Z604/Z672 Comic Books and Their Readers

Digital and Empirical Methods for Studying Readership and Fandom
Spring 2024

12:40 - 15:15 Wednesday, Sycamore Hall (SY) 103

Instructor: Associate Professor John A. Walsh, jawalsh@indiana.edu.
Office Hours: Schedule at https://fantastical.app/jawalsh-r1Wz/office-hours.

Associate Instructor: Alex Wingate, alewinga@iu.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays, 1:30pm-2:45pm, and by appointment (click Zoom link in Alex’s profile)

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Week 5: Comics in special collections and archives

Important!: Class will meet at the Lilly Library this week!

Summary

This week we will explore comics in special collections and archives and how such collections can facilitate research into comic book readership and fandom. Our class time this week will be spent at Indiana University’s Lilly Library exploring their comics-related holdings.

Lilly Library on Apple Maps.

Weekly Learning Objectives

• identify important collections relevant to comics research
• discover the comics-related collections in Indiana University’s Lilly Library
• find specific items in major comics-related collections

Before class: Readings, resources, and tasks

• Miller, R. (2018). From the Archives: The Queer Zine Archive Project. Inks, 2(3), 369–389. https://doi.org/10.1353/ink.2018.0025
• Pflug, W. (2021). From the Archives: Vernon E. Grant Collection. Inks, 5(2), 209–224. https://doi.org/10.1353/ink.2021.0011

Discussion: Paratext show and tell

Browse through the comics in our “z672 Comics” folder on OneDrive or any other comics or related documents, and find an interesting paratext. In the discussion, describe your paratext. Your example may be a peritext (in the comic book) or an epitext (located outside the comic book).

In one or more paragraphs:

• Explain what the paratext is, its function, and its location.
• Discuss how the paratext relates (or does not relate) to the comics content.
• Include an image or screen capture of the paratext.
• Respond with substantive comments or questions to at least one peers.
• Submit your work in the Canvas discussion

In class

• Lilly Library Program
• Discussion
• Next week