Read-Think-b4-u-Write

In 1899, French artists presented the world of 2000 . They see the 21st century filled with flying fire fighters, postal deliveries, and the police catching the bad guy. School teachers feed books into a machine that will speak the books to students wearing headphones. Everything has wires - no wi fi here - yet.  These drawings remind me of the original Superman - Action Comics No. 1, July 1938. Maybe it is the printing. The pictures were printed as "illustrated trade cards" for public consumption.  Whenever I see pictures or stories like this, they are always filled with flying vehicles and people. But I always wonder where is my flying car or my wings? While we don't have people with wings delivering packages and such, we have gone a step further further, removing the human equation and allowing drones to deliver packages and unmanned cars to deliver us. It's interesting that these futurists never remove the human element in their visions. People are always present;...

Since I'm feeling sorry for myself after reading all the exciting posts from my friends at San Diego Comic Con, here's a comic website that will make you smile -- Comics with Problems . Today let's take a look at "The Insiders:  The Marijuana Mystery" . This comic from 1991 features Holly, a gymnast aspiring to win the state championship, who has a crush on Mike, a popular jock and failing student. Holly offers to tutor Mike hoping he'll ask her to the prom, but instead he rewards her with marijuana. She takes one toke off a joint and immediately quits studying for tests and misses gymnastic's practice. When she makes it back to practice she gets injured and can't go to the state championships. After confessing to her best friend that all of her new problems are due to marijuana, there's a robot intervention. Here's the facts laid out in this comic about marijuana abuse as delivered by Alpha the Robot: [BEEP.] Marijuana impairs a perso...

In comics this season, we studied the graphic adaption of Kafka's Metamorphosis  by Peter Kuper. In the story, a salesman wakes up and finds he has turned into a bug - seems the perfect premise for a graphic novel. Kafka's novellas led to the creation of the adjective Kafkaesque which according to Mirriam means something "having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality, such as Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays" (we've all had those). The hoops one has to jump through are often so twisted and frustrating that success is pointless. Kafka's many short stories have strange illogical, usually bureaucratic, twists that are worth reading. They reflect the disconnect in industrialized societies, the alienation that comes when life is reduced to working for faceless bureaucracies and corporations and being subjected to the rules and laws of the same. One strange twist in Kafka's Metamorphosis  is that when Gregor discovers he's turned into a b...

Gian Delos Santos, DVC I have a love/hate relationship with projects--and then I get something like this, a two-foot tall diorama featuring one of my favorite subjects. I mean who doesn't love the Avengepeeps in all their gooey glory. What do I mean when I say I have a love/hate relationship with projects? Sometimes I feel like students spend more time on their projects than on their papers, but hey, what are projects for anyway? One thing, is to help students explore subjects from a new and different angle, to look creatively at a subject with a relatively low barrier of entry. In the case of Peep dioramas, students adapted a nation-wide Spring contest featuring the marshmallowy confections to come up with a fun way to look at the Avengers - this from a class that just finished reading Watchmen . I mean who doesn't love Bruce Peeper, the incredible Pulp, or Captain Ameripeep. Students analyze character motivation, personality, and setting to design appropriate subject ...

The Black Panther isn't just the world's richest superhero, he also has a super education. The Black Panther "has a Ph.D. in Physics from Oxford University and is considered to be one of the eighth smartest people on the planet." He needs that intellect in order to run his own country located somewhere on the African continent.  His estimated worth $500 billion. Buddy Loans created the infographic, "The World's Richest Superheroes", which lists the top eight pocketbooks as well as the top intellects. Infographics and comics--what a great combination.  Also, my college friends notice that this graphic contains a "Sources" section that cites Marvel, X-Men Wikia, DC Wikia, and, of course, Forbes . How's that for ethos? Following the Black Panther on the intelligence scale is Batman aka Bruce Wayne who is a graduate of Yale Law School. His holdings include Wayne Enterprises, a company that holds many patents for all his gadgets and veh...

