Molarity (comic strip)

Last updated

Molarity, created by architect and cartoonist Michael Molinelli, is a comic strip about student life on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Molarity Redux is a webcomic following the same characters as alumni.

Molarity, 1977–1982

Molarity first began in The Observer, Notre Dame's student newspaper, in 1977. It appeared sporadically at first, but with advocacy by Steve Odland, Observer managing editor at the time, Molarity eventually ran five days a week during the school year, in a four-panel black-and-white format. Molinelli continued the strip even during a year abroad, while studying architecture in Rome. [1]

In chemistry, "molarity" is a term for molar concentration; the strip's title plays on the name of its protagonist, Jim Mole. "Molarity" is also said to be a portmanteau of "Molinelli" with "hilarity". [1]

Molarity Redux webcomic, 2010 onward

In the Summer 2000 issue of the alumni magazine Notre Dame, Molinelli contributed "Molarity Redux," in which the strip's characters, now older, are working on the Notre Dame campus. In January 2010, Molarity Redux returned as a monthly feature on Notre Dame Magazine's Web site. [2] In format it is generally a color strip of eight to nine panels.

Selections from the original strip, billed as "Molarity Classic", also run on Notre Dame Magazine's site.

Characters

Molarity's central character is Jim Mole, a student everyman. His roommates include Mitch, a football player; Chuck Mason, an anarchic political activist; and Dion Wicker III, who comes from a wealthy and privileged family. Mitch's intelligent girlfriend, Cheryl, is a roommate of the self-involved and fashion-conscious Brenda. Notre Dame's diverse student body included Alfie, a dolphin.

Years later, in Molarity Redux, Jim is a tweed-clad Notre Dame professor. Also teaching is Brenda, who is married to Mitch, now an assistant football coach. Chuck Mason has become a performance artist. [3]

Collections

Three books of collected Molarity strips were published in the 1980s, each reportedly selling 4000 to 5000 copies. [1] Two were issued by Juniper Press, and the third was published by Buy the Book Press.

Molarity: On the Road to Selling Out Juniper Press (Notre Dame, Indiana), 1980.

Molarity: Don't Make a Right Juniper Press (Notre Dame, Indiana), 1981.

Molarity: No Outlet Buy the Book Press (South Bend, Indiana), 1982.

In 2016, Buy the Book Press published Molarity: The Compleat Molarity, a collection which incorporates every Molarity strip published in The Observer, a total of 581. Commentary by Molinelli accompanies many of the strips. [4]

Related Research Articles

Knute Rockne American college football player and college football coach

Knute Kenneth Rockne was a Norwegian-American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame.

Jim Davis (cartoonist) American cartoonist and creator of Garfield

James Robert Davis is an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the comic strips Garfield and U.S. Acres. Published since 1978, Garfield is one of the world's most widely syndicated comic strips. Davis's other comics work includes Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat and Mr. Potato Head.

University of Notre Dame Private Catholic university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States

The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. It was founded in 1842 by Edward Sorin. The main campus covers 1,261 acres (510 ha) in a suburban setting; it contains a number of recognizable landmarks, such as the Golden Dome, the Word of Life mural, Notre Dame Stadium, and the Basilica.

Notre Dame, Indiana Census-designated place in Indiana, United States

Notre Dame is a census-designated place north of the city of South Bend in St. Joseph County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. It includes the campuses of three colleges: the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College, and Holy Cross College. Notre Dame is split between Clay and Portage Townships. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,342.

Dale Messick

Dalia Messick was an American comic strip artist who used the pseudonym Dale Messick. She was the creator of Brenda Starr, Reporter, which at its peak during the 1950s ran in 250 newspapers.

The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays.

John I. Jenkins

John Ignatius Jenkins, C.S.C. is a Catholic priest and the current president of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. He previously served as its vice-president and associate provost. He replaced Fr. Edward Malloy as president.

Dillon Hall

Dillon Hall is one of the 32 Residence Halls on the campus of the University of Notre Dame and one of the 16 male dorms. It is located directly west of Alumni Hall and is directly adjacent to South Dining Hall on the west. Dillon was built in 1931 and has space for 334 undergraduate students. It is named after Patrick Dillon, CSC, the second president of the university. The coat of arms is taken from the Dillon family. Together with other historic structures of the university, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lyons Hall (University of Notre Dame)

Lyons Hall is one of the 32 Residence Halls on the campus of the University of Notre Dame and one of the 14 female dorms. It is located on South Quad, and constitutes the "Golden Coast" with Morrissey Hall and Howard Hall. Built in 1926-1927, it is dedicated to professor Joseph Lyons, and hosts 203 undergraduates. The coat of arms features a golden lion on a black field. Its arch overlooking St. Mary's lake is a campus landmark. Along with other buildings on Notre Dame's campus, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Jay Hosler

Jay Hosler is the author and illustrator of science-oriented comics. He is best known for his graphic novels Clan Apis, The Sandwalk Adventures, and Optical Allusions. Clan Apis, a Xeric Foundation Award winner, follows the life of a honey bee named Nyuki; the story conveys factual information about honey bees in a humorous fashion as Nyuki learns about each new stage of her life. The Sandwalk Adventures, an Eisner Award nominee, follows a conversation about evolution between Charles Darwin and a follicle mite living in his left eyebrow. Optical Allusions, funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant, explains the evolution of the eye and vision by following the story of Wrinkles the Wonderbrain. Hosler is also an entomologist and associate professor of biology at Juniata College.

