FO U R - S E M ES T ER P L A N

Sample Reading List Focus on Craft

Scott McCloud, Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

Jessica Abel & Matt Madden, Drawing Words & Writing Pictures

Ivan Brunetti, Cartooning: Philosophy & Practice

Matt Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

Lynda Barry, What It Is

Randy Duncan, Michael Taylor, and David Stoddard, Creating Comics as Journalism, Memoir & Nonfiction

David Mamet, On Directing Film

Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer

Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Sample reading list Literary Graphic Novels

Charles Burns, Black Hole

Dan Clowes, Ice Haven

Howard Cruse, Stuck Rubber Baby

Mike Dawson, Angie Bongiolatti

Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Gilbert Hernandez, Poison River

David Mazzucchelli, Asterios Polyp

David Mazzucchelli, Paul Karasik, & Paul Auster, City of Glass: The Graphic Novel

Scott McCloud, The Sculptor

Anders Nilsen, Big Questions

Adrian Tomine, Sleepwalk and Other Stories

Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth

Principal faculty: Josh Neufeld

Third Semester The main focus of the third semester is your critical thesis, basically a 30-35-page craft analysis in which you are learning how great comics & graphic narrative creators handle specific craft tools, what the effect is on the reader, and how to employ those tools in your own work.

First SemesterThe first semester is your time to “honeymoon” and play. You will experiment with different forms: a genre story, a diary comic, an adaptation, a nonfiction piece, etc.

1st Semester Craft AnalysesAn in-depth analysis of craft elements employed in published comics/graphic narratives—two to three papers of 3-4 pages each, plus one of 10-12 pages.

Fourth SemesterIn the fourth semester, you focus on your creative thesis: a finished comic/graphic narrative of 48-54 pages.

Fifth (Graduating) ResidencyDuring your fifth and final residency, you teach the craft class, give a reading, and then it’s all about the graduation ceremony!

Graduate LectureDuring the fourth semester, you also will develop a one-hour class based on your critical thesis...

....to be presented in your fifth, graduating residency.

Second SemesterDuring your second semester, you will begin focusing on your creative thesis.

2nd Semester Craft AnalysesSimilar to the first semester, but with a minimum of two 10-to-12-page papers.

ResidenciesEach semester starts with a ten-day residency on PMC’s lovely campus, located just five miles from downtown Boston. Each residency features craft classes, readings, opportunities to learn about publishing, and—maybe most important—the chance to meet fellow writers & artists who share your passion for storytelling. Because our focus is on writing, you’ll spend half the residency gaining feedback on your work-in-progress in a fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, or writing for young people workshop; and the other half in our comics & graphic narratives workshop.

Sample C&GN Craft ClassesIntroduction to Graphic Narratives: the vocabulary and language of comics, visual thinking (showing vs. telling vs. implying), close reading, sensory vs. emotional realities, style vs. tone, layers of meaning, layouts and thumbnailing. “Boiling-down” drawing exercises and the collaborative mini-comic.

Storytelling: constraints (and possibilities); scenes as the building blocks of storytelling, action & dialogue, McCloud’s five major types of panel transitions, encapsulation, rhythm and time. Elements & examples of a comics script.

Adaptation: adapting comics across forms (prose, screenplays, poetry, “high art”), Madden’s 99 Ways to Tell a Story; Auster, Karasik, & Mazzucchelli’s City of Glass; Harvey Pekar and the American Splendor movie.

Nonfiction: memoir, journalism, historical, explanatory/educational stories; using research, reference, and primary source material (interviews, journal entries, photographs, on-site sketches, etc.), organizing material to give it authenticity through specificity.

Sample reading list Nonfiction

David B., Epileptic

Kyle Baker, Nat Turner

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Roz Chast, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Derf Backderf, My Friend Dahmer

Phoebe Gloeckner, A Child’s Life and Other Stories

Tom Hart, Rosalie Lightning: A Graphic Memoir

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell, March: Book One

Harvey Pekar, The New American Splendor Anthology

Ed Piskor, Hip Hop Family Tree

Joe Sacco, Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia 1992–1995

Riad Sattouf, The Arab of the Future

Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis

Art Spiegelman, Maus

Craig Thompson, Blankets

G. B. Tran, Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey

Carol Tyler, You’ll Never Know: A Graphic Memoir

Lila Quintero Weaver, Darkroom: A Memoir in Black & White

Sample reading list Genre Comics & Graphic Novels

Matt Feazell, Cynicalman

Neil Gaiman, et al, Sandman: A Dream of You

Hergé, Tintin in Tibet

Mat Johnson & Warren Pleece, Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery

Brad Meltzer & Rags Morales, Identity Crisis

Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli, Batman: Year One

Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell, From Hell

Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, Watchmen

Alex Robinson, Box Office Poison

Charles Schulz, Peanuts

R. Sikoryak, Masterpiece Comics

Jeff Smith, Bone

Raina Telgemeier, Smile

Brian K. Vaughn, et al. Y: the Last Man

G. Willow Wilson, et al. Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal

• “Analog” tools: Pencils, Pens, Brushes, Ink, Paper, etc.

• Digital tools: PhotoShop, InDesign, Clip Studio, Wacom/Cintiq tablets, and Print/Web Production

• Character Design & Development

• Collaboration

• Outlining & Story Structure

• Scenes and Dialogue

• The Vignette/Short Story

• Coloring & Toning

• Inking

• “Is [Drawing] Craft the Enemy?”

• Perspective & Foreshortening

Sample C&GN Workshop Lessons

Contact: Quintin Collins, Associate Director, Solstice Creative Writing Programs, QCollins@pmc.edu

C&GN GuestsWe also bring in comics & graphic narrative guests, who each offer their own craft and technique classes. Previous guests include: • Alexander Danner • Joel C. Gill • Sophie Goldstein • Paul Karasik • Marika McCoola • Bianca Stone