Reading visuals - even NASA does it. Archaeology, Anthropology and Interstellar Communication is a recent tile released by NASA, edited by Douglas A. Vakoch. Vakoch believes that when ET tries to communicate with us it will not be through sound but via images. All the stuff you had to learn about reading images is going to come in handy. "Vision and the use of images would appear to be at least plausible. Although spectral details cannot be considered universal, the physical arrangement of objects on a habitable planet’s surface will be shaped in part by gravity (the notion of a horizon might well be universal) and thus multispectral images might plausibly be considered worthwhile for messages." So what kind of images do we send out? One message contained the binary numbers one through ten, equations of basic chemistry, human bio chemistry, and DNA.  Another contained a drawing of what we look like, pulsar directives, and a schematic of our solar system. In othe...

"Until you're actually in a catastrophe you don't know how you'd behave."  That's how Glenn Stutzky prefaces the MSU Summer 2014 class " Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse – Disasters, Catastrophes, and Human Behavior ". When I first heard about this class, I didn't give it much credence.  Another crazy pop culture class - but then again, as a teacher of comics and all things related, I had to step back.  After all Walking Dead is one great comic book series that was serialized on television.  Although, I have to say, I still wasn't convinced that the zombie apocalypse was an appropriate fit in classes on the study of human behavior. That was before I watched the above video. What changed my mind?  The Mt. Diablo Fire of 2013.  I had always thought of myself as one of those people who, in the face of disaster, would remain calm, cool, and collected, rescuing neighbors and pets alike.  But, no, when Mt. Diablo was engulfed in fla...

The Root recently published an article entitled Black Heroism Illustrated .  It documents the instances of black superheroes created by the comic powerhouses DC and Marvel.  Beginning with DC's Black Lightening in 1977 and Marvel's Black Panther who debuted in "Fantastic Four" no. 52 in 1966. The article also documents the rise of African American sidekicks -- Captain America's trusted Falcon (1969) -- while interracial justice leagues began appearing in the 1970s. The Shadow League chronicles comic stereotypes, from Harlem as the hometown of every African American superhero to the use of the descriptor "black" in superhero names; think "Black Lightning, Black Vulcan, Black Goliath, Black Racer, the Black Spider, Black Manta and so on." The most recent addition to the black pantheon of superheroes would be Nick Fury - who apparently underwent a race change in 2002's "The Ultimates #1" -- from a white World War II army he...

Julia, 3 (Tirana, Albania) When my daughter was born I bought her two hefty Tonka trucks, one a grader and the other a gigantic dump truck. I was going to make sure she had choices.  I didn't want my daughter to be conditioned to be a Barbie lovin', pink wearin', prissy little girl; she was going to play with trucks and baseballs and soccer balls and dolls and then decide what she liked best. Well, the Tonka dump truck soon became a bassinet for her Cabbage Patch dolls and her little brother gladly traded her the grader for a plush lamb that just wasn't macho enough for him. Are girls conditioned to want dolls?  Are boys conditioned to want trucks?  Are girls naturally attracted to more nurturing, mothering type toys, while boys want guns to go out and bring dinner home? Henry, 5 (Berkeley, California) An interesting book was just released called Toy Stories: Photos of Children From Around the World with Their Favorite Things by Gabrielle Galimberti....

When stricken by a deadly disease, the world's greatest doctors developed a Superformula to help Batman recover his strength.  After recieving his intravenous treatment, it wasn't long before he was back fighting super villains whenever the bat signal lit up Gotham's night sky. To a child, cancer must seem like some kind of cartoon nightmare they can't control or understand, but "as any good cancer doctor will tell you, the most important step in fighting the disease is believing in a cure," reports Buzz Feed who recently featured an article about  rebranding Chemotherapy at a Children's Cancer Center in Brazil. The cancer "Superformula" now comes in intravenous bag covers featuring the iconic WonderWoman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Superman logos. In addition to the Superformula, young patients can read comics about how their favorite superhero battled cancer --and survived.  Even the children's ward has been redesigned as the Hall...

