings, and intent
woven in the fabric of CATARACT BLUES: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/opinion/artist-vision-sight.html
Roger Rosenblatt, former Time
Magazine editor, and New York Times bestselling
author invades GMCS 333 for a lecture and discussion of
his CATARACT BLUES!
An
Amazing Day! Walk into class having read MILO IMAGINES THE WORLD, written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson. Some things to think about with regard to the medium ...
what
is the connection between children's books and
comic books!? The comix we have read so far are
anything but for children -- think of Sautet's and
Boussignac's peculiar curation of Nietzsche's
life! However, there are ways to understand picture books like MILO as being in dialogues with comix, adult and otherwise.
An amazing day! Professor
Matt de la Peña, not only a
bestselling author (and one of my former
graduate students ;-0), but also a faculty
member of
our department here at SDSU, will be
joining us for class and giving a
presentation (and sharing the backstory) of
the making of this remarkable instant
children's classic. Homework?
Come to
class with questions typed up for Matt so that
he can pick and choose and respond to your
queries! We will take attendance today
using these questions so don't forget to bring
them to class--they must be thoughtful, typed,
and draw upon something you find noteworthy,
curious, interesting, provocative in his book.
And they must be authored by you, not some
clueless AI robot you pick up off the
street! Flirt, Screening and Discussion day 1
Hal Hartley is an
independent American filmmaker. What that means is that
he is more experimental, playful (remember Nietzsche's
philosophy as a ludic
exercise), and innovative than many directors creating
the dreck you may encounter at the multiscreen cinema
you haunt, where movies these days, filled as they are
with spandex-wearing superheroes, endless sequels, and
the like, are undermining cinema as a medium.Hartley's film, that we will experience, is three films or three repetitions, the same script fueling three takes on the same story (sort of) in New York, Berlin, and Tokyo. The film is called FLIRT, and it is about flirts, flirting, and all the consequences flirting entails: for the flirt, the flirtee, and all other souls involved.
A trip to the etymological dictionary tells us that flirt's backstory includes the following:
flirt (n.) 1540s, "joke, jest, stroke of wit, contemptuous remark," from flirt (v.). By 1560s as "a pert young hussey" [Johnson], and Shakespeare has flirt-gill (i.e. Jill) "a woman of light or loose behavior" (Fletcher formalizes it as flirt-gillian), while flirtgig was a 17c. Yorkshire dialect word for "a giddy, flighty girl." One of the many fl- words suggesting loose, flapping motion and connecting the notions of flightiness and licentiousness. Compare English dialect and Scottish flisk "to fly about nimbly, skip, caper" (1590s); source of Scott's fliskmahoy "girl giddy and full of herself." The meaning "person who plays at courtship" is from 1732 (as the name of female characters in plays at least since 1689 (Aphra Behn's "The Widow Ranter")). Also in early use sometimes "person one flirts with," though by 1862 this was being called a flirtee. also from 1540s.However, we may find out quite quickly that the ultimate flirt is Hal Hartley himself -- his film a meditation on flirting that is, itself, a big old flirt.
FLIRT
Screening and Discussion Day 2Get to know more about Hal Hartley here:
https://lwlies.com/interviews/hal-hartley-ned-rifle-henry-fool/
Ay Caramba?! The Transcultural Politics of West Coast Hip Hop
Is Hip Hop a comic? Or, a better
question! ... What is the connection between comix and
Hip Hop, or even graphic expression and Hipop music --
both are movements that began at the "fringe" of culture
and now actually dominate. In preparation for the
lecture, read
this 6 page meditation on the confluence of Comics
and Hip Hop entitled Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed
Piskor.
These and
other ideas will be highlighted as we warmly welcome Dianne
Violeta Mausfeld. A remarkable university
researcher, Mausfeld does not just write about Hip Hop,
she lives the life, as it were, and she comes to
us by way of Switzerland to treat us to a presentation
that reveals the transcultural politics of West Coast
Hip Hop culture (Black and Brown cross-pollination,
Cultural Appropriation etc.)! Check out her instagram
feed here!Mausfeld is based out of Europe where she recently finished her first book: American Made with a Mexican Flow!: Chicano Hip-Hop in Los Angeles, 1987-2001. Her areas of expertise include Hip-Hop-Studies | Anglo- and Latin American History | Transculturality | Diaspora Studies (Mexican-American, African-American).
