This course will cover the history of comic art and its
influence on our culture.  Specific topics include the early
narrative; 18th and 19th century caricature; the early comic
strip; adventure strips and the advent of illustrators; comic
books and superheroes; funny animals; WWII and post-war years in
strips and books; the 1940s and the decadence of the 1950s; crime
comics; the Comics Code controversy; the Marvel Age; the DC
Silver Age; underground comics; the late 1960s and the
1970s---bell bottoms, drugs, realism, illusionism, fantasy and
psyche delia; the 1980s; modern strips; the nature of strip and
book production; and digitalization in comics, the ad media and
beyond.