Trent Deckard teachers how the comic book industry is full of stories and characters that can be applied to business and leadership concepts. Photo by Sara Slover

By Barb Berggoetz

When Indiana University Kelley School of Business lecturer Trent Deckard teaches students about developing their own businesses, he stresses thinking creatively, appealing to multiple audiences, making their ventures stand out, and realizing their ideas’ worth. 

But Deckard does that through a unique lens—the comicbook industry.

Since 2019, Deckard’s “Big Business of Comic Books” course attracts about 50 freshmen and sophomore Kelley students in two classes each spring semester, he says. The eight-week, one-credit course is one of Kelley’s “hot topics” courses. It’s open to business students living in the Jellison Living Learning Center within McNutt Residence Center. 

IU has offered several comic book–related courses in art history, folklore, media, and French and Italian—all focused on different aspects of comics and their newer version, graphic novels. 

The comic book industry is huge and comics are full of different characters and interesting stories, says IU alum Deckard; 47. The U.S. market was estimated at $1.23 billion in 2024 and sales have doubled to $35 million annually since 2019. 

“We take the stories behind all that and apply it to business and leadership concepts,” Deckard explains. 

He knows about the industry first-hand, too. His has a collection of 27,000 comic books. 

“When I was a little boy, I struggled with reading and my parents gave me comic books. I went from not being able to do any reading to being a voracious reader,” says Deckard. 

His fascination with comics, interest in leadership, and love of storytelling led him to create the course. 

He tells students that many comic book characters were invented by people who didn’t have a lot of resources or were young and starting out, and they often didn’t get much credit or compensation. “We talk about that—what’s the worth of your ideas and are you able to get credit for what you do?” 

The course’s final project, called “My Big Creative Comic Book Idea,” requires students to develop a business pitch about a comic character, creator, or related topic through a slide deck, storyboard, screenplay, or research paper. 

“Students will say this is unlike any class they’ve had,” says Deckard, “and they needed that.”