From my thesis: Comics in the Classroom as Literature and Educational Tools
Within a decade of their creation, comics were studied and debated (Yang, 2003). Besides their considerable influence on popular culture, comics have spurned interest in their relevance in the classroom. At the same time, growing concerns about comics, overwhelmingly about the subject matter, drove a debate that landed in congressional hearings and resulted in heavy-handed censorship (Hajdu, 2008). No other format in America has inspired such furor nor been subject to such treatment so broadly.
There is a growing amount of modern study on the educational value of comics, and surprising amount from past decades. This research informs us about numerous aspects about comics and how they could improve language arts and social studies instruction. There are lessons inherent to the comic book format, and a growing amount of graphic novels that address social issues and subject matter in an effective way.
The literature also presents a further quandary, the need for a multimodal literacy for today’s and tomorrows’ students. Research shows a growing need for looking beyond traditional pictureless books to be considered literate in today’s world. Comic books may provide a vital key to addressing this need for education. “The World Wide Web is the library of the future, and we must prepare students to understand it, just as we taught them to read books for information
in the past. . . In order to be considered literate, students must be taught to "read" visual images in addition to connected text. Comic strips as a text structure provide the perfect vehicle for teaching children reading strategies using visual literacy abilities. (McVicker, 2007, p. 85).”
History of comics
Sequential art has existed in with us since before the invention of letters, which they helped spawn (McCloud, 1993). The modern incarnation of comic books has evolved over the last 150 years, and the inception of original, mass produced comics in 1935 was immediately successful. This “Golden Age” as collectors call it barely lasted 20 years until the witch hunt lead by a concerned but misguided psychiatrist who gained the ear of a senate subcommittee (Hajdu, 2008). This changed comics forever as sales declined, but quality and the need to sell arose to an age of innovation. After a period of time comics separated into two worlds, one of heavily censored superheroes for children and another of subversive counterculture books sold in head shops. In the 1980s comics created its next incarnation, the graphic novel. Book length comics changed the industry again and continue to do so, challenging the idea of what a comic is and what it is capable of (Weiner, 2003).
Other early examples include the Bayuex Tapestry which show the Norman Conquest of England over its 230 foot length, Tarjan’s column which tell of Roman victories up its 98 foot height circa 113 A.D., or the pre-Columbian Codex Zouch-Nuttrall made of deerskin which tells the tale of the mighty Mixtec ruler, Eight Deer Tiger Claw (McCloud, 1993; 2000). This tradition would continue with Japanese picture scrolls with perfectly married text and illustration (Koyama-Richard, 2007), a long tradition dating back over one thousand years but showing many of same devices and grammar used by comics today including the use of cartoonish figures.
Early pictures even morphed into text themselves. This is very obvious looking at Egyptian hieroglyphs. Early alphabets often started as pictures and evolved into abstract symbols such as Chinese, modern Chinese still uses the picture ideogram today. The connection between words and pictures is fundamental to written language itself (McCloud, 1993; 2000). This use of abstract pictures taps into the pre-literate nature of comics, both historically and developmentally “Even before she can recognize a single letter, the child is able to make meaning from symbols (Rudiger, 2006, p. 126).” In Understanding Comics Scott McCloud (1993) introduces the ‘Big Triangle’ (see fig 1.1.), which balances pictures on one end and meaning on the other. For example, a photograph of a face could be on the left end, with the word “face” on the right. Comics are just “over the fence” using abstraction and pictures to communicate while still including text. In the above example comics could have a simple circle, two dots, and line for the abstraction of face. McCloud suggest pictures are much closer to language than they are to the realm of pictures. This triangle is visible at scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/triangle/index.html for the reader’s further investigation.
Figure 2.1 McCloud’s Big Triangle, from Understanding Comics (1993), pg. 51.
Birth as a Print Medium Rodolphe Töpffer, a Parisian schoolteacher and artist, is credited as the first modern comics creator (Kunzle, 2007). He drew what are clearly recognizable panels and speech balloons to tell little satirical stories he made to entertain his friends, with no real intent of publishing them. Convinced by a friend to do so, his work finally saw publication and was well received. Eventually all of his stories where gathered and published together throughout Europe and America, effectively becoming the first comic book. Although Töpffer never considered publishing his comics in the beginning, he recognized that there was a potential in comics as a medium for communication (Kunzle, 2007).
Comics in various forms existed throughout the 19th century in newspapers, but Richard C. Outcault's Hogan’s Alley featured The Yellow Kid, the first comic character with widespread recognition in 1895. The Yellow Kid has helped to popularize the medium of comics and was his image was found on all sorts of products including cigars and lunch pails (Blackbeard, 1995). Newspaper publishers discovered that comics sold copies, and soon the medium was omnipresent (Weiner, 2003).
The early decades of the 20th century led to more developments as the comics section in the newspaper became extensive. The first collection of comic strips, Famous Funnies, would be published by Max Gaines in 1933 and the modern comic book was born. Demand for these books increased and companies formed studios of writers and artists to meet the demand quickly and cheaply by producing original stories (Jones, 2004). Readership was in the tens of millions; over 90% of children ages 6 to 11 read comics, over 80% for teenagers, and adult readers under 30 ranged from 28% for women to 41% for men (Zorbaugh, 1944).
One of these studios was Eisner and Iger, led by comics revolutionary Will Eisner who, along with others, began making original content for comic books instead of just reprinting strips and would later introduce the graphic novel (Jones, 2004; Ryall & Tipton, 2009). Even during this period, Eisner's work stood above the rest in terms of quality. Eisner believed that there was potential in the medium, but his peers did not feel the same way. They enjoyed the freedom that the lowered expectation for comics made, and since the books sold regardless of quality there was little motivation to improve the craft (Weiner, 2003). Low standards were the expectation of the day. Comic book studios were usually staffed with teenage writers and artists who were overworked, underpaid, and rewarded for quantity more than quality (Hajdu, 2008; Jones, 2004).
