1. Midtown High, as seen in The Amazing Spider-Man, By Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
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| From Amazing Spider-Man #17, 1963 |
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| Two rows, from succeeding pages, from Amazing Spider-Man #14 |
2. The Seven Kings High School, circa 1980, as shown in Nelson, ed. by Rob Davies & Woodrow Phoenix, with these pages by I. N. J. Culbard (Blank Slate 2011)
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| The splendid "Nelson" is the story of one Nel Baker's life from 1968 to 2011. It's a tale told by 54 creators, who each present the events of a single day from a particular year in that period. It's a remarkable endeavour ,and if you've not already had a chance to read it, why not check out publisher Blank Slate's material on it here or sample some reviews here, here, and here. |
3. The Eighth District Youth Vocational School, Tokyo, from Akira volume 1, by Katsuhiro Otomo (Dark Horse Manga, 2000)
4. The Swots And The Blots by the peerless Leo Baxandale, from Smash! No 51, 21st Jan. 1967
5. Vanderbilt High School, as seen in Scott McCloud's wonderful ZOT!, issues 28 to 36, 1989 to 1991, as reprinted in "Zot! The Complete Black And White Collection", published by Harper 2008
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| From Zot #33, and the exquisite "Normal" |
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| From Zot #28, & the also exquisite Jenny's Day |
6. A Sports Day And Fete, which we'll assume was associated with a local school, as seen in The Perishers, by Maurice Dodd, as reprinted in 1987's Perishers Omnibus
7. The X-Mansion's X-Lecture Theatre, As Shown In New X-Men #122, by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely, 2002, and the X-Mansion's X-Lawn, As Shown In The X-Men #6, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Chic Stone, 1964.
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| From New X-Men #122 |
8. An Unnamed School from Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi (Vintage Books, 2008)
9. An Unnamed Tokyo School circa the early Seventies as seen in 20th Century Boys Book 1 by Naoki Urasawa (Viz, 2009)
10. The Academy Of Law, as seen in Judge Dredd: Day Of Chaos: Elusive Part 03, by John Wagner & Henry Flint. (2000AD #1755. 12/10/11)
11. The Classroom of the dreaded Mr "Chalkie" Chalk, by Giles, from the Daily Express, Sept 20th, 1973, as reprinted in The Ultimate Giles, Headline Books, 1995
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| There's a lovely article here at the British Cartoon Archive - here - about Chalkie, who turns out to have his origins in a teacher who taught the youthful Giles. |
12. A School Conveniently Beside The Sea, Frequented By Aqualad, by an unknown writer & Ramona Fradon, from Adventure Comics #278, November 1960 (Available in Showcase Presents: Aquaman Volume 1 by DC Comics 2007)
13. Riverdale High, as seen in the did-they-really, gosh-wasn't-that-fun Archie Meets The Punisher, by Batton Lash, Stan Goldberg, John Buscema et al (1994)
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| Of course The Punisher would be there to see no harm comes to Riverdale. It's the vision of the supposedly perfect America his disordered mind clings to when he's justifying all that shooting and torturing and murdering. |
What do I wish I'd been able to add to the above? I certainly wish I'd had access to copies of the likes of Jinty. I suspect that the likes of the fondly-remembered Blind Ballerina would've gone straight in. Similarly, the future-school in Superman #400 has long stuck in my mind as a beguiling image, but again, no original, no scans. Peanuts seemed a mandatory inclusion, and yet I used a school-scene from it in the Wednesday List concerning unrequited love a few weeks ago. As always, your suggestions as to what you'd have added to the above would be very welcome.
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Another neat idea for a list Colin. As always, I've got a few to add:
ReplyDeleteMadwoman of the Sacred Heart's main protagonist is a philosophy teacher at La Sorbonne university.
Neon Genesis Evangelion has a bunch of school kids fighting against angels in giant robots. And Viz is republishing it in big 3-in-1 volumes!