Optional: Here is
a critical essay (to your left) by Mausfeld,
you may find diverting and engaging -- note that
you likely have to be logged into your official
SDSU gmail account to see it and/or download it. As you read, note that elite European researchers are increasingly drawn to cultural phenomena some Americans might consider peripheral or from the margins. What do they understand that we are missing!? Could it be that cultural artifacts "from the margins" are where it's at, where the magic that is cultural evolution is fueled and incubated?! Another thing Hip Hop has in common with Comix!
Surprise Day! As your fearless professor gets to showcase the work of your amazing gaggle of TA talents! Here's the scoop!
1. Chapters 1-7 of Hwaja, a South Korean webcomic by artist and writer Hong Jac-Ga. Currently, Western readers only have access to the unofficial English translations of Hwaja, so take your pick from below websites:
- Option 2 (contains ads, may be distracting!)https://eyegiene.sdsu.edu/2023/nakedsouls/IMG_4982.jpeg
- As you read,look out for a specific section or passage from Hwaja that piques your interest, attention, reaction, etc., as well as 2-3 Comix Toolkit words that you are familiar with and are comfortable using as scholars of the visual and the literary.
- Optional: an interview with Hong Jac-ga for the extra-inclined!
2. These selections from Not to Read by
Alejandro Zambra—they contain vital examinations on
genre and the reason as to why we read. Think about
how our readings this semester blur the lines of
genre, break the conventions of their form, and
change the conception of literature as we know it. See you at 11am sharp-- Joey, Rose, Kennii, & Toki
Enter the room having read (or is it experienced? Or is it lived?) Marshall McLuhan's THE MEDIUM IS THE MASSAGE!
MIDTERM
Halloween! And anyone that comes to class in full costume is guaranteed extra-credit points (25pts) on any quiz they have taken! Wow. In class, you come in prepared as over the weekend you have devoured Carlos Fuentes's spooky AURA. In no way a comic book, but very much concerned with naked psyches and more, Fuentes's novela promises to drive us to an amazing class session. With any luck, the ghost of Fuentes will join us as I was his graduate assistant at Cornell University and we remained friends after. The ghost will be there to ensure I don't mess anything up!
Walk
into class having read the first 100 pages or so of
Alison Bechdel's FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC. Our
guest lecturer for today is our very own TA Joey King --
he sends in these suggestions for how to prepare for class
as you read: 
on
the memoir? Which literary reference(s) do you find to
be the most effective or striking in conveying
Bechdel’s relationship with her father? For what
reasons? Make note of at least one panel
where you see use of allusion (perhaps through a
literary reference). And/or can you find a panel that
illustrates a metaphor for a larger issue in Bechdel’s
family or her life?" Over the weekend you have finished reading Alison Bechdel's "family tragicomic"--FUN HOME.
As you read, think back (or even go back and page back) through Nietzsche's revelations regarding tragedy which we learned through Sautet and Boussignac -- or, better yet!, read a few pages from an online copy of THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY.
Also, also optional, but amazing, check out this interview of Alison Bechdel with Hilary Chute.
We will take attendance today with you turning in a photocopied or printed panel from the book--which panel? The one that seems to live for you as the beating heart of the book, the one without which the book does not makes sense. Were I to do the assignment, I might have picked the following image:
Why? Because the witness, Bechdel herself, is purposely split in two by her very own gutter -- the border space between two panels: the interstitial, the liminal, the in-between. This echoing empty space symbolizes the artist's ambivalence confronting something we can think of as the "living dead." In this case, not a zombie or walking dead monster, but a kind of living signifier, the father, the pater familias, who is dead but whose uncanny presence will continue to haunt this gifted memorist and cartoonist!
Imagine ChatGPT has been drugged and kidnapped and placed into the creaking carcass of a 1950s era movie robot -- imagine as well that said robot has developed an addiction to pop songs and Nietzsche-laced existential angst! And then brace for incoming as a band invades GMCS 333 as we thrill to the event that is the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra (no worries, no relation to the dark lord!)
For class on Thursday, be sure to read the lyrics and listen to the tracks of HAVE AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS, SPO's new album--links and lyrics for all tracks appear here: https://www.satanicpuppeteer.com/opk/crisis.htm or hit the image here:
More things to know about the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra (and the brains behind it, SDSU English and Comparative Literature alum Michael Buchmiller):
Some Fun Facts
- Their first release was the best-selling debut 4 CD box set in history.