Cartoonists of the 30s and 40s and early 50 were, for the most part, desperate, underpaid kids and sleazy entrepreneurs. . .they knew they could fob off any old thing on the children who were their audience—and did. (Wolk, 2007, p.5)
Rise to Power Comics as a medium became tremendously popular with the introduction of heroic storytelling, notably Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's world-famous character, Superman (Goulart, 2000). Readership swelled, and the once fledgling comic book industry employed thousands (Weiner, 2003). Although comic strips in the paper were accepted as all-ages entertainment, comic books were thought of as exclusively for children despite an early and growing adult readership (Weiner, 2003).
The comic book was the most popular form of entertainment in America (Zorbaugh, 1944). Comics were selling between eighty million and a hundred million copies every week, with a typical issue passed along or traded to six to ten readers, thereby reaching more people than movies, television, radio, or magazines for adults (Hajdu, 2008).
Comics had numerous genres, including crime stories and horror stories. These were released without any modern convention of a ratings system or parental advisory. Horror comics, in particular, became popular in the early fifties (Thomas & Lee, 2006). Quality of comics did see gradual improvement within the first ten years of their existence, in 1944 Zorbaugh compares comics to plays, radio, and motion pictures in their progression as a sophisticated medium to provide voice to an artist (Zorbaugh, 1944).
Fall from Grace Naturally, this new found success drew attention and scrutiny to the social impact and educational value of comics. Researchers included Thorndike who found the vocabulary in comics to be educational in 1941. Bender and Laurie claimed comic books were a normal part of childhood development that same year. In 1949, Cavanaugh suggested, “we stop trying to hold back the tide [of comic books’ popularity] with emotionalism and that we approach the problem realistically (Cavanaugh, 1949, p. 34).”
DC Comics worked with Thorndike and Harold Downes to create a language arts workbook using Superman. “Unusual interest” was shown by the students who would complete a week’s worth of work in one night (Sones, 1944, p. 233). Paul Witty studied the educational content of comics in a study involving 2500 children and Pittsburgh University and New York University cooperated in an experiment using comics in hundreds of classrooms (Yang, 2003). Hutchinson published a broad study of 271 teachers who had used comics in the classroom, and an overwhelming majority found them helpful for increasing motivation and student-teacher relations (Hutchinson, 1949). The Journal of Educational Sociology devoted two issues to comics in education, December 1944 and December 1949. In 1944, Child Study Association of America Director Sidonie Gruenberg believed that any subject could be presented through a comic medium (Yang, 2003). Sones wrote, “From the standpoint of structure and content. . .it appears that the newspaper comics and the comic magazine can be appropriated for several different kinds of instructional activities,” including, “their use as vehicles to realize the purposes of school in the improvement of learning, language development, or acquisition of information (Sones, 1944, p.237-238).” Even early in the development of comics as a format, there was clear interest and indications that it could be used as an educational format.
Not all researchers felt comics where beneficial. Well-loved psychiatrist Fredric Wertham began to write articles in 1948 about comics and start what comics writer Stan Lee would call “Wertham’s War (Lee & Mair, 2002, p. 94).” He would continue numerous articles and debates until he finally published a book on the subject. Provocatively titled, The Seduction of the Innocent by blamed comics as a motivation for troubled youth, a problem the nation was very concerned with at the time. Yang called it “a 400-page war cry accusing comic books of promoting violence, racial stereotypes, homosexuality, rebelliousness, and illiteracy (Yang, 2003, History section, para.4).” By modern standards, Wertham's arguments were largely subjective (Hajdu, 2008 & Yang, 2003). He noted that teen suicides frequently had comics in the room without establishing causality. He interviewed juvenile delinquents about reading comic books without establishing if non-delinquents did. He establishes that most students with a reading disability read comics and comes to the faulty conclusion that comics must therefore be the cause (Wertham, 1954). The book is intensely biased and a classic example of the “theory before data” fallacy.
Wertham singled out individual characters, suggesting Wonder Woman had overtones of bondage and that being strong meant she must be a lesbian. He suggested that Batman and Robin were in fact a homosexual couple and that Superman was a fascist avatar. Overall he felt comics were too violent, too bloody, and poorly written (Wertham, 1954). In his 1955 article, “It’s Still Murder”, he summarizes his beliefs about comics and reading.
The most important harm done by comic books is in the field of reading. They interfere with the elementary mechanisms of learning to read and with the acquisition of essential perceptual techniques. Children do not think of reading a comic book as they might “read a book.” They “look at” a comic. They become picture gazers, because they get the main points of the stories from the pictures alone, without bothering to read the words. The damage may show up years later with the disinclination—or inability—to read a whole book from beginning to end. What right do we have to deprive a whole generation of children from the wholesome influence that comes from reading good literature? (Wertham, 1955, p. 12).
Wertham ignores the numerous studies showing comics may be educational (Yang 2003), not even referring to any of the prior research or studies that comics could be educational. Instead, he asserts that children simply look at the stories without reading the words and that comics are a form of illiteracy. Instead of comparing students who read well with those who don’t and their comic reading habits, he looks at a group of underprivileged low level readers in a remedial reading clinic in New York City. He establishes that most of them read comics and draws the very broad conclusion that comics are responsible for their low reading skills (Wertham, 1954), even though over 90% of all children read comics at that era (Frank, 1944; Sones, 1944; Zorbaugh, 1944). He did not set up control groups for comparison, collect any data of students reading comics versus reading other texts, or even ask simple comprehension questions or request a student to read-aloud from a comic to check fluency. Wertham criticizes the use of slang and onomatopoeia in comics, without citing studies that showed that the amount of this language was fairly minimal in comics and unlikely to affect readers (Sones, 1944). His early work in this field, prior to publication of Seduction of the Innocent, was criticized by researcher Frederick M. Thrasher.
