Z616 Comic Books and Their Readers, Spring 2025

Digital and Empirical Methods for Studying Readership and Fandom.

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Week 6: 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

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