- Formed in 1996 in San Diego, California.
- The band has been taught as a multi-media work of satirical fiction and performance art to 250 students at San Diego State University along with works by Kurt Vonnegut, Rene Magritte, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Dan Clowes.
- They played for more than 10,000 people on Halloween for "Heaven and Hell" at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. They once played to less than 200 people at a car wash.
- They were nominated for a San Diego Music Award.
- Their songs have been featured in San Diego on 91X, ALT94/9, Rock 105.3, KCR, and KSDT. Outisde of their hometown, they've been played on WFMU in New York, BBC Radio in London, and various college stations across the US.
- They are on a release with a former member of The Beatles.
- They have been featured multiple times by Dr. Demento.
- They were featured in NME's article "Singing Parrots, Robotic Frontmen And Creepy Clowns – The Strangest Novelty Bands You've Never Heard"
- When asked to write a theme song for 91X's local music program, Loudspeaker, they spent half the song making fun of 91X.
- SPO-20 speaks with a robotic British accent, but doesn't sing with one.
Here's how we are promoting the event to the College of Arts and Letters -- if you have friends who are creatives or artsies, feel free to invite them to join us!
You read the first half
of Zoe Thorogood's moving and evocative IT'S LONELY AT
THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH. You read it because you know
you have to come into class Thursday having finished the
book and you don't want to fall behind. As it is so easy
to fall behind with all the pressure you have been
feeling. But then, the pressure eases as you realize
that Joey and Rose and TABilly and Toki and Kennii
really want you to do well in the class, even if that
cruel professor, notBilly, aka Professor Nericcio, you
are not too sure about. You also realize that by this
point of the semester, you are kind of your own
professor in this #nakedsouls23 adventure. You know that
what is most important are the discoveries you have been
experiencing through these texts, by spending time
inside the skin and psyche of the moving characters we
encounter. 
Zoe Thorogood calls this book an "auto-bio-graphic-novel." What does she mean by that? That's one thing to think about what with McLuhan's words echoing through your head: "The Medium is the Message" "The Medium is the Message." ...You adapt McLuhan as you are clever, could the "genre" of a work also be "the message?" What does Thorogood's mashup of genres, of the Novel and Autobiography (or memoir) add or refract about our experience of the book.
You do the reading, and you do it well even though you know you are not meeting in GMCS today owing to a lot of reasons already discussed in emails to the class. You sleep in. You are happy. You just hope that in your sleep the ghost of Consuelo Llorente will not visit you.
One day -- we get
ONE DAMNED DAY to discuss a work that ought to get at
least a couple of weeks, Zoe Thorogood's amazing IT'S LONELY AT THE CENTRE
OF THE EARTH. Walk into class having finished the
book and be ready to engage in a passionate
discussion of the works's various meanings!
Thanksgiving Break -- No class!
Thanksgiving Break -- No class!
We
approach the end of our adventure together with
excitement (the end is near!) and a little bit of
sadness (at least for this professor and his merry
band of talented TAs). And we end the semester as many
of you probably imagined we would begin: with
shadowing superhero men in spandex tights and masks.
Bruce Wayne is Batman, most folks know that, but he is
also a survivor and a witness of his parents murder in
a mugging. 
The
spectacle of this trauma-inducing witnessing haunts
his future days, with his paralyzing PTSD only
somewhat assuaged and softened by his development of
an alter ego, a second self, a crime-fighting
doppelganger who cruises the nights like a mad
marauding clandestine vigilante -- his fighting of
crime can be seen as a Nietzsche-like ludic
manifestation of the ubermensch or, paging Freud, as a
theatrical performed repetition compulsion (sadly, his
parents still die, but he enacts revenge and vengeance
on symbolic manifestions of their killers). Here,
think of super villains like the Joker, the Penguin,
and Catwoman as co-actors in the nightly drama of his
originating scene. Deep shit, right!? Walk
into class having read half the book.
Surprise Guest Lecture with MATT BORS in the house! Live!
