Comics Alternative

With the spring semester beginning for most schools around the country, it’s only appropriate that The Two Guys with Ph.Ds Who Talk about Comics use this time to focus on comics pedagogy.  On this week’s episode, Andy and Derek hold a roundtable discussion with Lan Dong and James Bucky Carter, two scholars who know a lot about teaching comics.   Among other issues, the roundtable participants converse over what kind of works they teach, the challenges of teaching superhero narratives, the pros and cons of anthologies, censorship and graphic content, the links (as well as the disconnects) between comics scholarship and the use of comics in the classroom, pop culture (movies, television, games, etc.) and its impact on how we read and teach comics, and the need for a useful comics studies textbook.