Can you guess the number one art find of 2012?  If you've followed this blog for any amount of time you probably can. Yep, that's right Action Comics No. 1.  While remodeling a house bought for $10,100, David Gonzalez ripped out a wall and found a pristine copy of the Man of Steel's first comic appearance.  It has already been bid up to $113,000 and would be worth more except the cover got ripped after Gonzalez found the book.  That rip dropped the book's value by $100,000.  The last pristine copy of AC 1 sold for over $2 million. Some other notable finds of 2012 according to HuffingtonPost.com are a lost Da Vinci found in a Scottish farmhouse, which if it turns out to be real, is estimated to be worth over $150 million.  A $7 flea market find that led to the recovery of a stolen Renoir snatched six decades ago from the Baltimore Museum of Art and a painting titled "The White Owl" by William James, a pre-Raphaelite artist, was found in an attic and ...

Just title this "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous." Whose lifestyle is more expensive, Batman or Ironman? If you're Tony Stark, you not only have to invent and pay for all those cutting edge, blow-them-up, and run-them-over kind of gadgets, you also have to maintain your lifestyle as one of Los Angeles' rich and famous. His house alone costs $25,000,000.  His computer system is over $10,000,000 and then there are his cars and his suits.  Yikes that's quite a bill. But like we say over here a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's an infographic from Mashable (click here fore a full-size Ironman graphic).  In order to live like Ironman you are going to need $10,086,485,000.00.  Yes, college is a good choice if you are looking to make that kind of money. What about Batman, you ask? Bruce Wayne has own lifestyle obligations that include not only the Batmobile and outfitting the Batcave, but also Wayne manor, a butler, a bunch of girlf...

Diablo Valley College's 3rd Annual Prize for Graphic Literature surpasses all expectations and showcases the art of some amazing aspiring artists. Go Fish by Ana Valdez is the Grand Prize Winner; a story of love where you find it between a lonely fisherwoman and a mermaid. The Runners Up included The Amazing Uncanny Aviator by Emily Pate and Sarah Luver, a spoof of the mainstream superhero comic, and Nick Pino’s Ass Birth One: The Day the Earth Said F@ck , a tale of a boy and his dog. Ass Birth One also won the George Herriman Prize. The Herriman Prize Runner Up was awarded to Kelly Conroy’s Annoying F***tard a knock, knock joke gone incredibly annoying. An Apple A Day Keeps Everyone Else Away by Sheemul Gupta won the Charles Schultz Award with its lifelong tale of technology’s lonely consequences. “What Does He Want…?” by the creative trio Aly Murphy, Dan Povenmire, and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, was the Shultz Runner Up in its search for the perfect Christmas gift. Dor...

At Foto Marvellini, an art workshop in Milan, two brothers have released the family photos of your favorite superheroes. How they came across so many vintage portraits is unknown, but these pictures answer a lot of questions about why some superheroes adopted their demeanor, garb, and sensibilties. Take Spiderman for example. Most fan boys and girls believe it was a radioactive spider that produced the web-spinning acrobat, but according to family tradition there seems to be an early twentieth century dapper dude who first donned the spidey mask. Maybe the spider gave Peter Parker his super powers, but there are some spiders in his family closet. This portrait of Captain America's great-great-great grandma may explain his patriotic roots (and style) as the Victorian lady displays the cameo shield familiar to most readers. Batman enthusiasts may now understand the penchant for the furry flying mammals as Great-grandad Wayne studies his stocks and bonds. No wond...

that I wish I could do, but I can't because my best drawing involves stick figures. Lynda Barry, author of 100! Demons is teaching a course called the "Unthinkable Mind" at the University of Wisconsin during the Spring 2013 semester. Keep in mind this is not a graphic novel, comic, or "how to" art class, it is a class about how the different parts of our brain function. According to Open Culture Barry wants to appeal to both Humanities and Science majors by creating A writing and picture-making class with focus on the basic physical structure of the brain with emphasis on hemispheric differences and a particular sort of insight and creative concentration that seems to come about when we are using our hands (the original digital devices) —to help us figure out a problem. You can audit this course from home as Barry will be posting assignments to her Tumblr page. Look at the first page of Barry's syllabus posted above, and other than drawings, ...

