11 courses with the subject COM, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
COM 2000Introduction to Comics3
Introduction to Comics is a balanced exploration of simple character development and sequential storytelling. Technical demonstrations and weekly assignments cover penciling, various inking techniques, coloring, and lettering and are focused on composition, style, space, storytelling, perspective, gesture, and mood. Lectures and presentations on various comic genres and artists, readings, and discussions of the creative process complement technical instruction.
Foundation: 2D, Foundation: Drawing 1, Foundation: Drawing 2, Foundation: Media 1 (Foundation: Drawing 2 and Foundation: Media 1 may be taken concurrently)
COM 3010Comic Media and Concepts3
This course is an exploration of comics as a storytelling art form. Emphasis is placed on storytelling concepts and advanced technical and media skills. Projects include story and fable adaptation for use in mainstream and art comics as well as educational and documentary formats. To accomplish this goal, students use research, storyboarding, writing, critique, and revision to foster good practice and the foundation for a personal voice.
This course focuses on the two-dimensional depiction of an environment or landscape in comic format. Starting with the creation of a unique pictorial space, students explore the figure within these spaces to create a narrative visual flow. Landscape detailing and lighting are examined to create a sense of mood. Students explore one- to three-point perspectives, alternative perspective theories, and picture-composition relationships and their relationship to narrative drive. Research into the work of professional comics artists’ use of environmental storytelling, as well as individual and group critiques, are used as part of the learning process.
Comic Character Development students study various models of comic character creation, including realistic, heroic, exaggerated, and invented form, in addition to a variety of body expressions, facial expressions, and locomotion. Discussions and assignments in character creation for the narrative are explored. Lectures and discussions cover historical comics artists and contemporary artists. Weekly journals and comic exercises are assigned so that students may develop observational and invented figure drawing skills.
Experimental Comics trains students to expand their storytelling ranges. Students learn to utilize restriction and experimentation as ways to help tell a story. Discussions are held surrounding important contemporary comic professionals and groups who are pushing the boundaries of comic narrative. As the semester progresses, students work from their own story ideas and develop them further through individual and group critiques. Lectures and presentations on experimental comics, short exercises, individual and group critiques, readings, and discussions are used to help students work toward self-direction and a strong use of process.
This course prepares students for the expectations and rigors of the production and promotion of a comic book in print or in digital publishing. Working on self-directed projects, each student becomes their own publisher. The course is divided into three sections mirroring the production process: design and preparation, production, and launch. Technical and process demonstrations cover scanning, prepress procedures, printing, and marketing collateral. The intent of this course is to provide each student with the skills necessary to give a project the greatest impact once completed and published. Lectures and demonstrations, studio visits, field trips, readings, and resea
This course explores the various professional mediums used by comics artists and illustrators to create a rich textural nature in their works. Students develop basic principles of compositional decision making and strategies and the application of lighting, textures, values, and tone. Demonstrations of various tools and techniques are provided-from traditional pen and brush to Japanese tonal effects to current trends in digital finishing. Students work on professional comic pencil pages, their own penciled comic pages created specifically for this course, and on pen and ink observational drawings. Visual lectures, critiques, and research support technical work.
This class focuses on helping students develop their comic storytelling techniques by illuminating the relationship between text and image on the comic page, ideas of plot versus theme, the use of composition and symbolism in the comic panel, and how all of these correlations work together to serve the goal of the artist in communicating their personal narrative vision in the comic form. With a strong focus on issues in contemporary comic storytelling methods, plot structure and motif in popular fiction and literature, and the symbolic and aesthetic powers of fine art and design, Comic Storytelling allows students to shape their own scripts and stories into comics that d
Introduction to Comics, Comic Media and Concepts (Comic Media and Concepts may be taken concurrently)
COM 4000Professional Practice: Comic Art3
The primary focus of this class is to provide advertising students with the tools that will enable to enter professional practice immediately following graduation. Each student is required to produce a polished résumé, artist statement, website, professional identity system, and portfolio. Topics include long-range goal creation and planning; financial, legal, and other business considerations; grant writing; and communication and marketing skills involving verbal, written, and visual presentations. Topics are presented through lectures, critiques, and presentations by experts in the field. varying Internship or Studio Elective Choose to pursue an internship or an additional studio elective
This course continues and concentrates on the issues and development of a unique comic voice. Students develop topics or themes into a full comic narrative working within the mainstream, art comic, educational comic, or documentary comic fields. Critical input from the faculty and fellow students helps guide the projects towards completion, allowing for a developed and mature narrative assignment. Lectures, visual presentations, readings, and in-depth study of comic professionals supplement the topics discussed within this course.
Senior Project is a semester-long project developed by an individual student in consultation with a faculty member. Starting with a research project, an in-depth comic art problem, or a concentration on the development of a particular strength, genre, or need, students create a story of approximately 14 fully realized and professionally developed pages. Students are required to develop an appropriate proposal, timeline, and goals and refine these in consultation with an outside mentor and appropriate MCAD staff. Presentations to the class and the greater MCAD community, proposal writing, research, and group discussions are important components of this course. Comic Art Option (select one)
