COMP 15
Comics and Visual Thinking Winter 2025

What can we learn by reading comics or other examples of “sequential art?” Even more interesting, what can we teach others by creating sequential drawings? We will study comics that use a series of drawn images to convey a narrative–whether that is a fictional story (Frank Miller’s Batman, Tezuka Osamu’s manga), a factual history (Alison Bechdel’s Are You My Mother?), a scientific experiment (Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion, Henry Reich’s Minute Physics), or a critical argument (Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics). Logistics permitting, we’ll also take an optional field trip to The Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont to meet with comic artists and instructors. Students will have a choice of final projects: write a paper analyzing a favorite comic or produce an original narrative comic of their own.