Matt Bors is an Eisner-winning comics editor and two time Pulitzer Prize Finalist in cartooning. In 2013, he founded The Nib, which published 6,000 comics, three books, and 15 issues of an award-winning print magazine. In 2017 he was the Executive Producer and head writer for two seasons of The Nib animation produced by Topic with Augenblick Studios. Bors’s comics have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, Village Voice, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. He also drew the graphic novel War Is Boring, written by David Axe, and edits comics for In These Times magazine. His latest project is Justice Warriors, a dystopian satire created with artist Ben Clarkson from Ahoy Comics. View his archive of political cartoons at The Nib. Follow him on Instagram here.
REQUIRED READING -------- ---------- --------
For our class special lecture featuring Matt Bors, complete the following assignment:
1. Read his collaborative recent graphic novel, Justice Warriors. He and his publisher have provided it for you FREE! Read as much as you can but at least to the end of Chapter 3.
In an email to me, Matt shares the following:
I will be dividing my talk to your class into two parts. First, I will discuss some political cartoons I did and explain how they were received over the years. Some were memed, some caused outrage, some even changed peoples' minds. Once the cartoon is published, you have very little control over how others interpret your work. In fact, as various controversies over the years demonstrate, you want to leave very little room for interpretation with political cartoons.
The second half of my lecture will be about Justice Warriors, my pivot into genre fiction, and why I think this approach to satire might work better for a lot of what I want to accomplish. This will include examples of how real issues are satirized and abstracted through fiction, including leaving things more open to interpretation for the readers. This has pitfalls as well, but ultimately with satire you have to assume many readers are smart enough to get it—and understand that not all of them will.
This should be quite an event so feel free to invite comics junkie friends to come to the presentation.
Matt Bors is an Eisner-winning comics editor and two time Pulitzer Prize Finalist in cartooning. In 2013, he founded The Nib, a web and print publication for nonfiction and political cartoons, which ceased publishing in 2023.
Bors’ comics have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, Village Voice, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. He also drew the graphic novel War Is Boring, written by David Axe, and edits comics for In These Times magazine. His latest project is Justice Warriors, a dystopian satire created with artist Ben Clarkson from Ahoy Comics.
Finish
reading BATMAN YEAR ONE. Writer Frank Miller
and artist extraordinaire David Mazzucchelli
continue the process of exploring the subterranean
depths of the Batman. What
writer/illustrator Frank Miller and illustrator
Klaus Janson started with THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS
is brought to a triumphant conclusion with BATMAN:
YEAR ONE. Gone forever will be the idea of Batman
as a campy do-gooder from television. Instead,
both THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (which we are not
reading) and BATMAN: YEAR ONE (which you finished
for today) return to the dark core of Batman's
heart, the torn-by-trauma wounded dark knight
restlessly prowling subterranean corridors (of
cities and psyches) in an endless dark night of
the soulalso on tap today! A Review for the Final Exam that takes place in GMCS 333 at 11am on December 7, 2023. Be there or be square.
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Final Exam!
As your SDSU Canvas system will nicely tell you, your final exam is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, from 10:30am to 12:30pm in GMCS 333. You can see it here:
But the good news is that you HAVE ALREADY TAKEN THE FINAL EXAM and are free and in the clear. However, I will be around in GMCS 333 today to show you your grades and tell you what is the final outcome of your efforts this term. THIS IS NOT REQUIRED but I will make clear that in the past I have caught a lot of errors during these one on one meetings so if you are still around and have not jetted off home, it might be in your best interest to drop by to pick up your graded final, get your final grade, and ride off into the sunset.
Right after this final exam period, Thursday, December 14, 2023, at around 2pm, your final grades will be released to the my.SDSU system.
But DON'T FREAK OUT if the grades don't show up right away -- SDSU has doled out barrels of cash to purchase a computer system that seems to always let you down when it matters most.
So be patient!
Engl 157: Comics &
History Passport
A Description of How Your Work
Will Be Evaluated in #nakedsouls23
This section of your online syllabus documents how your work will be evaluated Fall 2023. Here you will find all the little gates, cages, locks, statutes, ordinances, edicts, and formulas that allow our innovative comics and history collective to thrive.
Let me underscore that you
have absolute
intellectual freedom in our seminar, BUT to receive
these awesome rights, you must also follow the serious
but reasonable responsibilities outlined on this part of your
syllabus. After all, we want to have a great time, to be the best literature/cultural studies class on the West Coast, even! Take that USC! Eat my dust UCLA! And it will be easier to achieve this semester as they, like us, are online all the time!
