When the Mirror Manifests: Intro to Writing Autobiography in Comics

This introductory course to writing autobiographic comics, led by Cleveland-born writer and publisher Chad Bilyeu, will approach the comic subgenre in an introspective, technical, and philosophical manner. Students will engage in activities meant to honestly assess themselves in a discerning and externalized manner in an effort to recreate themselves as a character fit to propel a compelling narrative forward. Also introduced in this first section of the class will be the role of hubris/self-esteem within autobiography. Following the introspective assessment, students will consider the unreliable nature of memory and the impossibility of truth in autobiography. After establishing the intrinsic importance of character to plot and story, technical story facets such as structure, scriptwriting, storyboarding, and editing will be covered. The last section of the class will deal with a philosophical consideration of writing idiosyncratic autobiographic stories that transcend the zeitgeist of our modern time and reverberate beyond the time and audience in which they were created and intended for.

Chad will utilize his personal scripts, storyboards, and other behind-the-scenes ephemera from CHAD IN AMSTERDAM and THE RE-UP to illustrate and explain his process. In addition, Chad will discuss his personal methods, philosophies, considerations, and rules for writing autobiographical stories and why he considers the medium the best form for him to do so. Various autobiographic comics from the last fifty years will be used as recommended post-course readings, including (but not limited to) Harvey Pekar, Art Spiegelman, Spain Rodriguez, Dennis Eichhorn, Julie Doucet, Joe Matt, Joe Sacco, John Porcellino, Marjane Satrapi, John Lewis, MF Grimm, George Takei, Kate Beaton, Sam Szabo, and Chad Bilyeu.

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