LONGMONT – On Thursday, December 2, William Kuskin, chair of CU Boulder’s Department of English, will present “Comics as Literature: What happened in 1986 and Why it Matters” at the Longmont Public Library at 7 p.m.
Originating in the pulp literature of the 1930s and 1940s, the comic book is in the midst of making a powerful transformation into high art. In the process, it has acquired a new name—the Graphic Novel—and a canon of major texts. 1986 was a pivotal year for this transformation after three major graphic novels hit the stands: Art Spiegelman's Maus, Allan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, and Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns.
Kuskin will talk about the 1986 trifecta, and the ways these comic books are intertwined with literature.
The author of Symbolic Caxton (2008) and editor of Caxton's Trace (2006) and Graphia: Literary Criticism and the Graphic Novel (2009), as well as essays on medieval and modern literature, Kuskin is currently working on a book on Shakespeare and the Middle Ages.
“CU @ The Longmont Public Library” is sponsored by the CU-Boulder Office for University Outreach, the Longmont Public Library, and Friends of the Longmont Public Library. Tickets or reservations are not required and the programs are free and open to the public.
All presentations begin at 7 p.m. at 409 4th Ave.
The next installment of the series features a presentation by Professor Emeritus Robert Hohlfelder entitled "Searching for Poseidon's Deepest Secrets – Maritime Archaeology in the Depths of the Mediterranean” on January 27, 2011.
For more information about the series, contact the Longmont Public Library at 303-651-8471 or email outreach@colorado.edu.