"I Need Attention" 

By Matt Singer



Well what do you know?  Quiet, that's a rhetorical question.  Here I am a student 
at an allegedly "reputable" institute of higher learning, and believe it or not, look 
hard enough, and you can find comics in the curriculum.  



First off, just so you don't think I attend Spunko Junior Community College or 
something, let's just establish that I go to Syracuse University, a damn fine school by 
most accounts, and our basketball team can kick your basketball team's ass.  Don't feel
bad, your football team can kick our football team's ass, so it works out nicely.



I am currently enrolled in TRF 255, which is entitled "Introduction to Writing and 
Producing."  And what do I find when I scan through our packet of reading?  An excerpt 
from Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud!  After my mouth hit my desk and I iced the 
bruise, I wondered what the hell a comic book is doing in my television production class.



The excerpt is from Understanding Comics' Chapter Two, "The Vocabulary of Comics," 
and it describes the way in which we interpret symbols (icons in the author's terminology) 
to represent meaning.  Astonished and excited, I asked my professor why it was in the book.
He looked at me funny, said he didn't realized that there was a section on comics, had no 
idea why it was in there, and asked me to leave the room.  It was only then that I realized
I had walked into an introductory German class, but once that error was rectified, I still 
couldn't get an answer why this chapter was in my production book.



Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE Understanding Comics.  It sits proudly on my 
bookshelf, and if I had a mantle to place it on, I would.  Eventually we reasoned that the 
passage was included to teach us the versatility of the visual language, not just in our 
own medium, but in others, but the real moral of the story is I get to read comic books in 
my class.  I am smoking an invisible cigar right now and blowing out invisible smoke.



This isn't the only instance of comic books being taught in my school either.  Last 
semester, my roommate discussed Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum in his Literature 
class.  I thought that was damn cool.  But you know what?  There should be even more 
examples of this.  Just think about all the really good comics you have read.  And not 
just like a really cool issue of Spider-Man where he loses his powers and had to take his 
finals all in one day.  If you are reading this, then you probably already think that 
comic books are a lot more than spandex and busty physiques.  Why can't a teacher use 
Transmetropolitan in a Political Science/media class?  Or Preacher in a 
religion class?  And I can't believe there are so few art classes that teach, let alone 
examine and discuss, the beauty of sequential art.



Obviously I'm blue skying here.  This is one of those things you used to talk about in 
seventh grade and say "Wouldn't it be cool if…?"  Sadly, I'm still emotionally stuck back 
there.  Still, if you think I might have something here, why not recommend a graphic novel 
or trade paperback that you really love to a Lit teacher, or anyone for that matter?  
Share those comics that you really truly love with people, and see what they have to say.  
It might catch on.  You never know.







This is the first of (hopefully) a regular series of columns.  In it, I will traverse 
the realms of comic books, film, pop culture, my horrible existence, and everything in 
between.  And if you go to Syracuse University and know of other classes that feature 
comic books in the curriculum let me know, because I want to take them.





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