Bert Stabler is an HU contributor and commenter — but he’s also a high school art teacher. His school is primarily Latino and African-American, and he’s looking for recommendations for comics and cartoonists who he might use in class. So…any suggestions you could leave in comments would be much appreciated. Thanks!
I recommend Axe Cop. Damn it.
Almost anything by Joann Sfar would be good – his style is interesting but also shows that you don’t need to be representational to get a strong message across. He varies a lot panel to panel.
I doubt I know any comics that you don’t, Bert…. But in the list of things you do know about but maybe haven’t thought to use, I’ve been surprised by how much my son is into the Ditko Dr. Strange. They are really fun and loopy, and maybe something high school kids would like.
Naruto! The kids are reading it already, the characters have interesting and varied designs, and Kishimoto does those Akira-style detailed backgrounds.
If you want one where characters can be distinguished by their faces which come in different and realistic shapes and sizes, Death Note/Obata & Monster/Urasawa are good.
These are fabulous! Keep them coming.
I actually want to make them write an essay, on a series, creator, character, etc., so I’m just going to throw these all on a list for them.
And I am quite sure you know quite a few comics that I do not, Noah. Nowadays I am a Sunday painter of comics readership, at best.
Ah…okay.
You might think about Jaime Hernandez, maybe Death of Speedy in particular (can’t remember how R rated or not that is; don’t know if that’s a concern.) Girls especially might like Paradise Kiss or Nana? (both by Ai Yazawa)…
Ranma 1/2
Aya of Yop City
Love and Rockets (never mind how “appropriate”)
Kochalka
anything Trondheim?
Hellboy (?)
Krazy Kat
Maybe Tintin in Tibet
Lots of great suggestions already, but here are a few I’ve used over the years. It’s been several years since I taught a high school class, so I tried to remember which ones the students seemed to enjoy the most. I’ve also used many of these at one time or another for my college classes. (I’ve left out the ones that didn’t work as well for me or for my students!)
Jay Hosler, Clan Apis (it’s the graphic novel about Nyuki and her fellow honey bees…great artwork and a nice connection to their science classes; I’ve used it in my college classes, too, and it always teaches well. Hosler’s Sandwalk Adventures is also really amazing)
John Porcellino, Perfect Example (simple artwork and very nice coming-of-age story; my 102 research writing students are reading it now, and most of them are only a year out of high school and enjoy it or can relate to it)
James Sturm, James Sturm’s America (when I was teaching high school English, I used The Revival, which connected nicely to their history classes)
I also taught Corinne Mucha’s The Monkey in the Basement and Other Stories last year and my students loved it, especially the kids who were also taking studio art classes.
I used Sturm and Kyle Baker’s Nat Turner when I was teaching at a predominantly African American high school in Chicago; it fit in well with the students’ history courses, and they liked the challenge of reading the wordless sequences in Nat Turner. I remember they wrote some good papers on that book and seemed to enjoy Baker’s unique style.
And I teach Maus almost every semester, and I find the students respond to it really well.
p.s. Bert, feel free to email me if you need any writing assignments for your students. I have a minicomics assignment I use all the time, where the students create their own comic based on the ones we read for class, then write a critical analysis of their creation (so they get to be artist & scholar all at once). I’ve used it for high school and college students and I always get a lot of very cool stuff, even from the students who tell me they “can’t draw.” Those students often produce the best work, especially once they start believing they can do it!
These are all great–the only one I already was using out of these was Ranma. I know the Hernandezzes, and John Porcelino, but hadn’t thought to use them.
All great suggestions!
I’ve had a group of high school kids respond well to Bayou by Jeremy Love. They’ve liked Stitches by David Small, and Barry’s 100 Demons. They’ve also enjoyed the mini-comic assignment where the class picks a single fairy tale, then, in groups, they create a comic adaptation. They write about the process individually and get a kick out of how each group comes up with a slightly different version of the same story.
