When I was younger, I read, almost exclusively, comic books, and I think I have a fairly measured and varied view of the world. But those early DC (and later Marvel) comics were relatively straight-forward. Sometimes (as in the heroin issues of Green Lantern / Green Arrow produced by Adams and O'Neil), they dealt with social issues, but they were rarely ambiguous or challenging. Since then comics have spawned a much-studied, thought-provoking sub-genre, graphic fiction.
On Etudes, in the Resources Section, click on "Readings" > "Short Stories" > "Graphic Fiction" for this week's readings.
You might find it odd to be starting with "pictures," but being able to read images is something that is increasingly common (have you ever looked at a meme?) in a digital/visual world, so you've probably had some practice.
Then again, you may never have had to articulate HOW and WHY visual images work, how they communicate, so this may actually be an interesting challenge for you. I don't care about "great picture" or "weird picture" comments; I certainly do not care about "I like..." or "I don't think it's very good..." comments. I want you do explain HOW visual images communicate (as if they were actually words). Now that's a bit different :)
Before putting up your discussion, be sure you fully understand what is expected here; you may wish to review the Class Discussions page.
Remember (and this is true of all discussions and essays for this class) your are not summarizing, sharing general impressions or just giving unsupported opinions; you are trying to show that you understand what you have read. This week you need to describe specific details of what you are looking at and maybe also directly quote what you are reading.
NOTE: To help you with this, for Discussion 1 I will put up a sticky (meaning it will stay on the top of the discussion board) post showing an example of how to do this. Be sure to take a look at the example.hellos and graphic fiction
Remember your discussion takes place on Etudes. Select "Discussions and Private Messages," > "Discussion 1," then click on "New Topic" on the discussion board, and put up your posting (before Friday midnight); you will then put up responses before Sunday noon.
First, in a couple of sentences, introduce yourself (you might want to let us know a little bit about your background, your goals, your thoughts (fears?) about Freshman Composition--whatever you feel you want to share).
Then discuss the following (but only after you've introduced yourself...see above):
A picture is not necessarily worth a thousand words; however, in a graphic story or novel (or series), the illustration is certainly a distinctive element to consider. Which of the graphic fiction readings depends a lot on the illustration to add to the meaning of the stories? Explain what you see as a key idea (or maybe plot, depending on the examples you select) of each story, and discuss just how the illustrations add to that idea or develop the plot.
You need not limit yourself to the samples on Etudes; instead, you can write about the same topic but apply it to any other graphic novel you have read.
However, graphic novels can be pretty long and complex. Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchman, for example was originally twelve comics published by DC in the mid-80s, and these were later gathered as a single graphic novel. The book is rich with ideas about the nature of the graphic novel, politics, social issues, morality, and so on. So you may want to focus your discussion on just one element; for example, you could just discuss how the inset EC Comics parody--The Black Freighter--which makes ongoning appearances in the novel, relates to the book as a whole. Along those same lines, if you want to look ahead, you could even compare this comic-within-a-comic to the technique Shakespeare used quite a bit, the play-within-a-play.
If you choose this topic I would like you to discuss just one of the works in your posting (so that everyone has a chance to "spread out" and have more fresh things to say).
There are lots of graphic novels to choose from (I am partial to the early Neil Gaiman Sandman story arcs, but even comics such as Saga are being reproduced as graphic novels).
Note: manga, such as Fruits Basket or One Peg, do not generally fit topic 2 above; however, if you find something which is more experimental, such as Uzumaki, it may just work.