But to do that, we need room for intellectual play--a safe asylum within which to forge our comics-laced, history-filled wanderlust. So, then, read these laws carefully and thoroughly, so when you enter our palace of comics, GMCS 333 on Tuesday, August 22, 2023, you will know what to expect!
PASSPORT
RULE 1 BOOKS_BOOKS_BOOKS
BUY THE BOOKS AND READ
THEM--DON'T COME TO SEMINAR WITHOUT YOUR BOOK! Though we very much adore
living in the 21st century, we will, for the most
part use ANALOG, printed books in this class. So
check out each one and buy them now!
PASSPORT RULE 2 READ_READ_READ!
When you enter this room for
class you will have completed the reading that appears
on the day-to-day class calendar, aka the Daily Lineup!
Please note the word "finished" (not "started," not
"skimmed," not "glanced," and most decidedly NOT "I
read the Cliffs/Sparks Notes and a review of the
damned thing online!"). Coming to a university
literature/film/cultural studies class without
doing the reading is like a gardener trying to raise
roses without getting her/his hands filthy with shit,
a surgeon trying to operate without a scalpel, a
fireman without her/his ax, a prostitute without ...,
... er, ... well, I better stop there -- you get the
gist of it.
Do
the readings!
Do them twice if
you can MAKE the time! I know, you are saying to
yourself, "they don't make me read in my other
classes" or some other sort of nonsense... well here,
you must! Think twice about joining us online if you
have not finished the readings--the quality of our
class depends upon your dedicated work and your
relentless and independent curiosity. Without your
periodic intellectual donations, the class is likely
to evolve into a boring, even painful waste of
time.
PASSPORT RULE 3 PUT
THE MONSTERS TO SLEEP!
Ok,
the following Passport Rule 3 was also written
pre-COVID ... I am leaving it here for the gags,
image and link!
Your laptop will
be asleep IN YOUR BAGS during class--or, better
yet, resting in your dorm room or apartment.
Have you noticed
how anytime a student uses a laptop in an auditorium
there is a "cone of distraction" alongside and
behind the student using a computer?
This is usually due to said student surfing the web via wi-fi perusing erotic delights or god knows what. I was recently at a cool (ok, it was slightly boring, I confess) lecture by a noted writer--as I tried to listen to her, in front of me, a diverted student (attending the lecture, no doubt, for extra-credit) was perusing sites like these (nsfw or school). So, laptops are GREAT for entering your notes AFTER class, but they will not be allowed in our lecture hall. If you have an issue with this, schedule a meeting with me during office hours to chat the first week of class.
PASSPORT RULE 4 PARALYZETHE SMARTPHONE!
Your beloved magnificent
iPhone, your cherished Galaxy, your fetishized
Pixel, or even your
primordial pager will be off, off, OFF during
class meetings; if for some reason you are expecting
an emergency call, set it on VIBRATE (for privacy,
pleasure, or both!) and sit in the back near an exit
after letting me know in advance before class that
you are expecting an emergency phone-call.
Cellphones KILL collective spaces of learning with
their ill-timed, annoying clattering rings, bongs,
squeaks, chirps, and themes.
Yes, the trauma
of that delayed text, yes, the horror of that missed
hook-up call, yes, the loss of the buzz of that random
Tinder swipe will no doubt doom you to years and years
on an psychoanalyst's couch, but we, the rest of us,
will gain some silence, a kind of sanctuary without
which ideas wither on the vine. We are NOT joking
about this unthinkable edict! Don't end up like
this former student from another Engl 301 I taught
back in the day:
click to enlarge
PASSPORT RULE 5 Charlie-Delta_Thief
PLAGIARISM
is for cads, thieves, and idiots who desire an "F" for
the class.
Plagiarism comes from the Latin word, "plagiarius"
which means kidnapper, plunderer, or (get this!)
thief--not a GOOD thing.
In the university, plagiarism refers to the art and crime of presenting other people's work under your own signature, aka cutting and pasting copied crap from Wikipedia--definitely a BAD thing. While your professor is forbidden by CSU/SDSU code from tattooing the word LOSER on the foreheads of guilty students, he can promise that felonious students will be remanded to the state-authorized SDSU executioners. Read THIS as well--SDSU is SERIOUS about this shit, so don't take any chances! Rely on your own singular mind and imagination!
