Art and Design Commons^™

The Good Knight, Elektra Koozer

University Honors Theses

The Good Knight is a comics adaptation of Sir Galahad's story through the lens of a queer retelling. This story focuses on queer relationships, struggling with depression and isolation, and death. It begins at the end of Galahad's life, where he is forced to question his legacy and who he is after completing the quest that has dictated his whole life. The story weaves through time, reflecting upon his past, thinking about his mother's expectations of him, being chosen for the grail quest, confronting his estranged father, and trying to cope with the world on his shoulders. He has to …

A History Of The Underground Comix Scene: The Seriousness Of An Unserious Genre, Harris Darcie Shugart

Master's Theses

The Underground Comix Scene of the 1960s and 1970s was born out of an age of censorship. The Comics Code Authority, a regulatory body created by the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954, established guidelines requiring publishing houses to self-regulate following a recommendation from the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1953. Comix with an X, for their X-rated nature, represent an emerging counter-culture in the latter half of the 1960s and the 1970s, with an epicenter of San Francisco. These comix and their artists were not interested in obtaining the looming ‘Seal of Approval’ from the …

Visual Narrative Through The Wimba Approach In Tahilalats Comic With Campaign Theme Bersama Stop Judi Online, Rangga Pangkuluhur Gumelar, Basnendar Herry Prilosadoso

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

Comics, as a medium for conveying ideas and concepts through imagery, integrate textual and visual elements to construct meaning and communicate messages effectively. Their distinctive visual communication enables the delivery of complex social issues in an accessible manner through characters, panels, layouts, and visual representations of sound and dialogue. This study analyzes the Tahilalats comic (2024 edition), which incorporates the hashtag #bersamastopjudol as part of a visual campaign against online gambling addiction. The narrative is presented entirely through images without verbal language. The research applies Primadi Tabrani’s Wimba theory to decode visual language and Roland Barthes’ semiotics to interpret symbolic …

On Petrochemical Fantasies: The Art And Energy Of American Comics, Mike Classon Frangos

Criticism

Petrochecmical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics by Daniel Worden. The Ohio State University Press: Columbus, 2024. Pp. 171. $34.95 cloth.

Welcome To My Mind Palace: The Power Of Fantastical Thinking, Sadie Levine

Masters Theses

What follows is a record of my efforts to make the magic and horrors of my internal world tangible and shareable. The brain constructs hyper-specific fictional realities from childhood to adulthood, yet the scientific study of the mind often forgoes the subjective and the visual. I offer a complementary exploration of the mind - one that is highly visual and based on my own experiences, yet still contextualized in psychological research. Finding the magic in everyday life, and by extension, retreating into alternate realities, is a conscious choice I make, but I have not always had the option to choose. …

Froggy People: Anthropomorphism And Slice-Of-Life In Autobiographical Comics, Maddie Baker

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores how the following three comics categories overlap and interact with one another: slice-of-life, anthropomorphic, and autobiographical. I search for reasons why comic makers would choose to tell their own daily life stories using animal avatars rather than their own faces. While each of these three categories has been studied extensively individually, I hope to find additional insights by observing how comic makers employ the genres together as storytelling devices. Each category has unique narratological power which impacts the reader’s experience. For example, anthropomorphism affects how the author and reader internalize and relate to characters. Slice-of-life comics are …

Comics As Confrontation : A Case For Breaking Silence Around Sexual Abuse In Comics, Manimanjari Sengupta

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In this essay I will provide an overview of the socio-cultural and legal attitude towards sexual violence in India, as evidence of the need for bringing survivor’s narratives out into public view. I will look closely at Indian comic artist Shromona Das’s Naming and Shaming (2018) , American artist Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and Other Stories (1998), and my own comic Feral (2025), to elucidate the ways in which comics are a potent medium for survivors to confront, not only our own memories by stringing together a sequential narrative, but also the audience, with the visualization of a lived …

