Bringing Comics to the Classroom

In addition to teaching full-time at a boarding school and coaching football & wrestling, next fall I will begin teaching a freshman composition course at a nearby community college. In addition to helping the students become better critical readers and writers, I'd like them to be able to better handle more than just traditional literature. SO, I thought incorporating a graphic novel into the reading list might work nicely--how well can the student learn to critically analyze the graphic components of the tpb in conjunction with the written portion of the story? Besides, I thought it'd be kind of fun to blend two things I enjoy.

I'm organizing the course around the theme of "Out of Innocence--The Journey Into Adulthood" ... or something along those lines. The first that came to mind was Spider-Man, not just because I'm a huge fan but also because it really fits this theme well. I also thought using the Ultimate Spider-Man line would be a little better in one respect since it's a little more modernized and the art might be a little more appealing to present-day students. Also... the Masterworks editions with the originals are pretty expensive and the USM would be a little cheaper for the students. However... I'm also thinking about picking some non-mainstream selections because they don't carry the same connotations that more mainstream titles have, i.e. "nerdy," "childish," etc. This underscores an additional benefit as it will force the students to expand their notions of 1. what is worthy of critical attention and 2. various mediums can be used to communicate effectively than the traditionally "stuffy" and "serious" works (which I still love).

After much deliberation I narrowed the field of contestants down to three books:

- Civil War The 7-part Mini Series
- The Watchmen
- Pride of Baghdad

It was a tough call, but I wanted to make sure that the book I choice fit within the course theme (Out of Innocence).

I thought the CW series would work well as it really forces people (in and out of the book) to confront the stereotypical view of super heroes. It also raises issues of government as being "big brother," "big oppressor," or something in between. Additionally, I liked the ability to force to students to draw parallels between current events and issues encountered in the text. However, I was concerned about the problems non-comic fans might encounter not having any sort of background knowledge of the Marvel Comics world, and frankly, I didn't want to spend any significant amount of time playing "catch up" on material that wasn't particularly important.

Watchmen worked well along the same lines PLUS it removed much of the problems with Civil War since Alan Moore essentially provides the reader with all of the information we need. Since this is a remedial course, however, I was a little concerned about being able to adequately cover this book within roughly 2 classes and still have them understand it. There's a reason this book landed on the Top 25 books of the last 25 years. If you haven't read it, get over your sophomoric notions of comics being for nerds and educate yourself on what they really can do.

This leaves me with my third choice: Pride of Baghdad--which I knew I would love having the opportunity to teach as soon as I read it. I also feel like this really fits well with the theme of the course as we see how the journey of the zoo pride leaves the area of protection into one of danger, departs from a sense of naivete and romanticism about the wild and encounters the harsh reality. The book doesn't require much background knowledge to access the material (aside from a BASIC understanding of what's been going on in the world the past few years), the artwork really accentuates the story nicely (great way to get them to see how art work helps tell a story), and I can also get them thinking critically about a work and draw those parallels to events outside the text. It will be really interesting to see how the students handle the discussion of the conclusion of the story. I think I should be able to bring a unique perspective to the discussion having walked and patrolled those streets. Again, if you haven't read this book, do yourself a favor and give it a read.

The Hunt Goes On...

Probably for the past two plus months I've been on the hunt for a copy of the grail... the grail of grails--well, for comic collectors. More specifically, the grail for Spider-Man collectors: Amazing Fantasy 15.

Amazing Spider-Man #1 (which I acquired back in Feb of this year) is certainly a huge grail to attain for any Spider-Man fan. However, while it is the first issue of Spider-Man's monthly mag, it is not his first appearance. This honor falls upon AF 15. What's interesting about this particular issue is that it was a one shot deal which pretty much happened by accident in Stan Lee's attempt to fill out the final issue of the Amazing Adult Fantasy series before it's end. Due to an overwhelming fan response, however, our favorite webslinger was given a second shot at life in ASM #1. Interestingly enough, the cover itself was done, not by the interior artist Steve Ditko, but instead by Jack "The King" Kirby. This book is probably a runs a third place to finish only behind the greats such as Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics 27: the first Superman and Batman respectively. Sure, there are other books out there more expensive (i.e. Marvel Comics #1, etc), however, these are nowhere near as recognizable to the common public as these three.

And this is the book I have been hunting. Initially, I had made a few sales of comics and Warhammer models but it looked like my efforts weren't going to produce much in the way of an affordable copy. Further, my wife and I made the decision to begin trying to have a baby...which means one heck of an expense. However, a wonderful, part-time teaching opportunity presented itself over the summer which will provide a relatively significant boost to the household income. And my wife okayed my getting back into the hunt for a copy. After all, it helps to have some added motivation if I'll be picking up a second job. :)

So here's to hoping. It will be something else to be able to post a scan or pic of the grail once/if I manage to attain it. Til then, I'll keep my fingers crossed!