[The] most recent error of this type is that of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham who claims in effect that comics are in important factor in causing juvenile delinquency. This extreme position which is not substantiated by any valid research, is not only contrary to current psychiatric reasoning, but also disregards tested research procedures which discredited numerous previous monistic theories of delinquency causation. Wertham’s dark picture of the influence of comics is far more forensic than it is scientific and illustrates a dangerous habit of projecting our social frustrations upon some specific trait of our culture, which becomes a sort of “whipping boy” for our failure to control the whole gamut of social breakdown (Thrasher, 1949, p. 195).
Finally, Wertham contends that comics will produce adults with the inability to read, but did not verify this fallacious claim when he already had a generation of adults who had been reading comics (Zorbaugh, 1944, 1949) since they were introduced in 1935 to study (Simon, 2003). He does not include or refer to any of the large amount of research that showed positive impacts of comic reading that was easily available in the ten years before he published, including the work of Frank, Sones, Thorndike, Gruenwald, and others. Despite the problems in his arguments which do not appear to pass basic academic muster, his work was accepted almost without question by the general public and Congress. Second printings of Seduction of the Innocent even had the bibliography page removed by the publisher for fear of lawsuits, and this seemed to go without notice or challenge.
Wertham’s book was popular, excerpted in Parents magazine, touted in the Ladies Home Journal, and he had a lecture tour (Hajdu, 2008). Comic book burnings were organized and carried out, as many as 50 municipalities legislated to control sales of comics, and New York, Colorado, and California all attempted laws to ban comics outright (Hajdu, 2008; Beerbahm, 1998).
Wertham was well-respected as a psychiatrist, had testified in important cases, and was known for his deep concern for young people. His articles caused such a stir he was called as a witness before Congress along with several comic book publishers, including William Gaines of EC comics who claimed to be the originator of “horror comics” (Senate Subcommitte on Juvenile Delinquency, 1954). Wertham's capable testimony, coupled with the dismal testimony of Gaines, led to a rebuke from Congress who suggested that comic content should be toned down in their final report (Senate Subcommitte on Juvenile Delinquency, 1954 & Hajdu, 2008). Comics became a scapegoat for the unexpected rise in middle-class juvenile delinquency (Wertham, 1955) and were crushed under the McCarthyist attitude of fear and punishment prevalent in the day (Hajdu, 2008).
In the Shadow The congressional report was taken by comic book publishers as threat of possible censorship. They reacted by establishing the Comic Code Authority, whose stamp can still be seen on some comics today (Williams, 2008). The code provided a very firm and unrealistic set of expectations for comics, in which certain words such as “horror” or “zombie” could not be read. Under the code gunplay had to seem “game-like” and “fun”, all criminals had to be punished for their deeds, and homosexuality could not be referred to. Gaines once even had a conflict when he wanted to show a black astronaut in a story (Hajdu, 2008).
The comic industry waned. William Gaines, who had been fundamental to founding the code, suffered the worst and EC comics closed. Only MAD magazine remained, published in a magazine format to evade censorship (Hajdu, 2008). Crime and romance stories stopped almost altogether and superhero stories took center stage again, along with the teenagers from the Archie gang (Reynalds, 2006; Weiner, 2003). In a two year period, nearly 700 titles a month fell to just over 200 (Weiner, 2003). The industry employed a great diversity of people, perhaps more than any other white collar industry did at the time. Employees included members of racial, ethnic, and social minorities who turned to comics for employment and were often unable to find work with more reputable publishers (Hajdu, 2008). These also included a large number of Jewish artists and writers (Weiner, 2003). Many of these jobs were lost in the aftermath of the Code (Hajdu, 2008.)
During this time, the craft of comics began to significantly improve. Fewer jobs and the need to sell a product that was no longer as popular created a need for increased quality. Working under the constraints of the Code was difficult, but ultimately produced a better written and drawn product (Hajdu, 2008.; Weiner, 2003).
Adult readership still continued to grow as nostalgic adults began to gather to socialize, trade, buy, and sell out superhero comics. Playwright Jules Feiffer published a collection called The Great Comic Book Heroes which reprinted many early stories. The movement grew and comic book collecting came into its own, creating a new market and new readership (Hajdu, 2008).
The Underground The greatest change in comics after the Code came from an unlikely source, the 1960s counter-culture. This led to a new vein of comics by counter-culture revolutionaries such as Robert Crumb who published outside of the Comics Code Authority to be sold in head shops and other unconventional venues. Crumb's Zap Comix was incredibly successful and launched the medium into sales of tens of thousands per issue, remarkable given its small distributorship. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton sold an estimated 100,000 copies (Skinn, 2004). Eisner would later liken the efforts of the underground comic creators to the French underground, saying that they fought for comics' artistic freedom (Weiner, 2003). The underground comics movement eventually spurred the creation of the direct market distribution system for comic books, creating a profitable structure for retailers, distributors, and companies alike (Skinn, 2004). Out of this movement would come Harvey Pekar, a white collar worker in Detroit and long-time friend of Crumb who pioneered the use of comics for autobiography.
The New Market Small gains were to be made fighting the Comics Code Authority. In 1971, Stan Lee wrote a Spider-Man story (Amazing Spider Man #96) about drug use that was censored despite its anti-drug message. Lee ran the issue and it sold as normal (Thomas, 2006). Lee had also been experimenting with longer story lengths, 40 pages instead of 20, to give more room to create emotional complexity in a story (Thomas, 2006).
Comic sales slowly began to grow again, yet nearly all content consisted of superheroes with the notable exception of Archie comics. Companies added more and more titles and characters to their retinue, but were largely still constrained by the superhero genre (Weiner, 2003). Thanks to the direct market, specialty stores arose, thereby increasing readership.