I second the recommendation of Aya – D&Q put out a collection of the first three volumes in a single paperback under the title, Aya: Life in Yop City.
Also, I have had great success with Percy Carey’s Sentences: The Life of MF Grimm. The artist Ronald Wimberly also put out an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet called, Prince of Cats. Wimberly has a nice hip-hop/manga aesthetic that works beautifully with these stories.
I do not have experience teaching high school with comics, but in my college and university classes I use Keiji Nakazawa’s manga and anime. In my comics class, students compare Nakazawa’s comics-format autobiography _I SAW IT_ (originally _Ore wa Mita_), an excerpt of his ficitonalized epic manga _Barefoot Gen_ (_Hadashi no Gen_), the feature-length animated adaptation of _Barefoot Gen_ (part 1), and an excerpt from Nakazawa’s autobiography, translated by Richard Minear. My film students compare _I SAW IT_, the _Gen_ film, and an excerpt of the live-action, made for TV film of _Gen_. For copies of _I SAW IT_, write to me at rifas@earthlink.net. The other suggestions in this thread also sound good. Best of luck!
Thank you Leonard! I doubt my students have the patience for the epic anime, but if you think I should check it out, I will.
The film is less than 85 minutes long, and my students usually find it moving. I learn just now that this film has been web-posted at feature length, not broken into pieces as it was for years.(Both the dubbed and the subtitled versions can be found on YouTube.)
Manga manga manga. That’s about all that pops up in my head.
The Drifting Classroom
Gon
Though that last one might be too kid-friendly for their taste. Same with “Little Nemo.”
I think “American Splendor” just might be “PG” enough for a high school classroom, if I remember right.
Jason’s work might go over well.
Reid Fleming? Just avoid the small handful of not-for-minors sequences.
Usagi Yojimbo
After the obvious choices of Maus and Watchmen, I think Tezuka’s Ode To Kirihito and Marti’s The Cabbie would be solid choices. Bechdel’s Fun Home is another. Lynda Barry’s 100 Demons? Maybe.
I am better versed in graphic novels, so…. If you are looking for African-American representation, Jim Rugg’s very short Afrodisiac is great. It clearly references the blaxploitation film era and so it works well as historicizing the 70s and A-As in the arts. There is no nudity but a lot of sexual suggestiveness that is not lurid but purposefully over the top (and, thus, fairly innocuous). Also leads to interesting discussions about the objectification of women withing A-A culture itself. There is a comics.org website which breaks down the components of the book http://www.comics.org/issue/748046/ so that students can see how the book, arising from various one-offs over the past few years, was compiled and created.
I’ll recommend:
Donald Duck/Uncle Scrooge comics by Carl Barks
Black Jack, Astro Boy, or Princess Knight by Osamu Tezuka
Sergio Aragones’ Groo
And I’ll probably think of more later…
I want to keep checking in to say thank you, and I am reading and utilizing every single suggestion.
I used to show students Osamu Tezuoa– I don’t know why I stopped, except that I capped my slide presentations at ten artists. The current version is political/black cartoons (from Daumier to McGruder) and gender-nonspecificity (Choju-Giga Scrolls to Ranma). So yes, I will enthusiastically include him,.
And I have a couple of Reid Fleming issues floating aorund the room, hopefully still.
Thanks! Keep ’em coming; hopefully this is a public service for everyone.
Here are the ten I present now, just FYI:
Honore Daumier
Art Young
George Herriman
Aaron McGruder
Choju-Giga Scrolls
Hokusai
Aubrey Beardsley
Winsor McCay
Edie Fake
Rumiko Takahashi
“Jim Rugg’s very short Afrodisiac is great.”
I found it problematic myself though I’m not really familiar with the blacksploitation genre… if Afrodisiac is called a pimp does that mean every female character is a prostitute or is that blackspolitation slang for “player”? At any rate I prefer the quirky, energetic “Street Angel” by Jim Rugg… it also has the Afrodisiac character in one chapter, though in a less disturbing context.
Street Angel might be out of print though…