Splash Biography

Join us for a weekly discussion about the history of comics, followed by the opportunity to make your own. During the lecture component of the course, we will explore how the medium of comics has developed over time and examine how comic creators from different genres blend words and images for maximum effect. Once you’ve learned a bit about the historical background, we will guide you through the process of creating your own comic. All levels of familiarity with comics and artistic experience welcome. Materials will be provided.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when the two are combined, something magical happens. Join us as we break the panels on a page down into their various components to discover what makes comics such an effective storytelling medium. During the lecture component of the course, we will explore how the medium of comics has developed over time and examine how comic creators from different genres blend words and images for maximum effect. We will consider both the artistic and the literary side of the creative process, discussing topics such as character design and composition in addition to pacing and scripting. Students will then have the opportunity to put their knowledge to use as we walk them through the process creating a page-long comic of their own. Even if you've only ever read comics and never penned or drawn your own work, whether you're a pro at figure drawing or more comfortable drawing stick figures, any level of experience with the medium is welcome. Materials will be provided.

Did you like all of the history classes you've taken? I sure didn't. Sure, there have been many exceptional people throughout history, but they were just human like the rest of us, and yet many teachers go about touting them as god-figures and forcing students to memorize countless facts and figures about them. This class isn't like that. It's about exploring what makes history interesting, how mistakes led to many of history's greatest triumphs, and above all, having fun. No memorization required.

History, more often than not, is presented in school as a series of heroic and brilliant individuals forging empires and kingdoms out of sheer willpower and creating incredible inventions out of sheer ingenuity. While there are some individuals who indeed impress with their greatness, more often than not historical events and transitions come to pass due to accidents, oversights, and sheer idiocy. This course, inspired by the Arrogant Worms song, seeks to explore the flow of history using the rather unconventional tactic of analyzing not the greatness of our predecessors, but how their missteps have led us to where we are today, for better or for worse. Students are encouraged to bring their own examples of famous blunders to class for discussion.

By 1453, the former bastion of ancient Roman glory that was the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to little more than a few islands and a sliver of land around Constantinople. Covering the proud few thousand that defended the triple land walls of the city to the massive Ottoman bombards that hurled quarter-ton stones up to a mile distant, this course seeks to show the power of the well-organized and motivated individual against the seemingly invincible might of the Ottoman war machine as well as to show how the disparate paths of development of the East and West led to the ultimate triumph of the Turkish forces.