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 super heroes; 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.