The New York Times' editors chose the best books for 2012 naming Chris Ware's Building Stories , a kind of graphic novel, as the year's number two book. Building Stories puts a boxful of anecdotes at your fingertips, stories you have to tease out from pamphlet's and puzzles, game boards and leaflets. This "erector set" of ideas was specifically designed to foil any attempt at reading on an iPad or computer. The reader has to unsnarl the memories of a few different protagonists to deduce their story as presented by a few collected bits and pieces. Do you have a scrap book or memory box at home? If you went through the memories you've collected--old newspaper clippings, tickets to sporting events or movies, dried flowers from the prom--what story do you think the stuff of your memories would tell? Better yet, since the Holidays are just around the corner, what kind of memory box could you create for your parents, children, or significant other...

A comics journalist and an assistant professor walk into a bar. What'll ya have? asks the barkeep. "Pictures of Reformtinis," says the journalist. "A panel of Education Fizzes" responds the professor. The barkeep frowns, "Okay, but you'll end up in the gutter." I know the punchline could be better . . . Education reform is no joke so Adam Bessie, assistant professor at Diablo Valley College, and Dan Archer, comics journalist, took on the education reform movement in their interactive comic featured at TruthOut.org. The first episode, The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum: The High Price of Education Reform and second episode, Murky Waters: The Education Debate in New Orleans take on the system while trying to make sense of how we teach our students. But before you click on the links -- it gets even better. Bessie and Archer designed their visual essay as a fully functional interactive comic with built in links to all their sou...

People often wonder how (and why) a college professor would assign graphic novels (aka comics) to a college classroom. Well, the folks over at The Best Degrees have provided some answers in their article 9 Graphic Novels That Revolutionized the Comic Industry . Their post is not entitled the "9 Greatest Graphic Novels Ever" (I would then have to argue some of their choices), but rather it is a look at graphic novels that changed the way we look at comics. They include links (click on the pics in Best Degree's post) to some really exceptional analysis essays, essays that anybody writing essays (that's you) should look at as A+ examples of what can be achieved. These are not just book reviews--they go beyond rating comics--they analyze certain aspects of specific texts and critically explore rhetorical strategies you may not have tried before. Best Degrees places Kurt Busiek's Astro City in the number 8 position because of the way it "showed the co...

European Cave Art! According to Open Culture , Marc Azéma came up with the idea that paintings in Paleolithic caves are the first sequential art (think flip books). Others compare these 30,000 year-old cave paintings that dot the European continent to comics (think panel-to-panel visuals). In 2010, the award-winning filmmaker, Werner Herzog, created a 3-D documentary entitled The Cave of Forgotten Dreams where Herzog gained extraordinary permission to film the caves using lights that emit no heat. But Herzog being Herzog, this is no simple act of documentation. He initially resisted shooting in 3D, then embraced the process, and now it’s hard to imagine the film any other way. Just as Lascaux left Picasso in awe, the works at Chauvet are breathtaking in their artistry. The 3D format proves essential in communicating the contoured surfaces on which the charcoal figures are drawn. Beyond the walls, Herzog uses 3D to render the cave’s stalagmites like a crystal cathedral and to ca...

The folks over at teach.com created a summer reading flow chart just for you! In between summer jobs, socializing, and sleeping, you may find yourself in need of a book - many of these texts are available free online, or even better free from your local library. This list contains fiction and non-fiction books for all tastes. There are a few graphic novels, although I would add Watchmen if you haven't read it yet. Think about the classes you need to take in the Fall. If you have to take U.S. History, I can definitely recommend McCollough's John Adams . For you Administration of Justice majors, try Truman Capote's In Cold Blood . Something to consider, even if you aren't looking forward to psychology, sociology, or English (how can that be?), these are all GREAT books that will keep you entertained. So what's on your reading list? Via Teach.com and USC Rossier Online