PHILADELPHIA- Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and graphic novelist and former New Yorker artist Art Spiegelman will discuss cartoons, or as he calls them "comix, the bastard offspring of art and commerce," in "Comix 101," the inaugural lecture of the 2005-06 Penn Humanities Forum at the University of Pennsylvania.

Spiegelman, the underground comix author of the best selling "Maus" and "Maus II," has had an enormous influence on cartoonists, graphic artists and the comic book genre.  This year Time magazine named him one of the top 100 most influential people worldwide.

Comix 101 will be "taught" at 6 p.m., Sept. 27, in Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce St.  Tickets are $8 for general admission and $5 for students and can be ordered by telephone at 215-898-3900 or online at purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?organ_val=2321. Cash-only tickets can also be purchased at Irvine Auditorium two hours before the event.  Following the lecture, Spiegelman will sign "In the Shadow of No Towers," his artistic response to the attacks of Sept. 11.

The Penn Humanities Forum is designed to promote the "thinking arts" with lectures, performances and exhibitions featuring artists, writers, historians, scientists, philosophers and others who shape the human experience.

This year's theme " Word & Image," the connection between the verbal and visual, will be explored in a yearlong calendar of events including a conference on "Word & Image Studies" Sept. 23-27, a cabaret performance with pianist Marc Andre Hamelin and Jody Karin Applebaum Oct. 28, a "Phantom of the Opera" performance featuring Alloy Orchestra Oct. 31 and fall semester lectures:

Anthony Grafton, professor of history at Princeton University

"Renaissance Romans & Egyptian Obelisks

Archaeology, Engineering and Ritual in an Early Modern City"

Tour at 4 p.m., program at 5 p.m., Oct. 10

Penn Museum, Rainey Auditorium, 3260 South St.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center

"The Deflective Power of Images in Political Ads"

5 p.m., Nov. 2

Location to be announced

Jenny Holzer, artist

"Dr. S.T. Lee Distinguished Lecture in the Humanities"

5 p.m., Nov. 16

Institute of Contemporary Art

118 S. 36th St.

John Maeda, professor of media arts and sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"Search for Simplicity in an Over-Teched World"

5 p.m., Nov. 30

Location to be announced

Henry Wendt, former CEO of SmithKline Beecham and founder of

Quivira Estate Vineyards and Winery

"Mapping the West Coast of North America"

5 p.m., Dec. 7

3619 Locust Walk

Complete program details for Penn Humanities Forum events and registration information are available at humanities.sas.upenn.edu/calendar.shtml