Napier launches graphic novel degree

Edinburgh’s Napier University will become the first university in Britain to include comic books and graphic novels on a Masters level Creative Writing course.

The new module will have sessions taught by eminent tutors such as David Bishop, former editor of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.

Mr Bishop said: "Some of the most exciting and innovative work emerges from genre fiction. We’re embracing the kinds of creative writing that get ignored or patronised by other courses."

In a recent interview on website Vulpes Libris, Bishop insisted that "we have a motto on our MA: Poetry Is Not An Option', showing an intention to create a genre-writing focused on being an alternative to the traditional British creative writing course.

The program will also take a fresh approach to its teaching methods, preferring a one-to-one writing method to the normal peer critique system.

The programme leader and tutor, Sam Kelly said: “We’re expecting it to raise a few eyebrows, but so far the response from across the literary community has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Now we just can’t wait to recruit our first intake of students and get to work.”

British universities have been relatively slow in recognizing this popular genre of literature, with renowned US universities such as Yale, Princeton and Brown having offered courses on comics and graphic novels from as early as the early nineties.

The acknowledgement of graphic novels in the world of academia was made most apparent by the presentation of a 1992 Pulitzer Prize to Art Spiegelman’s renowned work Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.

Recently, ranking in TIME magazine’s 'Hundred Best Novels: 1923 to Present', David Gibbons and Alan Moore’s The Watchmen was described by Lev Grossman, TIME’s senior book critic, as "a landmark in the graphic novel medium. It would be a masterpiece in any."

Dr Rajorshi Chakraborti, creative writing professor at the University of Edinburgh, told The Journal that "attitudes to the boundaries between subjects and genres are a lot more flexible than before: many of us are open to creative expression that mixes media or incorporates different art forms.

"We could remember that people were just as suspicious and even snobbish about this neither-epic-nor-verse mongrel form they were calling the novel early in its day."

Dundee University has quickly followed Napier’s lead by adding an option course on comics to their English degree.

Dundee-based publishers D.C Thomson & Co. are renowned for their comic book production, distributing titles such as The Beano, The Dandy and Comm ando.

The patronisation of popular comics has produced a number of successful Scottish comic artists such as Mark Millar, the creator of the recent Hollywood-adapted graphic novel Wanted.