Reading, Writing, Publishing and Marketing the Graphic Novel
Reading, Writing, Publishing and Marketing the Graphic Novel is an introduction to one of the fastest-growing areas of publishing in the United States.
Graphic novels are regularly adapted into successful films such as Dog Man, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Big Hero 6, Black Panther, and Wonder Woman, and bestselling books like Wicked, Percy Jackson and The Giver have become popular graphic novels. Graphic novel careers include writing, drawing, editing and designing graphic novels.
Students will explore how graphic novels are created with scripts or prompts (the “Marvel method”), the collaborations of writers, artists, and editors, the role of literary agents in getting graphic novels sold to publishers, the many types of graphic novels being published today, and the wide audiences of diverse readers for these engaging books. Students will gain a greater understanding of this exciting and ever-growing and developing medium and how it is marketed, promoted, and sold today.
As part of the course, students will create a proposal for a comic story or full graphic novel, which can be in any form. This will include conceptual development for the work, draft publishing proposal for editor or agent, or partial script and outline, as chosen in consultation with the instructor. The course will offer opportunities for creating comics and graphic novel with words and pictures. Many graphic novels are created by writer-artists, but comic art is also a collaborative medium featuring world famous writers like Alan Moore (Watchmen) and Marjorie Liu (Monstress). The course considers writing comic art scripts in depth.
Field Trips
The class includes field trips to local sites of interest:
- The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art is a unique arts institution with an outstanding collection of art which extends our understanding of visual storytelling.
- The Richard Michelson Gallery is the foremost gallery for children’s book art and works by outstanding illustrators, a number of whom also create comics.
- Students will also visit an outstanding comic book and gallery, Comics ’N’ More in Easthampton, MA which stocks 15,000 titles.
Guest Speakers
Guest speakers will include artists, writers, publishers, and a literary agent with a specialty in graphic novels, giving students a broad view of comics as an artistic and literary field and how publishing and selling graphic novels works. Among others:
- Steven Bissette, Eisner Award-winning artist, writer, film and media historian, artist for Swamp Thing, creator of the Tyrant Tyrannosaurus Rex graphic novel series
- Denis Kitchen, Will Eisner’s publisher, founder of Kitchen Sink Press
- Jack Purcell, Marvel and DC artist, art and comics teacher
- Sera Rivers, Literary agent with a specialty in graphic novels
This course is offered at the UMass Amherst campus as a residential program. Local students may apply to attend as a commuter.
Students will work to create materials for their own graphic novel (or comic book or zine). Class will alternate between workshopping and brainstorming each student’s creative ideas and classes where students will explore the theory and practice of comic art. Different types of graphic novels and comics will be explored, including superhero, memoir, fantasy, and nonfiction. The course will feature guest speakers who are graphic novelists, comic artists and writers, novelists in several fields, and publishing professionals, including award-winning writers and artists, editors and literary agents. The class includes field trips to local sites of interest.
Final project
Students will create a proposal for a graphic novel, which will be presented in the final class. The comics and graphic novel field is large, and this proposal can take a form appropriate to the student’s interest, i.e. drawing, writing, combining both in one project. Students may choose to collaborate on the project. Students will also create minicomics and zines, and we will look at both these comics-related media in the class.
Pre-Requisites
There are no pre-requisites for this program.
Materials
- Students should bring a laptop or tablet, if they have one.
- Students may choose to create comics with traditional materials, including some which will be supplied.
- Students are encouraged to bring their own drawing materials or art supplies if they wish. (Paper and pencils are also available on campus).
- Reading materials will be provided by the instructor
Students may draw comics traditionally, choose to use software to create comics, or combine both. For this course, we will recommend using free software which includes comic creating and other tools. The following programs are recommended:
https://krita.org/en/ Krita is free to download and use. This is an open source software, which means it is developed by the Krita community of artists and programmers, who create new features based on artist needs.
https://firealpaca.com/ FireAlpaca downloads easily, is simpler to use, and has templates for comics. The default settings are appropriate for drawing comic images in black and white line art.
In this course, students can expect to:
- Gain knowledge of the range and diversity of graphic novels and explore this contemporary literary and artistic form and discover different artistic styles and narrative strategies of graphic novels.
- Develop conceptual vocabulary for analyzing diverse graphic novels and to enable students and to write narrative and stylistic analyses of graphic novels.
- Develop critical skills in thinking, writing, and discussion about graphic novels and apply those skills to analysis of cultural, social and political questions treated in those works.
- Explore international and cross-cultural relationships between graphic novels and works in other media including digital, film and television, and performance such as theater.
- Learn about the professional world of comics and graphic novels, writing, editing, drawing and painting, and how to write and create proposals for graphic novels.
Class time is Monday-Friday from 9am - 4pm.
|
Time |
Activity |
|
9:00am – 10:30am |
Science fiction comics and graphic novels |
|
10:30am -12:30pm |
Continuing workshopping/brainstorming students’ creative projects, outlines, scripting, story structure |
|
12:00pm – 1:00pm |
Lunch |
|
1:00pm – 4:00pm |
Guest speaker: Sean Wang, writer/artist of Runners, Meltdown; artist for The Tick |
In the evenings and on weekends resident counselors will run a series of social activities. Students are encouraged to join in, relax and have fun with new friends! With social events on campus and in the surrounding Amherst area, and access to the UMass Recreation & Wellness Center, there's something for everyone to enjoy.
Learn more about student life at UMass Amherst Summer Pre-College
Meet the Faculty
Dr. N.C. Christopher Couch, Senior Lecturer, Department of Comparative Literature
N. C. Christopher Couch holds a PhD in art history from Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Latin American art and on graphic novels and comic art, including The Will Eisner Companion: The Pioneering Spirit of the Father of the Graphic Novel (with Stephen Weiner), Will Eisner: A Retrospective (with Peter Myer), Faces of Eternity: Masks of the Pre-Columbian Americas, and The Festival Cycle of the Aztec Codex Borbonicus.
Dr. Couch curated exhibitions at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library American Museum of Natural History, the Americas Society, the Oklahoma Air and Space Museum and the Smith College Museum of Art. He was senior editor at Kitchen Sink Press (Northampton), editor in chief at CPM Manga (New York, and has taught at Amherst, Columbia, Hampshire, Haverford, Smith and Mount Holyoke Colleges, and the School of Visual Arts. Publications he edited won or were nominated for 17 Eisner and Harvey Awards, and he has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study, Dumbarton Oaks of Harvard University, and the Newberry Library. Current publications include the edited volume Conversations with Harvey Kurtzman, and a book on Batman artist and editorial cartoonist Jerry Robinson.
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