Major Course Requirements
GRADING
INFORMATION
- 40%
Attendance, Quizzes, In-class "Panic-Inducing
Challenges", In-class participation, In-class
writing, cineTREKS, Office Hour visits, etc.--note
that "in-class" means "in-class" that is you can
expect assignments to magically appear without
warning.
- 30%
Your Mid-Term, aka the Mid-Semester Eyegasm
Challenge
- 30% Final
Examination, aka the Final Eyegasm Challenge
QUIZZES & ATTENDANCE
Coming
to class for each seminar session is NOT optional--the whole point
of this class is to work together, the idea being
that we creatively and magicly convert our classroom
into a chaotic, unpredictable, and exciting
intellectual laboratory.
Missing class, you miss, as well, the whole point of the adventure.
So please bypass
no more than three classes during the semester--you
are responsible for any work/notes you miss when you
are absent and can PRESUME
that what you missed that day was important! If
you miss MORE than three classes during the term and
your grade will decay in an ugly way. EXAMPLES: your
hard-earned A- will morph into a B-; your "gentleman's
C" will appear on the webportal as a "D," etc. etc.
Ditching this class too often will be as fun as a case
of flesh-eating virus. While attendance was not really
an issue last year during the beginnings of the COVID
crisis, it will be this fall as we all go into this
semester with eyes open.
During the
semester, you can expect several In-class
Panic-Inducing Challenges otherwise known as CHECK-YOU-DID-THE-READING
QUIZZES. You can expect these miserable
quizzes from time to time, the number of quizzes
depending on how many of you are nostalgic for high
school. In other words, if everyone acts like a
talented university student, we will enjoy FEW if any
quizzes during our semester.
DIGITAL/VIRTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS (Voluntary NOT Mandatory)
Our main social media site for this
class, Facebook-based, is located here. If you are a member
of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s mad virus-like
experiment in digitized narcissim, then you are
expected to post class-related links, images, videos,
articles, etc at least ONCE a month or 5 total for the
whole semester. If you have not bought into
Zuckerberg’s mad experiment and stay away from
Facebook like the plague, you have a second
choice--you can directly submit a posting to the #eyegasm22 tumblr page--anonymous
submissions are allowed here for those of your who
don't want Edward Snowden peering in your digital
window!
You can also
contribute to your own instagram hashtag#, which
goes by the catchy designation #eyegasm22. If Facebook,
Tumblr, and Instagram remain alien to your
consciousness, you can send your suggested
links/images/videos to me via email to
bnericci@sdsu.edu; I don’t promise that I will post
ALL of your materials but I will try, however, to see
that some of them make their way to the fabulous
internets.
What are you
expected to share via social media?
Things you run
across that relate to our class readings and
discussions--you do not HAVE TO WRITE a long essay
with your postings... a couple of pointed, pithy,
well-crafted sentences will do, enough to give me and
your classmates a sense of a connection to ideas
developed during the semester in our class.
Your Mid-Term, aka the Mid-Semester Eyegasm Challenge, and Final Examination, aka the Final Eyegasm Challenge
There
will be both a Mid-Term Eyegasm Challenge, a
Mid-Semester test administered on Thursday, October 26,
2023 at 11am AND a Final VirusEYE Challenge (aka,
the
FINAL EXAM) on the last regularly
scheduled day of class: Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 11am. Your final is
absolutely comprehensive; it assumes you
have read all the books and screened all the
movies that are part of our required work.
If you do the work, the final is a
breeze--even "fun" if you can believe it.
OFFICE HOURS
My
Office Hours are Tuesdays, right after class from
12:30pm to 3 or so. My office is located in Arts and
Letters 273. Why visit me during 'office hours'? Why
not? If only to experience the madness of my working
studio space! You are warmly invited to
visit me in office hours at least once during the
semester if you can.
At SDSU,
it's easy to fall through the cracks, to feel that you
are nothing but a Red ID# or some warm pile of
sentient flesh filling a seat. In order to convince
you that the
Professor teaching you is occasionally human,
please make a point during the semester to take the
time to introduce yourself whether it be by piping up
in class, zapping me an email, or posting on one of
our social media channels.
