So This Fall You Can Learn Comics History With John Ronan

I am not equipped to cover outreach permutations of the various comics-related educational institutions in terms of what's novel and what isn't, but it did seem pretty interesting to me that Sequential Artists Workshop is being reasonably aggressive in promoting an on-line Comics History class with one of their teachers, John Ronan -- a former workmate of mine, although I haven't seen him for six or seven years. That thing that hits me is that this isn't exactly an outsider-friendly seminar-style hot topic class or a History 101 course but a pretty hardcore early comics course of the kind that deals with an element of comics history isn't exactly a strength of my own limited knowledge. For instance, it takes Ronan a whole week to get to William Hogarth. Here's a snippet from his first-week planner:

Week One: Before Hogarth

Readings: Kunzle, David. History of the Comic Strip, Introduction, Chapters 5, 6 and 7

Comics: Jacques Callot, Horrors of War; Romeyne de Hooghe, Peace Negotiations at Breda; Romeyne de Hooghe, The Wonderful Mirror of the Witts; Romeyne de Hooghe, William of Orange and the French War; Romeyne de Hooghe, The Wonderful Mirror of Orange Showing William Henry III; Romeyne de Hooghe, Picture of the Persecutions Suffered by Protestants in France; Cornelius Danckertsz, First are Described the Cursed Plot; variety of “Popish Plots” comics (including Dawkes et alia); Francis Barlow, True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot; playing cards of the Glorious Revolution, (including Henry Sacheverell, John Law); Dutch, Judgement of Charles the Bold; Dutch, Death of Floris; Dutch, The Theatre of Mercy; Pieter Bruegel, Justice; French, Legal Procedures against the Criminal; German, The Horrible Murder committed i\n famous Halle; Augsburg, The Life and Capture of Christian Käsabier; English, The Escape of Jack Sheppard; German, The Foolish World; German, A Precious hallowed Preservative for protection against Poverty; Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger, The Brother's Lawsuit; Cornelius Anthoniszoon, The Prodigal Son; Dutch, The Revellers and their Soul; Venetian, Mirror of the Harlot's Fate, The Life of the Rake; Giueseppe Maria Matelli, The Honored Life of the Idler; The Game of Husbands and Wifes.

I don't know about you, but when I think of comics courses I think of Siegel and Shuster in the first week rather than de Hooghe.

I've been thinking a lot recently in the wake of Kim Thompson's passing about the rise of literary comics in North America, and I think two things about that element of cultural history apply here. One is that with such a specific construction for how that growth in a certain kind of comics expression was facilitated, including the notion that pulp comics needed to be reformed in that direction, it's bound to have an impact on how we see a lot of the early comics-making, or any sort of visual art with a narrative element that depends on spatial arrangement. Being from the generation that listened to the 1970s-emerging generation, I know that I'm consistently surprised by a lot of comics from 1970 and going back a couple of hundred years just because they don't match up with this very limited purview from which the comics I like best emerged. Another thing about recent comics history that might apply to history more generally is that comics has this mostly newer but also pretty grand tradition of jumping in the deep end and hoping we swim, so I'm happy to see an ambitious take on comics' early history offered at the same time something gentler and more survey-like -- and thus more attractive to students -- might be.

I look forward to the day where I take nothing but classes like this one, and I'm jealous of any of you with the time and inclination to take one now.
 
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