Higher Ed: Sex in Charlotte. Comic books in Pembroke.
Comic books are not just for pre-teens anymore. They’re actually a focus of study for a UNCP professor and the subject of his UNC-TV show:
A University of North Carolina Pembroke professor has taken his interest in comics to the ‘net, including a weekly interview show called “Comic Culture.”
Terance Dollard’s show, filmed at the college’s Department of Mass Communication TV studios, features interviews with comic book writers, artists, and publishers regarding their interests and influences, and how their final products are put together.
“When I was growing up, comics weren’t cool,” Dollard said. “If you read comics, you kept it to yourself. Today, comics are mainstream. They are hit films and TV shows, inspired by the work of men and women who produced stories on paper every month with little fanfare.
“On Comic Culture, I get to hear how they crafted complex stories in this commercial context. I get to speak with legends and rising stars, writers and artists, editors and scholars. It’s a fun way to learn comics from multiple points of view.”
*THIS is important stuff.* THIS is the kind of stuff our young skulls of mush can take onto the economic battlefield against the Chinese. (*You think they study Iron Man at Beijing U.?*)
[…] The show was picked up late last year by a local PBS affiliate. It was broadcast on a couple of local cable access channels before that.
Broadcasting majors who work in the studio get academic credit … not to mention great resume-building material:
“A student directs the dozen episodes each semester, and other students serve in all the crew positions. They’re supervised [by a professor] as part of her broadcast practicum course, which is a hands-on requirement for broadcasting majors to apply skills from their classes to real television productions.”
One of the Dollard’s favorite interviews was with Walt Simonson, without whom, he says, “there would be no Thor film franchise.” […]
*And WHAT A BLOW to Western culture THAT would have been.*
Margaret Spellings is taking the UNC system to unimaginable heights!
Try as I may, I cannot see how these (or 1001 similar topics) can possibly be appropriate to teach in a state-supported college or university. SAD! Aren’t there already 1001 solidly academic courses available that an employer might be delighted to see on a young job candidate’s transcript?