In this class, students will test the conventions of the comic strip with the goal of finding a personal drawing style and narrative voice. Through studio exercises students will discover the visual world within their own writing and find literary inspiration through drawing. The course will examine the European precursors of the American comic strip and the work of contemporary alternative comic strip artists, with an eye toward placing the student’s work within a larger literary and artistic context. Students will produce and publish a series of self­-initiated text and ­image works. Emphasis will be placed on the clarity and economy of expression and the reproduction of autographic writing. The compilation of the term’s work will result in a magazine. We will consider new systems and purposes for the publishing and distribution of such work.