Document Type
Video
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Publication Date
3-4-2025
Abstract
Comics are everywhere, particularly in contemporary US society: grocery stores, back of cereal boxes, hidden within bubblegum wrappers, doctor’s offices, any number of bookshops, etc. They’ve been around for over 150 years, appearing in newspapers circulated around the globe, floppy cheap pulpy comics that cost a nickel, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novels, Japanese manga that have run for over 1,000 issues, and even appearing digitally on our phones. We also, of course, live in a golden age of comics on the silver screen: Marvel and DC both have produced some of the world’s biggest blockbuster flicks around, comic book shows regularly appear on network television, and children have a treasure trove of superhero-themed cartoons.
But – why? Why have comics stuck around for so long? Why do we continue to read them as consumers? Why do they matter as a product of popular culture? How can we use technology to study over 100,000 comic strips all at once? And why might comics belong not just in college classrooms, but at the center of academic study by professors?
In this lecture Dr. Justin Wigard, Assistant Professor of English at University of North Dakota, answers some of these questions while talking through his own work in comics studies, writing about characters like Deadpool, Green Arrow, Black Panther, Calvin and Hobbes, along with how he teaches comics for both literature majors and STEM students.
Recommended Citation
Justin Wigard. "Comics: Why do we study them and how?" (2025). Randy Rasmussen Memorial Lecture Series. 5.
https://commons.und.edu/rr-lecture-series/5
Closed Captions for Comics: Why do we study them and how?