Courses
SDSU offers courses specifically on comics and courses that include comics in the
broader curriculum. Over the next two years (2022-2024), at least TEN new comics studies
classes will be developed! [email protected] is also developing a Comics Studies Certificate
Program. For more information about our comics curriculum, contact Dr. Elizabeth Pollard
at [email protected].
Courses that include sections on comics
AFRAS 466: Afrofuturism
[This course satisfies the ethnic studies (ES) requirement.]
Interdisciplinary study of African and African American contributions to science fiction,
comic book art, pop culture, and its origins and influences. Course created by Ajani
Brown.
AFRAS 475 - Super Black: The Politics of Representation in Comics
“Super Black" is the exploration of comics focused on the increased prevalence of black comic book characters and their creators. We will delve into the purposeful and audacious inclusion of these culturally specific story arcs into the sequential arts medium. This is an analytic history of the diverse contributions of Black artists to the medium, covering comic books, superhero comics, graphic novels, and cartoon strips. Created by Professor Ajani Brown.
AMIND 235: Indians in Comic Books and Graphic Arts
Historical, literary, and cultural study of the representation of the Indigenous Peoples of North America in the medium of the American comic books and graphic arts from the 1930s through the present.
ART 215: Comics and Sequential Media
The Visual Odyssey in Sequential Media. Historical and theoretical overview of visual
storytelling through a cross-section of works in animated films, comics, live-action,
and photography. Created by professor Neil Kendricks.
ART 343/443/543: Illustration
Visual notation, sketching, representational drawing, and visual translation related to art and design. Instructor: Neil Shigley
Courses in English and Comparative Literature frequently include graphic narrative, especially in courses offered by instructors Bill Nericcio, Yetta Howard and Joseph Thomas. View a complete list of Bill Nericcio's past classes.
ENGL 157: Comics and History
[Satisfies the C1 category for GE. Same as HIST 157.]
Our class will both study and (even possibly) reinforce our shared 21st century electro-existential
experiences—where the mesh of our minds with computer screens, smartphones, and television
screens comes to saturate our consciousness. The books and movies and pictures and
videos we will experience this term will open our eyes to brave new worlds. But these
works are not without their tricks, not without their surprises, and the fractured
souls they flaunt before our eyes will test our intellect, imagination, and, most
deeply, our emotions--they may even tattoo our psyche! Works to include artist/authors
like Art Spiegelman, Gilbert Hernandez, Emil Ferris, Robert Crumb, Chelsea Cain, Marjane
Satrapi and more. Open to all majors and minors with no prior expertise with comics
or literature anticipated or expected.
ENGL 527 - Genre Studies
Prerequisite(s): Six lower division units in literature and/or creative writing. Study
of a specific literary genre or genres, such as the novel, tragedy, epic, and lyric.
(Sometimes taught with a comics and graphic novel focus).
ECL 568 - Chicanx Comix: Community, Storytelling, and Social Justice
When it comes to the history of comics, comic books, editorial cartooning, and animation in the United States in the 20th and 21st century, the chapter dedicated to works by Americans of Mexican descent (Chicanos/as/x) would be enormous. Examining pathbreaking works, “Chicanx Comix” treats advanced undergraduates and/or graduate students to a broad array of styles, genres, media and more. Created by Professor William A. Nericcio.
Many courses in History include graphic narrative. Interested? Check with the following instructors: Elizabeth Pollard, Van Tarpley, Mary Stout, Greg Daddis, Raechel Dumas, David Cline, Walter Penrose, and John Putman.
HIST 157: Comics and History
[Satisfies the C1 category for GE. Same as ENGL 157.]
For much of our existence, humans have told stories through sequential art. Sequential
art and more specifically comics, its modern manifestation, offer visual text that
is sometimes accompanied with words, meant to be “read” by the viewer. Through the
stories told, sequential art provides insight into realities and imaginings, ideas
and emotions, aesthetics and actions of people across time and cultures. This course
offers a brief study of sequential art from images in paleolithic cave paintings to
medieval manuscripts, followed by in-depth study of the aesthetic, formal, and stylistic
features of comics across cultures over the last century. Through engagement with
this medium, students will develop an appreciation of, and a language for analyzing
comics as an art form, and they will be able to contextualize these texts in terms
of how they reflect the aesthetics and realities of a particular moment and in terms
of how these reflections change over time. Created by Professor Elizabeth Pollard.
HIST 457: Graphic Histories
[Satisfies an upper-division GE (HUM explorations) requirement.]
This class will explore selected historical problems, eras, and events through the
lens of graphic histories and novels. Historians and biographers use the comics medium
to help readers experience high levels of immersion, empathy, and complexity as they
confront the past. Creators also contribute counterhistories and “histories of the
future” that shed light on our common human story. Our study will roam from Marguerite
Abouet’s 1970s West Africa to Tillie Walden’s far-future decrepit space habitats,
from Moore and Lloyd’s V outwitting the despots of an imagined dystopian London to
John Lewis standing against all-too-real segregation in Selma, Alabama. Created by
Professor Van Tarpley.
HIST 538: Comics and the Cold War
This course examines the Cold War as a political, ideological, cultural, and military contest through the medium of the “comic” as it evolved throughout the post-World War II era. Students will analyze and evaluate how these visual cultural products depicted such themes as the global communist threat, the perils of atomic war, and the moral implications of the Cold War competition, and how these visual arts depicted race, identity, gender, and social justice over time. Though it gives special attention to the American role and experience, both at home and abroad, the course also investigates how other nations influenced Americans’ understanding of the Cold War and how comics served as a cultural force in representing the United States in what many believed was an existential battle between good and evil. Created by Professor Greg Daddis.
LGBT 550 - Queering Comics
“Queering Comics” is an exploration of LGBTQ+ culture, ideas, aesthetics, relationships, identity, and politics through the prism of sequential art. We will use the medium of comics to explore the politics of representation, assessing both the consequences of the absence of complex queer and trans characters, and conversely the stereotypes that are reproduced when queer and trans people do appear. Created by Professor Jess Whatcott.
Professor Suzanne Bordelon often includes an assignment and section on comics in her gender and rhetoric courses.
RWS 413 - The Rhetoric of Comics
“The Rhetoric of Comics” offers an analytical look at the multimodal characteristics of comics, focusing on how visual rhetoric and sequential narrative are crafted within the genre to persuade and to convey meaning and messages to specific audiences. Students will identify, analyze, and evaluate the various modes of communication that comics creators utilize in telling their stories. Created by Professor Ben Jenkins.
WMNST 355: Feminist Approaches to Popular Culture
Taught by Professor Amira Jarmakani.
WMNST 360: Women's Sexuality and the Body
Includes Marjane Satrapi's Embroideries. Taught by Professor Amira Jarmakani.
WMNST 604: Seminar: Gender, Culture, and Representation
Taught by Professor Amira Jarmakani.