Downstown was an American comic strip created by Tim Downs in the spring of 1974, during his junior year of college at Indiana University. It began as a college feature.

Scholastic is the official student publication of the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1867, Scholastic is the United States' oldest continuous collegiate publication. In its history, Scholastic has served both as Notre Dame's weekly student newspaper and now as a monthly news magazine. Originally, its motto was 'Disce Quasi Semper Victurus, Vive Quasi Cras Moriturus' which translates to 'Learn As if You Were Going to Live Forever; Live As if You Were Going to Die Tomorrow.'

The Notre Dame Queer Film Festival was founded in 2004 and ran in 2005 under the same moniker. In 2006, under pressure from a new administration led by University President Rev. John I. Jenkins, the name of the festival was changed to Gay and Lesbian Film: Filmmakers, Narratives, Spectatorships. The 2007 incarnation of the festival again changed names to Qlassics: Reimagining Sexuality and the Self in Recent American Cinema. More recently, the series has been titled the GlobaLGBTQ+ Film Festival, with a primary focus on films produced outside of the United States.

There are currently 33 undergraduate residence halls at the University of Notre Dame, including 32 active residence halls and Pangborn Hall, which serves as a transition dorm when residence halls undergo construction. Several of the halls are historic buildings which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Each residence hall is single-sex, with 17 all-male residence halls and 14 all-female residence halls. Notre Dame residence halls feature a mixed residential college and house system, where residence halls are the center of the student life and some academic teaching; most students stay at the same hall for most of their undergraduate studies. Each hall has its own traditions, events, mascot, sports teams, shield, motto, and dorm pride. The university also hosts Old College, an undergraduate residence for students preparing for the priesthood.

Hesburgh Library

Theodore Hesburgh Library is the primary building of the University of Notre Dame's library system. The present-day building opened on September 18, 1963, as Memorial Library. In 1987, it was renamed Hesburgh Library, in honor of Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., who served as the university's president from 1952 to 1987. The library's exterior façade that faces the university's football stadium includes a large, 134-foot (41 m) by 68-foot (21 m) mural called The Word of Life, or more commonly known as Touchdown Jesus. As of 2009, the library ranked as the 61st largest collection among research universities in the United States, with an estimated 3.39 million volumes.

Zahm Hall

Zahm Hall is one of the 32 residence halls on the campus of the University of Notre Dame and one of 16 male dorms. Zahm Hall was built in 1937 and is located directly east of St. Edward's Hall and is directly west of North Quad. Zahm Hall has 202 undergraduate students, its mascot is Ignats the moose, and its residents are called Zahmbies. The coat of arms is black and red, the colors of Zahm, and the interlaced pattern represents both the Z and the X, symbols of the hall, and the antlers of the moose, the mascot of the hall. The residents of Zahm refer to it as Zahm House.

Columbus murals series of twelve murals at the University of Notre Dame

The Columbus murals are a series of twelve murals depicting Christopher Columbus, painted in the 1880s by Luigi Gregori and displayed in the Main Building at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, US. The murals have been a source of controversy in recent decades for their romanticized portrayal of Columbus and his relationship with Native Americans.

The Observer is a student newspaper the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College and Holy Cross College. The Observer is distributed in print across the three campuses and is funded by both advertising revenue and a campus fee paid by students attending Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College, and Holy Cross College.

The Irish Rover is an independent, conservative, Catholic biweekly student newspaper serving the University of Notre Dame community. The paper was launched in 2003 by Joe Lindlsey, when he and students believed that The Observer, another student publication, was showing a liberal bias in their coverage of events. The paper provides news coverage of campus life and features regular opinion columns from alumni and faculty.

COVID-19 at the University of Notre Dame Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the University of Notre Dame

Since the late winter of 2020, the operations University of Notre Dame have been affected by the ongoing pandemic of Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. On February 28, 2020, the University of Notre Dame issued its first coronavirus-related suspension of in-person academic program, that of a study abroad program in Rome, Italy. On March 11, 2020, Notre Dame announced that it would suspend all in-person academic programs, and the university began virtual instruction on March 23, 2020. In May 2020, the university announced that in-person instruction would resume during the fall semester 2020. Notre Dame resumed in-person instruction in August 2020, temporarily suspended in-person instruction later that month following a surge in COVID-19 cases, once again returning to in-person instruction by early September.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gamble, Jordan (18 February 2011). "Molarity: a study in a successful Observer comic". The Observer. Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Monczunski, John (2009). "Something funny bites again". Notre Dame Magazine. Notre Dame, Indiana, USA: University of Notre Dame.
  3. ↑ Molinelli, Michael. "Characters and Trivia" . Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  4. ↑ Molinelli, Michael. "www.JimMole.com" . Retrieved 24 October 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.