Gantz also has high schoolers fighting aliens to the death, one of which attacks him while at school and he has to both survive and make sure the kids don't realize he's capable of fighting off the aliens or else his neck will explode.
Gunnerkrigg Court (http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php) takes place in a very odd school, full of secrets and magic and technology.
And Oh! My Goddess follows a college student that's part of the school's motorclub and just so happens to be magically linked to an angel/goddess. Many hijinks ensue and jealous girls and boys try to split them up or his goofy motorclub buddies enter him in some suicidal contest.
Let's see... there's Gogo Monster, which even after reading it 3 or 4 times, I still can't really figure what it's about (maybe alienation and the little realities we create to escape the real world?), but it's set at an elementary school.
Also, I forgot to add my bit to the unrequited love list. I couldn't think of any right off the bat and by the time I thought of a few, I forgot to post them.
Hello Joe:- I do so admire/envy your knowledge of Manga. I was pleased to be able to add examples from Akira and 20th Century Boys to the above, but I could never have accessed the experience of the form which you're drawing off.
DeleteOf course, the Wednesay Lists are another way of my learning where I should be heading next in my reading. Your suggestions will accompany me during my next visit to the central lending library. Thank you :)
Not sure if they count as comics, but I'd throw in St Custards, from Ronald Searles' work on the incomparable Molesworth books (as any fule knos).
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to mention the Avengers Academy, which has snuck up to become one of my favourite current Marvel comics.
Hello Axolotl:- Oh, Molesworth definitely would count, and, as I tend to think at these moments, I wish I had included one of Searle's wonderful, wonderful illustrations. I've got some Searle saved up for a list on London which I'm planning, but Molesworth would've been worth pre-empting that for.
DeleteI hear such warm and admiring things about Avengers Academy. I really must go back to its beginning and read on from there.
You missed a real treat with the school girls featured in the likes of Jinty...overly-sensitive whip-thin girls who were remarkably proficient in gymnastics or swimming to an Olympic degree, who spent their collective school years dodging their evil twins [who no-one else even knew existed, and could replace them with comparative ease] and also dealing with either strict fathers [who always lived in France or the bastion of hidden ex-CIA spies, the Cotswolds] or nervous-nellie mothers who would believe everything a fortune-teller or clairvoyant told them and insist their daughters abandon their possible Olympic futures to become a drudgy nurse.
ReplyDeleteMisty was even more fun if you were still at school as I was at the time. Classes involved schoolgirls getting acid thrown in their faces, or dubious teachers [sorry, Colin] who carried round voodoo dolls in which to inflict punishment on their pupils [Id draw the line at a bit of detention meself]. And you darent nick off school to nip into town as one would invariably find oneself dragged into an alternate dimension where your parents wouldnt recognise you as you never existed or worse the requisite evil twin would turn out to look exactly like you.
Hello Karl:- I find myself being outbid on E-Bay for the likes of old Jinty and Misty comics all the time now! When I think that they were considered nothing better than loft-lining for decades, and now there's a real market in them. Ah, well, patience will bring me a few copies in the end. As you describe them, they sound tremendous fun.
DeleteDubious teachers? All authority figures who abuse their authority deserve their fate in comic books! Meeting THEIR twins from alt-Earths is too good for 'em. And indeed, me ...
I realise this list went up ages ago, but at the time the only omission I could spot was the Bash Street Kids - and you had a different Baxendale creation so I'm hardly going to complain.
ReplyDeleteBut this did seem like the right place to check you're aware of JL8. The incredibly sweet adventures of some school kids I expect you'll find familiar:
http://jl8comic.tumblr.com/
Hello Mark:- The omission of the Bash Street Kids was indeed because there was a ready, less obvious alternative. Yet I wish I'd added the BSK too. Ah well ...
DeleteI'd seen the JL8 strips before here and there, but never had the sense to track them to their source. Thank you for the link, I'm now a follower of that particular lil'blessing.