The New Literature In 1978 it was Will Eisner who had a much greater vision of what comics could be who took the next great leap forward. A Contract With God and Other Tenement Stories was the first graphic novel, a term Eisner coined to sell the idea of a comic book in a new format (Ryall & Tipton, 2009). Book length, stories could now be told outside of the restrictive confines of the pamphlet style that dominated comics since the 1930s and is still prevalent today (Weiner, 2003). A Contract With God had many thematically tied stories, the title story is about Frimme Hersch, a Jewish real estate baron who loses his daughter and thinks God has forsaken him. He asks a group of rabbis to draw up a new contract with God. This is a story well outside the superhero genre, as were the other offerings in the book which was a success (Gravett, 2005).
Comic books began to evolve as well during the 1980s. Writers like Alan Moore made comic book series that told complete and complex stories (Wolk, 2008). Art Spiegelman's Maus is the book that finally put comic books on the map of modern literature (Cart, 2006; Wolk, 2007). In 1986 Spiegelman printed the first half of his father's account of surviving the holocaust while showing the story of Spiegelman dealing with his father and collecting the story in the modern day. Spiegelman famously uses an animal metaphor, depicting Jews as mice and German's as cats in the story, creating a visual allegory that could only truly exist in the comics medium. The story is considered a masterpiece, and won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992. It is also well on its way to becoming a standard text, and can frequently be found in college classes and college bookstores. There was now a collection of comics that were book length. Given such length, comics had the ability to tell any story and to become fully realized literature (Wolk, 2008).
During the 1990s the line between trade paperbacks and graphic novels continued to blur. The sales of the trade paperback collections did incredibly well and the field of graphic novels exploded exponentially. They began to garner attention from the media, academic study, and a large readership outside the traditional comic mainstream (Gravett, 2005). Since 2,000, graphic novels have individual sections in both libraries and bookstores and continue to gain readership.
Do comics contain literary merit? Is reading a comic really reading?
Scott McCloud, when telling people his ambition to write and draw comics as a child, was met with the reaction that “. . .comic books were usually crude, poorly drawn, semiliterate, cheap, disposable, kiddie-fare.” (McCloud, 1993, p. 3) Comics have a reputation as mass produced, low-brow literature only of interest to collectors and children. This reputation may be well earned, or comics might be capable of something far greater. Furthermore, much is made of the integration of pictures and words on comics, so much so that people often feel as if reading a comic is not really reading. Yet this interaction between text and picture has its own grammar and teaches a set of useful skills for literacy.
Literary Merit “There is some resistance by educators and critics to acknowledging comics as legitimate art or literature.” (Williams, 2008, p. 14) Comics have a reputation for being second-class literature and not appropriate reading material. Wertham stated that “the comic-book format is an invitation for illiteracy (Wertham, 1954, p. 118)” and “comic books are death on reading (Wertham, 1954, p. 121).” For some, we consider the pictures in comics a sort of crutch or enabler and that “real reading” consists of pictureless texts. However, at all ages, pictures help bring comprehension no matter the level of the text. (Hibbing & Rankin-Erickson, 2003). We think that great literature and great art must exist independently of each other, but they do not. (McCloud, 1993).
As children, our first books had pictures galore and very few words because that was “easier.” Then, as we grew, we were expected to graduate to books with much more text and only occasional pictures and finally to arrive at “real” books. Those with no pictures at all, or perhaps . . .to no books at all. (McCloud, 1993, pg 140).
Our modern understanding of reading has progressed significantly. We know now that learning to read is more than just learning to sound out the words. There are fundamental skills that are addressed by comics, even without the inclusion of text. “For a young child to read a graphic novel, much less a wordless one, many essential literacy skills are required, including the ability to understand a sequence of events, interpret characters' nonverbal gestures, discern the story's plot, and make inferences.” (Lyga, 2006, p. 58)
Comics also have a reputation as a low-brow product of crass commercialism. This reputation goes back to the origins of comics as a print medium and, at that time, was even deserved. In the early days of the comic book, comics were produced quickly to met demand and with little regard to craft or substance (Weiner, 2003 & Hajdu, 2008). In general, comics are disdained by teachers and parents as a source of literature for student reading. ”. . .Graphic novels still remain largely on the fringes of the [English language arts teacher] profession”(Carter, 2007, p. 1)
In This Book Contains Graphic Language by Rocco Versaci (2001), he makes a strong case that not only are comics literature, but that comics can present text in a way that ordinary books cannot. In an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, the title character gives a speech of the fantastic marvels of Africa. Artist Oscar Zarate illustrates this passage, showing the marvels Othello speaks of. Versaci stated that it is a novel treatment that expands upon the literature.
One writer in particular, Robert Sikoryak, translates classic novels by putting them in the style of classic comic. He tells Dostoyesky’s Crime and Punishment using Batman and Robin rendered in their classic Dick Sprang style. Little Lulu is used to adapt The Scarlet Letter, and Wuthering Heights is told in an impeccable imitation of the old EC horror comic, Tales from the Crypt. Versaci’s point is that these retellings of classics take on new meaning by being “mashed” with other styles. True comprehension relies on knowledge of both the “high” art of literature and the “low” art of comics.
Celebrated author Alan Moore created the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to illustrate the perceived gulf between literature and comics. He created a Victorian superhero team from the literary characters of the day such as Captain Nemo (from Jules Verne), Mina Harker (from Bram Stoker), and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (from Robert Louis Stevenson.) These heroes and their authors are now considered classics, but once were disreputable literature not the found in a classroom. They were the comic book heroes of the Victorian era, even if they did not appear in comics, the traditional superhero format. (Versaci, 2007).
Comics also make fairly inaccessible texts accessible literature. Sid Jacobson made The 9-11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation which takes the cumbersome 9-11 Commission Report, a document many readers would never consider casual reading, and brilliantly creates a moving graphic novel from it that clearly shows the reports results better than the original document itself (Goldsmith, 2006).
Meanwhile, the list of graphic novels that are worth reading continues to grow with a long list of topics, stories, and themes (Gravett, 2005.)
