At this point in the semester, you should have a good understanding of the broad history of comic art, some familiarity with techniques and technologies used in creating comics, and some experience working with and responding to theoretical discourse in comics studies. You also have at your disposal a well-researched, collaborative bibliography of relevant comics scholarship.
Your final project should use these building blocks (mainly, the bibliography) to deliver something interesting, insightful and meaningful about comics and graphic novels. An essay that advances an interesting and evidence-based thesis is one example of an acceptable project, but so is a website hosting your artistic reinterpretation of one of our primary texts. An essay is a good way to connect research to topics, but so is a Kumu network mapping out webs of overlapping citation.
Your project might be a short study tracing a theme in some author’s work, it could be an analysis of a specific artistic technique, or perhaps it might be a reflection on a formalist or ontological question pertaining to the medium as a whole. Many things are possible. If no topic immediately occurs to you, I recommend selecting one of your blog entries and then expanding it by finding applicable research within our bibliography to refine that into a coherent and scholarly essay.
Requirements
- The project must contain about 1000 words (or equivalent)
- At least 5 scholarly sources should be a central part of your work
- Any images (properly documented) necessary to support your argument should be properly documented
- If your project is not a traditional essay, it must include an “artist’s statement” explaining its meaning and purpose
Use MLA parenthetical-style citations, and include a Works Cited page. Any and all images must be properly cited and attributed to their copyright owners.
Submitting your work
As this is your final project, it is due during Finals week. For both sections, it is due in Canvas by 6:00 PM on Wednesday, December 9.
We will not meet during Finals week, so Friday, December 4 is our last day of class.
[“Bookshelves” image by Flickr user d.p.Hettiex. CC BY-NC-SA.]