Comics in the classroom
Graphic novels aren't just “literature lite”: they're a genre you can use to explore philosophy, history, human interactions, visual literacy, and more with soon-to-be adults in a high school English class.
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Comic books. You’re probably thinking about Superman or Spider-Man. Batman or Wonder Woman. Maybe cheap, cheesy horror stories, pirate adventures, or some other muscle-bound, spandex-clad crusader whose first response is a strong punch. You may remember the four-color funnybooks of yesteryear: Action Comics, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish. You’re probably not thinking about your classroom right now.
But should you be?
Comics in culture
A recent explosion of academic interest in comic books and graphic novels has stirred the creation of comics curricula nationwide. Several colleges and universities are now offering courses in comics literature, and high school teachers are exploring graphic novels as a new way to stimulate young readers’ interest in literature. The National Association of Comics Art Educators is producing exercises, study guides, and handouts on comics in the classroom, and several comic book companies, notably CrossGen, are including resources for educators in each issue they produce. Comics have been the subject of a national best-seller, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and novelists and screenwriters like Brad Meltzer and Kevin Smith have lined up to write the adventures of the heroes they grew up with. Art Spiegelman’s Maus, the story of his father’s internment in Nazi Germany, was the first comic to win a Pulitzer Prize, and comics have nabbed prestigious awards in other fields.
Considering the success of comics-inspired film and television shows like Smallville, X-Men, and Hulk, and their popularity with children, there is a tremendous interest in comics-related material that educators could easily turn into an enthusiasm for reading. However, it’s difficult to know which comics are appropriate for children, and many educators place a stigma on comic books — a stigma that dates back to the 1950’s, when at the height of McCarthyism, comics were the targets of congressional scrutiny. In fact, it’s tough to know what a comic is, when the most respected example of the form, Maus, received this “praise” in the New York Times: “Maus is not a comic book.”
What are comics?
Comic books, the pulpy-papered, saddle-stapled mixture of art and story, have gained a new respect from the literary community in the past fifteen years. The alter ego of the comic book is the graphic novel, which is also a medium in which stories are told through both text and pictures, but replaces the flimsy saddle stapling with solid binding. Increasingly, comics publishers are collecting multiple issues into single volumes, and comics writers are responding with more ambitious and artistic story arcs that spread across many issues. Graphic novels are increasingly appearing in local libraries, are reviewed alongside traditional novels in publications like the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly, and have sections devoted to them in bookstores and on Amazon.com.
With a renewed emphasis on independent reading in schools, comics appeal to students and teachers with a variety of interests and are increasingly being seen during DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) time. Comics have a wide range of subjects, well beyond the super-hero or funny animal. Because they are cheaper to produce now than ever before, the comics industry is now able to take gambles on more artistic fare that’s been less traditionally marketable than superhero comics. Until the 1980s, comics appeared on newsstands, and up to fifty percent of comics might be returned to the publisher if they didn’t sell, which meant tremendous pressure to create the “next big hit.” Most comics are now distributed through specialty retailers and mass merchants, which means unsold issues won’t be returned, and small companies have more freedom to explore offbeat writers and artists.
As a medium, comics and graphic novels (which are lumped together in a term — “sequential art” — coined by one of the field’s pioneers, Spirit author Will Eisner), now have a definitive textbook, as well. Scott McCloud penned Understanding Comics, which explored the medium and its history in comic form. His sequel, Reinventing Comics, is also penned as a comic book, and explores the effects of new technologies and cultural changes on an existing industry.
McCloud defines comics as “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.” According to his definition, the following set of images would be a comic:
However, we know that these images more than likely belong to an instruction manual. We expect comics to look something like this:
Each of the images serves the same purpose, in the end. The reader is expected to see a progression of time through images displayed in a certain order. Looking at the two examples, we can deduce that comics may be strong teaching tools for visual literacy, and McCloud supports this by analyzing the six types of transitions in comics, and how their use is fairly consistent among artists who seek to convey meaning with images.
But are comics appropriate for the classroom?
The short answer: some are, some aren’t.
StoryArk provides a list of how comics can fit Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, and James Sturm, author of the acclaimed The Golem’s Mighty Swing, makes “A Case for Comics.” Read-Write-Think provides a lesson plan for using comics as an introduction to narrative structure.
Comic books and graphic novels have a wide range of styles and subject matter. They range from social commentary to fantasy to autobiography to mystery to didactic. While most comics from the 1950s through the 1980s were targeted at younger children and teenagers, the change in marketing in the 1990s led to an explosion of more complex material that explores the world around us in more keen depth. Comics such as X-Men are metaphors for racism in America, and Swamp Thing has explored a wide range of environmental issues. However, the recent success of several cartoon shows and movies has led the major publishers to re-launch lines of comics specifically for children.
Evaluating comics requires a different set of skills than some teachers will be used to — while elementary teachers often evaluate images along with words, middle grades and secondary teachers may be unfamiliar with the idea of scanning the multiple layers of meaning behind a set of images. While some comics drawings use thick lines with little detail, others are extraordinarily complex. And, as with any reading in the classroom, teachers should consider their classroom objectives, the comic’s direct and indirect connections to state and local curriculum, and the age-appropriateness of the materials.
If you’re a teacher or media specialist, and you’d like to try using comics in your curriculum, here are some suggestions. You can find more at No Flying, No Tights, a website devoted to reviewing graphic novels for teens and kids.
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Relevant subjects: art, language arts, social studies
Perhaps the best-known comic in the world, Maus tells the story of Spiegelman’s father, a concentration camp survivor. The depiction of Jews as mice and Nazis as cats is shocking, and the juxtaposition of cartoonish imagery with the horror of genocide only reinforces the tragedy of the Holocaust. There are a number of education sites devoted to Maus, including Gordon Thomas’ “Using Maus in a Composition Class.”
Kurt Busiek’s Astro City: Life in Big City by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross
Relevant subjects: art, language arts, psychology, social studies
What do superheroes dream about at night? How do they go out on a date? What’s life like for an average citizen when superheroes won’t come to your neighborhood? Kurt Busiek’s Astro City: Life in Big City is a series that looks at life in a city full of superheroes, alternating between the perspectives of the superheroes and the people they come in contact with. Busiek and his co-creators have imagined a world where alien invasions and supernatural mysteries are part of daily life.
Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran
Relevant subjects: art, language arts, psychology, science, social studies
Life is different for Americans since the space shuttle Orbiter disappeared ten years ago. But now, the shuttle has mysteriously returned altered with mysterious technology, and the pilot, the only crewmember on board, hasn’t aged a day and is speaking in a tongue no one understands. Exploring the scientific and cultural merit of manned spaceflight and exploration, Orbiter is a breathtaking look at the possibilities of the Universe and its repercussions here on Earth.
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Relevant subjects: art, language arts, social studies
Best used with high school students, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood is the autobiographical story of Marjane Satrapi’s childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Tracing the dethroning of the Shah, the rise of fundamentalism, and the war with Iraq through a child’s eyes, Persepolis gives the reader a strong view of Iran’s history and culture, and serves a nice point of comparison and contrast for American teens.