Coffee Bindings, M. Ermolenko

Theses and Dissertations

Coffee Bindings is a multi-media interactive installation weaving themes of history, memory, death, and spaces that no longer exist through the lens of coffee readings and a mixture of physical and digital media. By navigating ghost spaces (spaces/places that used to exist but don’t anymore), and looking at survival through three time periods, Coffee Bindings jumps through liminal time and space, navigating the Armenian Genocide of 1915, the ethnic cleansing and displacement of Armenians from Artsakh in 2020-2024, while also tying them to personal family history with the death of my father and the loss of the physical space of …

Inner Bonds, Caitlin M. Maltbie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist, Cait Maltbie, discusses their Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Inner Bonds, which was installed at Slocumb Galleries in Johnson City, TN, from March 24, 2025, through April 4, 2025, with a public reception held on March 27, 2025. The exhibition consisted of multi-disciplinary work: zines, screenprints, and a sculptural installation mimicking the scenery and emotional environment of the imaginary Inner Bonds world. Inner Bonds refers to their comic series about feelings and how they are handled, from which all the content for this exhibition is derived. The work is focused on deconstructing the artist’s feelings so that they …

Drawing Conclusions: A Study On Student Comic Creation As A Formative Assessment, Madeline Wright

Honors Projects

This study explores the effectiveness of comics as an exit ticket to help improve student learning and achievement. Students today are struggling with grasping social studies concepts, and this study seeks to look into the researcher’s creative solution to this issue. While extensive research highlights the effectiveness of comics as an instructional tool, little research has been done on its effectiveness as an assessment tool. The hypothesis of the study is that if students create comics as an exit ticket, then their perceived understanding and engagement in the content will improve. Data was collected by student drawn comic panels/sheets, observations, …

Tracing The Lines In Comics And Life: Genealogies And My Place Within Them, Audrey M. Loo

Honors Theses

My thesis is a hybrid English Lit/Creative Writing project on comics. The English Lit half is an Artist’s Statement comprised of scholarly research and both analytical and personal writing, and this work will necessarily inform and be informed by the Creative Writing half, in which I create my own comics.

How Comics Impact The Process Of Instructional Design, Aaron M. White

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite growing evidence and professional consensus of the educational benefits of comics, the medium has not received much explicit attention within instructional design literature. This very lack of attention leaves instructional designers (IDs) and subject matter experts (SMEs) without the necessary means to integrate comics into higher education curriculum. Drawn from theoretical and empirical evidence found in Mayer’s Multimedia Learning (2021) and Cohn’s The Visual Language of Comics (2014), this dissertation explored how incorporating comics as anchor text into three different courses (face-to-face, hybrid, and online) at three different higher education institutions in the Midwest impacted the dynamics of the …

Laughing In The Wrong Places: Daniel Clowes And The Danger Of Nostalgia, Liam Cassidy

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the relationship between art objects and our past, narrowing in on nostalgia as a malevolent force in American culture that will lead to its eventual downfall. Focusing on Daniel Clowes’ latest graphic novel Monica as a case study, I demonstrate how graphic stories like this seek to reflect rather than interpret, and are often more closely aligned to the creator’s biography than an attempt at broad strokes or political pandering. The essay uses interviews with Clowes at various points of his career, reviews of Monica, academic essays on Clowes, as well as articles and books dissecting …

Dragon's Lair, Julie Cheung

Student Sequential Art and Comics

An 8 page zine that goes through two characters exploring a cave that is the dragon's lair.

The Adventures Of Ice The Penguin, Quentin Perry

Student Sequential Art and Comics

The adventures of ice the penguin

Junie The Fox, Joseline Tejada-Aragon

Student Sequential Art and Comics

A comic about my original character Junie the Fox. In this comic Junie is introduced and a story is told of is conflict with a cat named Bug.

From Panels To Shelves: The Evolving Intersection Of Comics And Italian Libraries. History, Issues, Perspectives, Andrea Tosti

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Despite comics' popularity and cultural significance in Italy, its integration into Italian libraries has been slow, problematic, and uneven. This is reflected in the scarcity of academic research on the topic, which demands further in-depth exploration.

