Stardust Has No Weakness

Yesterday I bought a copy of the brand new Justice League #1. Today I took it in and showed it to my students as an example of a modern comic book. Some of them seemed to find it interesting, which is good, because DC's whole goal here is to appeal to new readers. I found Justice League #1 pretty boring, but I'm in my late thirties and I've read about a million comics, so I'm not the target demographic. And I'm not a huge Jim Lee fan . . . but the kids like Jim Lee, right?

(In my day, a single issue of a comic would give you a ton of story. And if a comic was called Justice League, it would have the Justice League in it. But, again, not the target demographic. I hope this does well for DC.)

I've mentioned the writing assignment I gave, where students have to analyze that Stardust story. Part of the assignment is to compare Stardust to Superman. Today the class brainstormed similarities and differences. Here's what they came up with.

Similarities:
Superman and Stardust are both aliens
They are both superhumanly strong
They both fight crime
They both wear colorful costumes

Differences:
Superman has a love interest, Stardust doesn't
Superman has a secret identity, Stardust doesn't
Stardust has mind control powers, Superman doesn't
Superman lives on Earth, Stardust lives on his private star
Superman saves people, Stardust comes in after people have been killed and punishes the evil-doers
Superman takes criminals to jail, Stardust kills and/or tortures them
Superman has a weakness of kryptonite, Stardust has no weakness

I thought those were good points. Stardust is like Superman with the relatable human part stripped out, left as just a terrifying creature from beyond.



Behold the Super Wizard!

Today I had the students read Stardust.

"Oh," you say, "you mean Stardust, the fantasy story by award-winning author Neil Gaiman, lushly illustrated by Charles Vess?"

No, no. That's an illustrated novel, not a comic. I mean STARDUST THE SUPER WIZARD.

Back in the early days of comic books, when Superman was a sudden hit, every publisher wanted to come up with their own Superman. Stardust the Super Wizard is what you get if you try to copy Superman without understanding anything at all about the character.  Stardust is not about protecting the innocent; Stardust waits until evil-doers have committed some horrible atrocity, then swoops in and deals out a gruesome punishment.

The other day I showed the class the original two-page origin of Superman from Superman #1 (which is really charming). So once they've seen Superman, they should see an example of what Superman inspired, right? Many of those early super-hero comics are fairly boring in execution. But Fletcher Hanks, creator of Stardust, was far from boring.

There are generally three reactions to the work of Fletcher Hanks:

1. "This is terrible!"

2. "This is so bad it's good!"

3. "This is awesome."

I'm in the third camp. I can, however, understand the other two viewpoints. Hanks's work is . . . unconventional.

Anyway, we've been reading Understanding Comics, and we're on chapter 3. We've been talking about the six kinds of panel transitions. It's good stuff, but we need a break from it every now and then. So I promised them that we would read an actual story.

I got out my copy of I Will Destroy All the Civilized Planets!, flipped through it, and chose the second Stardust story in the book. This one has everything you want to see: mass destruction, bodies floating in space, cruel ironic punishment, and, most importantly . . .

Stardust crushing a man with one hand.

Tomorrow I'm going to give them a writing assignment based on this story.

Books & Books & Books!

Yesterday when I mentioned a step we were taking toward getting Creative Reading class approved, I wrote, "I have no idea if this is just a tiny formality, or the End of the Dream, but hopefully I'll find out soon." A few hours after that I got an email reassuring me that it was just a formality. So that's good, though I'll be happier once we get officially approved.

Anyway! As part of the approval process, I put together a list of texts for the class. Check it out and let me know what you think--what did I leave out? What should I have left out? What frightens and confuses you? Let me know in the comments!

Textbook
We will read, discuss, and frequently refer back to:
Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud

Graphic Novels
We will read at least two of the following in their entirety:
Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi
American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang
Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Batman Year One, by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli

Supplemental Reading
We will read excerpts from the following:
Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book, by Gerard Jones
The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, edited by Bill Blackbeard and Martin Williams
The Smithsonian Collection of Comic Book Comics, edited by Michael Barrier and Martin Williams
Kirby: King of Comics, by Mark Evanier
The Great Women Cartoonists, by Trina Robbins
I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets! The Comics of Fletcher Hanks, edited by Paul Karasik
A Contract With God, by Will Eisner
The Portable Frank, by Jim Woodring
Paul Auster’s City of Class, adapted by Paul Karasik and David Mazzuchelli
Little Nemo in Slumberland, by Winsor McCay
Krazy Kat, by George Herriman
Peanuts, by Charles Schulz
“A Dream of a Thousand Cats”, by Neil Gaiman and Kelley Jones
“This Man, This Monster!”, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
“The Girl in Superman’s Past!”, by Bill Finger and Wayne Boring