Growing Acceptance The innovation of the graphic novel began to chip away at the idea that comics could not be literature. In particular, Speigelman’s Maus grabbed headlines and accolades (Cart, 2006). Alan Moore’s work, including V for Vendetta and Watchmen, garnered large sales and continue to do so to this day. People were reading comics, and not all of them were traditional comic book readers (Gravett, 2005).
Libraries began to take notice that putting comic books and graphic novels on their shelves generated circulation. One early study in a school library had a collection that was available by visit only. Not only did visits to the library double, but circulation of non-comic materials rose by 30% (Wright, 1979). Another school library had 1.5 percent of its total inventory invested in graphic novels which account for 17.7% of circulation, far surpassing any other category of literature (Ching, 2005). “Scholarly research over the last fifty years indicates that our nation’s children and adolescents have strong preferences and interests in comics and have embraced comics as a legitimate art form.” (Wright, 2006, p. 168).
The Comic Book Project, which started in one Queens elementary school, has students creating comics as an alternative pathway to literacy. The program, run in cooperation with Dark Horse Comics, is now in over 860 schools throughout the nation. The program is a success in multiple realms, besides teaching literacy it also includes workplace ethics and social consciousness in the stories students tell with the comics they make (Bitz, 2006).
Finally, the superhero genre has been fading after decades of being virtually synonymous with comics as a format. The dominance of this genre is still felt and may hold graphic novels back in acceptance as literature, even though there are excellent examples of work within this genre (Gravett, 2005). There is some value in superhero comics as educational literature in the complexity that arises within the continuity of different titles (Freeman, 1998), but the genre’s identification with the comic book format is an obstacle to the literary merit of comics (McCloud, 2000). One critic believes that Moore’s Watchmen is the “last key superhero text” (Reynalds, 1994), and McCloud noted that “it would take decades for the superhero genre as we know it today to reach maturity. . .or senility, depending on your point of view (McCloud, 2000, pg 114).”
What advantages do comics have as an educational tool, especially over traditional texts?
High Interest Reading “Educators have discovered that comic books have proven useful in getting reluctant readers to read (Foster, 2004, p. 32).” The work of Krashen and Ujiie (1996) have helped establish a link between graphic novels and reluctant readers. Reluctant readers are traditionally defined as students who fall in the gap between literate and illiterate students. Literate students are students who can not only read, but have a positive attitude toward reading, make time to read, and feel that reading is part of their way of life. Illiterate students do not have basic reading skills and believe reading is figuring out the words (Beers, 1998).
In the gap in between literate and illiterate students are aliterate students or reluctant readers (Beers,1998), who can read but don’t choose to. These students have the basic skills, but cannot be called literate students because they don’t take the time to actually read. They fall into three categories. The first are dormant readers, who can read and even enjoy it but don’t make time to. Then there are uncommitted readers, who don’t have a good attitude about reading but might consider themselves a reader in the future. Finally there are unmotivated readers who don’t like reading, have no plans to read, and don’t necessarily like people who do read. “Comic strips have a definitive attraction for all literacy abilities (McVicker, 2007, p. 86).
Chun’s pilot study with a group of high school ESL students showed the problem of reluctant readers in stark terms (Chun, 2009). In his sample, an overwhelming number of students did not have any books at home that were not schoolbooks, and most did not ever read for pleasure. Outside of class most students might read bills, mail, flyers, English subtitles to movies, lyrics to music, text messages, and websites such as Myspace. A quarter of the students occasionally read a newspaper. Many students today are living in a book free environment and lack the motivation to read one.
As far back and 1944 the motivation to read comics was noted among students. “Children of all ages, of high and low I.Q., girls as well as boys, good readers and nonreaders, in good homes and poor ones,-- they all read comics, and read them with an avidity and absorption that passes understanding (Frank, 1944, p. 214).” Reluctant readers can be of both genders, but boys tend to be more common than girls. In all cases, increasing the print environment and the level of voluntary reading is key to literacy development. (Krashen, 2004). The attraction to comics is common to all ages of readers, especially boys who are more likely to be reluctant readers (Snowball, 2005).
Krashen (2004) noted that when a student perceives reading as “light reading” than voluntary reading may increase. He lists comics directly as one of the tools of “light reading.” It is possible that the perception of comics as sub-literature and somewhat subversive actually works as an advantage here (Smetana et al., 2009). “Using comics, which are humorous, visual, and limited in text, can alleviate the negative view of reading in some children (McVicker, 2007, p. 86).” In a study by Cho, a class that used comics for silent sustained reading reported 86% participation (Cho, Choi & Krashen, 2005), which was considered remarkable. For the difficult, unmotivated, and uncommitted student, comics offer reading that they may not consider reading.
Comics may be the bad boy on the classroom library shelf. Students often receive peer pressure not to read, but do not associate that stigma with comics (English Journal, 2005). Reluctant readers, in general, find graphic novels less intimidating reading (Thompson, 2008).
It should be noted that the “light reading” listing is reader perceived, as comics have plenty going on, as will be discussed later. We do know that reading comics can turn reluctant readers into literate, volume readers. The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Research and Development Committee has found that comics are “fun, not easy” and “The graphic novel is ‘true reading’ and another way we can encourage a child’s love of reading (Destrang; et al, 2006, p. 51).”
Reading Comprehension As is well known, pictures with text support comprehension. Referred to as “picture cues” they are a firm part of literacy instruction (Harvey, 2000; Keene, 1997; Miller, 2002). Yet, none of these books mention comics as a possible reading resource. Comics take this idea further by fully integrating the text and the picture together. “The pictures are enticing, but they also offer assistance to reader who need that extra crutch to support them as they travel through the text (Thompson, 2008, p. 19).” In 1944, Sones had students had two groups read a comic story about Clara Barton and a traditional written text and take a comprehension test afterward. The students that read the comic story first outperformed the other group from 10 to 30%, and lower reading level students performed on par with their higher counterparts (Sones, 1944).
Furthermore, pictures and text can be related from panel to panel (McCloud, 1993). “The natural and intricate way its artwork, panels, speech bubbles, and lettering work together to steer the reader to the meaning is nothing short of literary ballet.” (Thompson, 2008, p. 52). The very relationship of text to picture give cues and understanding in the grammar of comics that are not otherwise possible. “The illustrations provide contextual support and clues to the meaning of the written narrative, help demystify the text, and increase comprehension (Smetana, Odelson, Burns & Grisham, 2009, p. 228).” The visual element of comics is also a welcome support for the reluctant reader (Curriculum Review, 2004). “Comics, through the use of visual literacy, can open the door to reading for the challenged student because they offer a visual element for comprehending text. (McVicker, 2006, p. 87).” Comics offer the most supported text possible, make comprehension easier and give the reader freedom to explore higher reading skills (Lyga, 2006).
Beside the pictures aiding comprehension, comics offer something that other media with images may not have, permanency. Comics have static images on a page like a traditional book, unlike an electronic document or image with text that can change, be at a distance, or simply disappear. The reader has the same time to figure out the meaning (Yang, 2003). “A well-done graphic novel offers the immediacy of the prose reading experience, with the pictures and the words working simultaneously, making a graphic novel not only something one reads but something one sees as well, like reading and watching a movie at the same time. Only the movie isn't on a screen, it's on the page in the reader's hands (Gallo & Weiner, 2004, p. 115).”
Vocabulary and Volume Reading Increasing student vocabulary has an impact on student achievement, intelligence, ability to comprehend, and even affects income level. “Due to their visual nature, comics and graphic novels provide a context-rich, high-interest story environment for acquiring new vocabulary (Smetana, Odelson, Burns & Grisham, 2009, p. 230).”
Graphic novels have not one but two elements to promote acquiring vocabulary. The first is related to being high interest reading. Just as vocabulary leads to student achievement, volume reading leads to increased vocabulary. As the name suggests, volume reading consists of reading large numbers of words within a time frame. This means reading on a frequent, preferably daily basis, and reading to get a substantial number of words from the reading. To increase vocabulary, volume reading must also include a high number of rare words, that is, words outside the most common 10,000 words (Cunningham & Stanovich, 2001). According to Krashen (2004), on average comics rival adult books for use of rare word vocabulary and far exceed the average for most books written for children. Volume reading is a significant factor to growth of reading comprehension skills, verbal language development, and increase of declarative knowledge (Cunningham & Stanovich, 2001; Krashen, 2004).
Table 2.1 Common and Uncommon Words in Speech and Writing
| Media | Frequent Words | Rare Words |
| Prime-time TV: Adult | 94.0 | 22.7 |
| Children’s books | 92.3 | 30.9 |
| Comic books | 88.6 | 53.5 |
| Books | 88.4 | 52.7 |
| Popular Magazines | 85.0 | 65.7 |
| Newspapers | 84.3 | 68.3 |
| Abstracts of scientific papers | 70.3 | 128.2 |
Frequent words=percentage of text from most frequent 5,000 words
Rare words=number of rare words (not in most common 10,000) per 1,000 words.
Source: Krashen (2004)
“Even if it were true that the genre is too basic a form of reading, current best practices in reading recognize the value of both light reading and wide reading on comprehension, fluency, and endurance (Thompson, 2007, p. 29).” The second element is the use of vocabulary in context with picture cues. Reading a word in a comic increases the possibility of comprehension (McVicker, 2007). This has always been the strength of picture books in early literacy education, and that strength can still be used with comics as readers age.
Comic readers, regardless of socio-economic level, have a greater tendency to read for pleasure on a daily basis than non-comic readers (Ujiie & Krashen, 1996). Sixty-five percent of middle-class heavy comic readers read daily, and 54% of low socio-economic heavy comic readers do as well. This latter number is significantly larger then that of occasional and non-comic readers from the middle class group (35% and 33% respectively). Furthermore, among low socio-economic non-comic readers, 64% read for pleasure only monthly or never. Comics are one of the only things that appeal to the low socio-economic status demographic, and those who are reading comics read more than their middle-class peers who don’t read comics (Krashan, 2004).
Comics also contain a surprising number of words. The ordinary pamphlet style comic has at least 2,000 words, and Stephan Krashen points out in “The Power of Reading” that reading one such comic book a day equals over half a million words in a year. Furthermore, heavy comic book readers frequently meet or exceed that number through voracious reading in their favorite format.
Comics are also noted for their rich vocabulary. Once criticized for including long words in his comics, Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee (who interjects his editorials with the word “Excelsior!”) said, “If a kid has to go to a dictionary, that’s not the worst thing that could happen (Thomas, 2006, p. 144).” Use of rare words in comics average at 53.5 words per 1,000, which is more than adult books (52.7 words per 1,000) and nearly double that of children’s books (30.9 words per 1,000.) (Krashen, 2004). Furthermore, these words are being used in narrative context with picture cue support, an ideal environment to learn vocabulary (Mackey, 2003).
Like any format, the reading level of graphic novels can vary greatly. Flesch index for most comics is given an average of 95, making them highly readable at a 5th grade reading level. As the table shows below, there is an appreciable difference in reading levels for various graphic novels, which tend to swing to a very accessible low. Many classics are at an upper elementary reading level. Individual sampling shows that this average can come from highly variable numbers. An older study by Gary Wright, publishing in 1979, using individual comic book issues shows that samples of random passages can range from 4.0 to 8.5 in an issue of Batman or from 2.8 to 7.4 in Amazing Spider-man. Krashen shows that individual, non-random passages from comic books can frequently top out at 12 on the Flesch-Kincaid scale. Thus, comic book reading is generally vocabulary rich but an accessible reading level, occasionally spiking into higher reading levels. Modern graphic novels show a similar spread of reading levels below. Daily comic strips in newspapers show similar results. (Wright & Sherman, 2006).
