ARTS 230 Comics and Sequential Art

The guiding concept for this class:
Comics = combining words and pictures for the sake of clarity and persuasion in a linear narrative.

Called "the 9th Art," comics are incredibly popular in France. Learn the primary language, tools, and materials of comics, as well as drawing techniques and concepts, while making your own comics. This course will combine critical analysis of essential graphic novels, the basics of comic making, and excursions to visit museums and visits with significant French artists.

COURSEWORK IN THREE PARTS
• Paris is our classroom – We will look at drawings and prints held in museums and galleries across the city.
• Daily Drawing – We will learn and practice the basics of creating linear graphic narratives on a daily basis, in addition to our other activities.
• Class discussions – We will read and discuss a French graphic novel (in English) with it’s author. We will attend a lecture by a well-known authority on Franco-Belgian comics. We will share our classwork as we go. Active and constructive participation in these discussions and meetings is essential.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
On completion of this class, you will:
• Demonstrate practical understanding of some historical sequential drawing methodology used in French art
• Employ basic drawing elements including composition, measurement, line, shape, surface, lettering, texture, light
• Write stories and scenarios as sequential narratives in the form of a travel notebook

WHAT TO EXPECT
30 hours of contact per week for three weeks taught in English. These hours and meeting times will be distributed unevenly throughout the course as we will be making excursions across Paris and across France. A small amount of work time will be included during the contact hours but you should expect to work 2-3 hours per day outside of our meeting times, approximately 45 hours in total. The tentative schedule is attached. Times and dates are subject to change.

Multiple field trips and class visits: We will make excursions to museums, galleries, studios and book stores around Paris. Sometimes we will travel as a group and sometimes we will converge on a location.

Daily drawing assignment: By the end of the course, using pencil, ink and watercolor, students will each produce a 24-page graphic comics journal, narrating both their experiences in class and in Paris itself, in a more-or-less linear graphic form. Your completed journal will be DUE on Thursday, May 29 at 1PM.

Publishing the results: Your notebooks will be scanned and preserved for eventual duplication as a class project reproducing all the comics diaries generated. Note: other people will be reading your work.

CLICK HERE FOR DRAFT SYLLABUS

This course is 3 Rice credit hours.

No

Yes, students will receive D1 credit for this course.

Priority Deadline: December 9, 2026
Final Application Deadline: February 15, 2027

For details on these two deadlines, please navigate to the How to Apply section of the Program Information & FAQs page.

For questions regarding the course content, please contact the course instructor (see below).

For questions regarding the program (budget, application process, financial aid, global awards), first read through the Rice Global Paris Summer Program Information and FAQs page on our website. If you cannot find the answer to your question, email us at globalowls@rice.edu.

This course was previously offered during Summer 2025. Watch the previous course info session below: