Funny Books
with Jessica Campbell
PAINTING & DRAWING 603 001 | 1.5 credits
$100 lab fee | August 3–9
The comics we first encounter in the world are funny: gag panels, newspaper strips, children's comic books. Humor is so fundamental to the origin of the medium that is incorporated in the name (ie "comics"). Throughout history, humor has remained a tool of the dispossessed due to its malleable ability to disarm; critique; process trauma; incisively observe; destabilize hierarchy; catalyze political action; and foster connection and joy. Because of how comedy functions (by making people laugh) and how comics circulate (as ephemeral mass media), both can be dismissed as more frivolous than serious forms of academic and artistic inquiry. The ease with which jokes and comics are overlooked is also their strength, allowing them to exist in the margins, piercing social conventions otherwise impenetrable. The accessibility of humor and comics can provide space for those shut out from the halls of power. In this class, we will investigate what it means to make funny books through production, critique, and close readings of work by other artists like Lisa Hanawalt, Walter Scott and Lynda Barry. We will explore comics through a variety of approaches designed to strengthen writing, drawing and the myriad ways in which humor can be used. Through at least one project in this course, students will investigate the process of generating ideas, writing and drawing comic strips using pen and ink.
Jessica Campbell, Rave, 2022, Drawn & Quarterly
Jessica Campbell (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist who works predominantly in textiles, drawing and comics. Drawing on a wide range of influences, including science fiction, art world politics, and her evangelical upbringing, Campbell explores ways to reflect heterogeneity through a combination of disparate media, subjects, and tone. Whether through cartoony depictions or the use of unorthodox material, her work often wields humor as a device for managing trauma.
She is the author of three graphic novels, including the recent Rave (Drawn and Quarterly, 2022), and her comics have been published by MoMA, the New Yorker, Hyperallergic and the Nib, among other publications. She has had solo exhibitions at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; The Urban Institute of Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, MI; Western Exhibitions in Chicago; and Field Projects in NYC. She is an Assistant Professor of Expanded Drawing at York University in Toronto.