Eisner-winning writer Mark Waid has put his muscle behind a new college course — and everyone is invited into the classroom.

The course is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled "Gender Through Comic Books," and it will feature interviews with Brian Bendis, Scott Snyder, Matt Fraction, Gail Simone, editor Sana Amanat, and a host of other comics creators and insiders.

This isn't just coming out of the blue: Ball State University adjunct professor and doctoral candidate Christina Blanch has already taught the course in the traditional format, as she explained in an interview at Wired's GeekMom blog, and last semester Ball State asked her to teach it as a MOOC. The course is offered via the Canvas Network, and it's free; the only cost is the textbooks, i.e. comics, which, if you're reading this, you may already own. Blanch is answering questions and responding to comments about the course on Twitter.

Waid put out a call for students on his blog Sunday, and the response was so enthusiastic, he revealed on Twitter, that it temporarily crashed his site. Everything seems to be working fine now, however. And he's not the only high-profile comics creator who is helping with the course — the promotional video is narrated by none other than Stan Lee. The course kicks off on April 2, and you can enroll here.