In the context of Italian libraries, characterized by chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, comics might be perceived as a low priority. However, as essential cultural institutions, libraries must strive to reflect both the contemporary era and the evolving reading habits of their audience. Comics, in this regard, could prove to be – and in part already are – a critical resource, a 'booster' for …

Jurgen Comics Contest Newspaper And Artwork - Fall 2023, Julia Martinez

Jurgen Banned Art Comics Contest

Digital edition of the Jurgen Comics Contest broadsheet newspaper celebrating the Fall 2023 Contest winners. The newspaper design and supplemental artwork were created by contest student editor Julia Martinez. Supplemental promotional materials include a poster for an online information session.

The Fall 2023 Jurgen Comics Contest invited VCU students to explore a specific historical incident of censorship or suppression of visual art, books, music, film or performance.

A View Of Black Speculative Past And Future: An Interview With Tim Fielder, Julian Chambliss

Third Stone

No abstract provided.

Perils Of The Heroine: The Historic Role Of Woman In Comics, Britain Bray

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Now more than ever the comics industry is welcoming diversity in its creators and stories, but with its historically misogynistic past, what legacy are creators inheriting? This essay seeks to explore that history, delving into the various eras of American Comics and how sexism shaped them. From the earliest heroines of the 40s, the ground-breaking feminist indie comics of the 70s, and the rampant female sexualization of the 90s, examples of brilliance and drudgery will be investigated in order to gain a better understanding of how comics became what they are today.

Shambles & Crowley: Autobiographical Fiction In Four Panels, Shumyle Haider

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This paper explores the development of Shambles & Crowley, a collection of autobiographical fiction comic strips featuring Shambles, a burnt-out boy, Crowley, a loudmouthed crow, Franz Kafka, a silent companion, Saadat Manto, a prankster, and God, an overbearing authority figure. Drawing inspiration from comic strips such as Peanuts by Charles Schulz, Calvin & Hobbes by Will Waterson, and shows such as Louie by Louis C.K, and Mr. Robot by Sam Esmail, the stories explore the inner conflicts of Shambles, which are induced by struggles with love, loneliness, depression, and faith.

Archi-Comics, Timothy Gatto

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Humor in architecture is not at the forefront of architect’s minds, this comes from architects need to be deemed serious. This way of thinking is what has backed architects up into a corner banal and stagnant architecture. Architecture is the art of context, everything in architecture is referential. Humor is foundationally the exact same way, the incongruity theory makes humor possible by putting a concept into context with things and finding contradictions in the process, thus developing a joke. Each of these arts, humor and architecture, are that of context and when architecture is delivered like humor, it points out …

I Come Creeping: Remembering The Battle Of Blair Mountain In Graphic Narrative, Ellie James

Senior Honors Theses

Between August 24 and September 4 of 1921, approximately 10,000 West Virginia coal miners marched to Blair Mountain in Logan County in a militant stand for their right to unionize. Despite its status as the largest labor uprising in United States history, few know or understand the impact of the Battle of Blair Mountain today, even within the borders of West Virginia. This creative project aims to contribute to ongoing efforts to memorialize this period of the West Virginia Mine Wars through the creation of a 10-page comic, titled I Come Creeping, which depicts and is informed by the …

Questions Of Canon In Gilbert Hernandez's "Palomar" Comics, Martin Dolan

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

While questions of misrepresentation are starting to be addressed in academia — acknowledging racial, cultural, gender, and artistic diversity — there is still much work to be done to close the gap between the literary canon and what contemporary literature actually looks like. These efforts have been a step in the right direction, but representation of unconventional literatures is often spotty, boiling down entire literary scenes into one book. This is especially true for those that offer formal or structural challenges – including multilingual and graphic narratives that don’t easily fit into a canonical “box.”

Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar comics, serialized …

Pondering Pauses: Experiencing Stillness In Scrolling Webcomics, Moira Dewey

Honors Projects

This paper examines the evolution of comics and its form, and how this changing format influences how the reader experiences the narrative, specifically in moments of stillness. Webtoons, a specific scrolling format for webcomics, have unique tools at their disposal due to their form. These prompt the reader to pause, allowing them to practice being still in order to experience the surrounding world, even if that world is fictional. After going through a brief history of webcomics and webtoons, this paper analyzes two specific webtoons, Green & Gold and Seasons of Blossom, to take a closer look at how …

Storytelling For A Changing World: Comics As Agitprop, Kruttika Susarla

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay imagines fictional storytelling and urban practices of maintenance, repair, and care as interrelated to one another. They are both practices engaged in building a better world. Urban scholars like Gautam Bhan, Shannon Mattern, and David Harvey propose the city as a space for envisioning the kind of community we want to be—a space for working towards our collective future. By engaging in fictional storytelling, I argue, we are doing the same thing: the dual work of taking from fact and representing it to an audience while also engaging in imagining and world-building. This is also a practice of …

A Perfect Escape: Fantasy, Place And Narrative In Adolescence, Cydney Cherepak

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the realms of special places, the literary genre of fantasy, narrative, and comics. These topics are traversed alongside subjects of adolescence and the creation of stories for middle-grade readers. Framed with personal stories, as well as peaks into my process, I investigate these subjects through the lens of my own life and work, specifically my thesis project, a comic for middle-grade readers titled Beyond the Castle Walls. Beginning with adolescence in association with special places, I consider the work of developmental psychologists David Sobel and Edith Cobb as they pin-point the role of secret forts, nature, …

The Precarity Of Images: Sci-Fi Worldbuilding And Its Uses In Agitprop, Noah Jodice

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

“The Precarity of Images” examines how theories of worldbuilding common to the science fiction genre are applied to the making of agitational propaganda for liberation movements. In doing so, it questions how both explicit and implicit political images—posters, games, comics, illustrations, social media posts—either light a pathway for making a more just world or limit our ability to imagine alternate futures.

Following the ethos of Steven Jackson’s essay “Rethinking Repair,” the paper takes the “breakdown, erosion, and decay” of images as a starting point. Images change meaning over time as our cultural connections to them shift. Strategies of decoding and …

Gumball Astronauts: Establishing A Space-Time Vocabulary For Genre Bending In Picture Stories, Henry Uhrik

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This paper attempts to redefine genre as a set of bodily experiences rather than a collection of thematic objects. Beginning with the western genre as a whole and ending with my own comics work, I pull apart elements within specific narratives and analyze them as mechanical divides that disrupt the reader’s experience of time and space. This paper explores these generic arcs that branch from film to comics to video games. The first section of the paper pulls apart the approach I take when looking at genre, one that is influenced by Bahktin’s idea of the chronotope, a time-space defining …

Message Journal, Issue 5: Covid-19 Special Issue Capturing Visual Insights, Thoughts And Reflections On 2020/21 And Beyond…, Sadia Abdisalam, James Alexander, Tom Ayling, Jessica Barness, Diana Bîrhală, Maria Borțoi, Bernard J. Canniffe, Patti Capaldi, Tânia A. Cardoso, Megan Culliford, Stephanie Cunningham, Meg Davies, Subir Dey, Matthew Frame, Aaron Ganci, Peter Gibbons, Sofia Gvozdeva, Elizabeth Herrmann, Chae Ho Lee, Alma Hoffmann, Hedzlynn Kamaruzzaman, Merle Karp, Holly K. Kaufman-Hill, John Kilburn, Joshua Korenblat, Warren Lehrer, Erica V.P. Lewis, Christine Lhowe, Xinyi Li, Kelly Salchow Macarthur, Shelly Mayers, Steven Mccarthy, Bianca Milea, Sara Nesteruk, Cat Normoyle, Jessica Teague, Paul Nini, Emily Osborne, Sima Elizabeth Shefrin, Kyuha Shim, Angelica Sibrian, Gianni Sinni, Irene Sgarro, David Smart, Matt Soar, Junie Tang, Rebecca Tegtmeyer, Ane Thon Knutsen, Isobel Thomas, Darryl Westley, Lisa Winstanley, Danne Woo, Dave Wood, Helena Gregory, Colin Raeburn, Jackie Malcolm

Message Graphic Communication Design Research

No abstract provided.