Regardless of how we end up arranging things, if you find my posted office hours are inconvenient, do not hesitate to email me for a phone or zoom appointment either at memo@sdsu.edu or bnericci@mail.sdsu.edu
You can also call me at 619.594.1524 via telephone, but keep in mind I don't check my medieval office landline very often!click to enlarge
Illustration by Pam Wishbow
his is a university-level
course in comics, literature, film, art, and the
internet--as it is thematically focused on issues of
representation, subjectivity, psychology, and sexuality,
it should not come as a shock that students in the class
may, from time to time, encounter characters, ideas,
situations, images, language, and scenarios that make
them uneasy. WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY! The antithesis of a place of worship, the flipside of a space dedicated to faith and belief, the university is a site of questioning--a sacred space of critical thinking, skepticism, cynicism and irony. So open your eyes, jump-start your mind, and prepare to enter the choppy corridors of the always already evolving world of comics and history.
1.
The Bared Psyches
Last
Name: Advincula to Craig
TA: Rose Padilla
Brief bio: I am a second year MA student in English & Comparative Literature. Comics and video games fascinate me, especially ones that are full of world building and lore!
Office
hours are on Fridays, 2-3pm at AL 244.
email contact: rpadilla5906@sdsu.edu
2.
The Unclad Essences
Last
Name: Crevin to Hennick
Joey King earned his Bachelor of
Arts with distinction in English from San
Diego State University. He is currently
pursing a Master of Arts designation at SDSU
with research interests in cultural studies,
emphasizing underground queer culture and
earlier twentieth century queer identity
politics. Joey’s enthusiasm for literature
extends to a diverse array of genres and
mediums: he is an advocate for disrupting and
redefining the American literary canon as it
is traditionally conceived.
Office: AL244
Office Hours: Thursdays 1:00-2:00pm and by appointment
Email: jking3@sdsu.edu
3.
The Stripped Spirits
Last
Name: Hernandez to McPherson
TA: Kennii Ekundayo
Hello
everyone,4.
The Undraped Avatars
Last
Name: Medina to Romito
TA: Bill Nericcio
A
notorious California-based
film / lit / comix
professor, public
intellectual, artist, and
sometime troublemaker, Bill
Nericcio was born in the
frontera / borderlands of
South Texas, Laredo to be
exact.
For thirteen years, he
labored under the watchful,
at times sinister, eyes of
sisters, brothers, and
priests at Blessed Sacrament
Elementary and St. Augustine
High School -- no doubt this
contributes to the rumors
that he was "raised by nuns"
that makes its way around
the internets.
With an undergraduate degree
in English honors from the
University of Texas at
Austin and an MA/PhD in
Comparative Literature from
Cornell University (where
Nericcio had a stint as a
teaching/research assistant
to Carlos Fuentes), Nericcio
now works as the Director of
the Master of Arts in
Liberal Arts and Sciences
and Professor of English and
Comparative Literature at
San Diego State
University--these postings
followed a stint as an
assistant professor at the
University of Connecticut
from 1988 to 1991 after his
years freezing in Ithaca,
New York -- it also follows
on his years as a bartender
in Austin, Texas at the
famous Cactus Cafe and
defunct Texas Tavern
cantinas).
He is the author and editor
of four books including
Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive
Hallucinations of the
“Mexican” in America, Homer
from Salinas: John
Steinbeck's Enduring Voice
for California, The Hurt
Business: Oliver Mayer's
Early Works Plus [+], and
Talking #BrownTV: Latinas
and Latinos on the Screen
(co-authored with Ohio
State's own Frederick Luis
Aldama). Nericcio, also a
curator and artist, has
toured with his Circus
of Desmadres entitled
“Mextasy,” across the United
States and Canada.
Office Hours: Tuesdays,
12:30 to 3:00pm
and by appointment in AL
273.
email: bnericci@sdsu.edu
5. The Unveiled Egos
Last
Name: Salazar to Zezula
TA: Toki Lee
Hi! My name is Toki. I
am a 3rd year undergraduate studying
sociology, political science, and gerontology
in the interdisciplinary department. My
interests include horror, metafiction, and
thanatology. I've recently published a paper
called Dead Weight: Narratives of a
Transgender Social Death in Splice, in an
undergraduate journal. If my office hours
don't work for you, shoot me an email and we
can find another time to meet. Looking forward
to chatting!
Email: slee9002@sdsu.edu
Office Hours:M: 12-1:30pm;
W: 12-1:30pm in AL 283