Table 2.2 Flesh-Kincaid Readability of graphic novels from Krashen’s The Power of Reading
| Book Title | Flesch-Kincaid Readability | Flesch Index |
| Maus by Speigelman | 3.5 | 83.4 |
| Bone (Omnibus) by Smith | 3.7 | 82.6 |
| Persepolis (Part 1) by Satrapi | 4.7 | 76.7 |
| V for Vendetta by Moore | 5.5 | 74.9 |
| American Splendor: Life and Times of Harvey Pekar by Pekar | 5.5 | 76.1 |
| 300 by Miller | 7.1 | 64.8 |
At the very least, comics have no depreciable effects on reading. “Studies [show] that comic book reading is at least as beneficial as other reading (Krashen, 2004. Pg 101).” Krashen further notes that comic readers are at least equal to non-comic readers in reading, language development, and overall school achievement. In addition, Krashen and Ujiie show that comic readers are more likely to read for pleasure than non-comic readers, even if they are in a demographic that usually reads less. Notice that 89% of Chapter 1 students read daily or weekly compared to 92% of middle class students, and occasional daily readers who are Chapter 1 students are 5% larger than their middle class counterparts.
Table 2.3 How Often Do You Read for Pleasure?
| Chapter 1 students | Daily | Weekly | Monthly/Never |
| Heavy comic reader | 54% | 35% | 11% |
| Occasional reader | 40% | 28% | 38% |
| Non-comic reader | 16% | 20% | 64% |
| Middle class students | | | |
| Heavy comic reader | 65% | 27% | 8% |
| Occasional reader | 35% | 35% | 30% |
| Non-comic reader | 33% | 17% | 50% |
Source: Ujiie & Krashen (1996)
Lessons Inherent to the Comics Format
There are numerous lessons that comics does especially well; things that the format has strength in due to the way that comics are read. Some of these have been researched, some have been discussed, and some could use investigation. However, there are a wide range of skills and content that comics address directly that need to be exploited by educators.
Onomatopoeia and Interjections Comics are famous for the use of onomatopoeia and interjection in a distinct, pictorial way. POW! ZAP! CRASH! and other words are frequently seen with their own visual presence on the page. This is necessary for comic format to show what can be heard. McCloud wrote:
Thanks to film and television we’ve gotten used to stories that continuously use sight and sound and offer rich, immersive experiences. But as comics creators, if we want to reproduce that kind of experience, we need to do it using only one sense. Words play an important role in comics by bridging that gap. They give voice to our characters, allow us to describe all five senses , and in the case of sound effects they become graphically what they describe and give readers a rare chance to listen with their eyes. (McCloud, 2006, p.146)
The Maryland State Department of Education attempted using a range of comic book lessons in 2006 in cooperation with Diamond Comics Distributers and Disney Corporation. One of the many lessons taught concerned onomatopoeia and interjections. Both students and teachers thought highly of the lesson. Teachers in the program rated student interest at very high 4.61 out of a 5 point scale. Student focus groups called for more onomatopoeia in that particular lesson. Further, 83% of teachers felt that their students mastered the skill (Sonnenschein, Baker, Katenkamp & Beall, 2006).
Narrative The one thing that all comics have in common is narrative. Except for the lonely cousin of comics, the single-panel cartoon found in newspapers, all comics endeavor to tell a story that can be large or small (Chute, 2008). This story can be fictional, it can be biographical, it can be documentarian in scope and nature, but it is a story first and foremost (McCloud, 2000). Frey and Fisher used the narrative structure of comics as a basis for a writing curriculum for a population of high school students in San Diego, all of whom qualified for free and reduced lunch. They found reading and writing comic narratives increases the complexity of student sentences, the number of ideas in their writing, and lengthened the sentences they were writing (Frey & Fisher, 2004).
The Maryland State Department of Education, in their comic book initiative, addressed multiple lessons about understanding narrative. These included understanding character traits, identifying the problem and solution for a story, understanding the sequence of plot events, understanding the point-of-view from other characters of the story, and summarizing important story elements. The results show how effective overall each teacher who participated thought it was, and how well they thought the students mastered the lesson (Sonnenschein, Baker, Katenkamp & Beall, 2006).
Table 2.4 Effectiveness of narrative lesson in Maryland comic book initiative.
| Lesson | Overall Effectiveness % of “effective or better” | Student Mastery % who believed students mastered objective |
| Identifying Character Traits | 94% | 79% |
| Problem and Solution | 95% | 88% |
| Looking for Plot Events | 100% | 86% |
| Point of View | 96% | 78% |
| Summarizing | 92% | 80% |
According to the Maryland report, comics are highly effective at teaching narrative comprehension. Each lesson shows an overwhelming positive response. Unfortunately, this study did not collect student achievement data, which will hopefully be an area of future study.
Inference Inference is common to the comic format. McCloud calls it the “blood” in the “gutter” (1993, p.73) and devotes a whole chapter in Understanding Comics to it. He refers to it as “closure” but it is the same idea, conclusions drawn from the given information. “Comic panels fracture both time and space, offering a jagged, staccato rhythm of unconnected moments. But closure allows us to connect these moment and mentally construct a continuous, unified reality (McCloud, 1993, p. 67).”
He refers to the “gutter”, the white space between panels (McCloud, 1993, p. 66), where readers become active participants in comics by imagining all the events that have not been shown. If Spiderman is shown shooting web in one panel and a crook is shown bound in webs in the next, you know that the webbing covered and immobilized the crook, even if the comic did not show you that explicitly. Inference is sometimes referred to as “reading between the lines”, in comics this phrase is literal. “The visual nature forces readers to use what they know to create the unwritten dialogue—a story not fully conveyed by the words (Smetana, Odelson, Burns & Grisham, 2009).”
New Thinking Skills Comics have numerous strengths that regular text does not offer. Readers with smaller vocabularies can read comics and gain words from context, while offering complex double meaning to more experienced readers. Southern Illinois professor Claudia McVicker believes comics illustrate cause and effect, bridge the gap between concrete concepts and abstract thoughts, and involve deductive reasoning and evaluative thinking (McVicker, 2007).
Comics creator Alan Moore believes that comics convey information more powerfully than traditional text. Comics use both words and pictures, thus engaging the right and left sides of the brain simultaneously, “Graphic nonfiction is a unique medium for presenting history and biography in a vivid, immediate way.” Information enters through a two-way conduit. (Sanderson, 2004). Graphic novel author Stephan Petrucha makes a similar statement that both halves of the brain coordinate to create imagery from a comic text (Petrucha, 2008).
Relevance of comics to modern need.
The New Literacy There is a lot going on in any comic book page. Besides the words and pictures, there is a relationship between the words and pictures that requires the reader to have a particular skill set to read. “Just as a story in print requires comprehension by the reader, comics require the reader to blend the print and the graphics to comprehend the intended communication.” (McVicker, 2007, p. 85).
Yet, comics are “self-teaching” according to Speigelman, in that readers intuitively pick up this skill set as they read comics even if they receive no other guidance (Smith, 2008). Author Jon Scieska, at the “Graphica in Education” conference in 2009, said, “How do little birds that fly around your head when you get hit with an anvil mean something? That’s literacy. It’s spectacular literacy.” Thompson’s Exploring Graphica illustrates that relationship between picture and text on a simple comics page is subtly complex yet intuitive. The reader has to interpret the position of frames, pictures, and words in order to make meaning. Further, the comic permits the reader to monitor for understanding themselves. If comprehension is wrong, the reader will receive immediate visual cues and can reread for meaning. There is an entire set of skills for reading comics that are very important for our modern, visual society (Thompson, 2008). “Many readers growing up with television and video games are contemporary young adults who look for print media that contain the same visual impact and pared-down writing style and contribute their enthusiasm for visual rather than written literacy (Smetana, Odelson, Burns & Grisham, 2009, p. 230).”
It is this “multi-modal” literacy that is of high interest. When we teach pictureless text we may be teaching only one form of medium for information, and someone who is not proficient with multiple forms of information is the new illiterate (Mackey, 2008).
. . .pictures inflect the meanings of the words, and the words direct particular attention to aspects of the pictures. Meaning arrives through both channels, and young interpreters learn that polysemic understanding is richer as a consequence. To this day, . . . forms that merge print and graphics can tell complex and even contradictory stories, but a little assistance makes them accessible to very young children. . . (Mackey, 2008, p. 404).
Mackey (2008) stated that children today simply have much greater expectations of making sense of literature in a dizzying variety of media and formats, and that picture-integrated texts like comic books are vital. “Reading researchers and all adults working with children must take account of this broad and changing context and acknowledge that contemporary new readers have no other way of learning about reading (Mackey, 2008, p. 404).” Outside of the actual experience of the other media such as web pages, text message, subtitled information, and so on comics are the only opportunity to actually teach to this new brand of visual text. Stephan Tabachinck states, “it seems to me that the graphic novel represents the answer of the book—and people who love to read and make books—to the challenge of the electronic screen (Tabachinck, 2007, p. 24).” Tabachinck believes that comics are an innovation that literature will need to embrace, just as live theater had to embrace changes when challenged by film.
Social Issues “Ours is a society of pop culture, and comic characters are part of that cultural heritage.” (Wright & Sherman, 2006, p. 165). Arguably, comics are the most literate form of pop culture. As a result, social issues frequently crop up into comic books and many graphic novels take social issues head on. Speigelman’s Maus and Satrapi’s Persepolis are definitely relevant to both historical and modern issues surrounding the events they portray (Gravett, 2005). In Caped Crusaders 101 Jeff Kahan and Stanley Stewart detail numerous social issues comics have touched on over the years; including racial, gender, and even homosexual diversity, capitalism, the prison system, moral temptation, 9-11 and terrorism, and even a comparison of Nietzche’s superman and, well, Superman. “These texts [comics] can aid students in exploring important social issues (Williams, 2008, p. 15).”
Superhero comics do have a long history tackling social issues. Wonder Woman was created as a feminist heroine decades before the feminist movement (Crawford, 2007). Captain America #1 shows the Captain punching Adolf Hitler two years before America was involved with World War II; the character was created as pro-war propaganda. Amazing Spider Man issues #96-98 depicted a character suffering from drug addiction and were the first mainstream comics released without approval from the Comics Code Authority since it was enacted. Green Lantern Corps would have a similar controversial issue in 1972 when Green Arrow’s sidekick was shown as a heroin addict. In 1992, future X-Man Northstar “came out of the closet” after 13 years to widespread controversy and headlines.
Modern graphic novels continue this tradition, often providing opportunities to engage with social issues that teachers may not have otherwise (Christensen, 2006). Students can read Kubert’s Fax from Sarajevo to study Bosnia, Akol’s Lost Boys of Sudan for African conflicts, Delisle’s Pyongyang about modern North Korea, and numerous works exist around the Nazi holocaust. (Sanderson, 2004). “A reader in the hands of a competent cartoonist feels more China, North Korea, or another location than is possible via other forms of media—including cinema” (Rall, 2004, p. 76).”
Literature critic and professor Stephan Tabachnick states that, like any great literature, graphic novels reflect and even predict our society. Alan Moore’s Watchmen predicts an attack on New York 15 years before the event of 9/11. The release date of the film adaptation of Moore’s V for Vendetta was delayed, because of a London train bombing that resembled a scene from the book. “We are living in a comic book world,” says Tabachinck (2007, p. 27). He notes that comics frequently are the target of film adaptations, both of superheroes and non-superhero stories like Max Collin’s Road to Perdition, and John Wagner’s A History of Violence. Comics have begun to inform our culture beyond their original format. Tabachnick believes comics represent the book’s answer to the electronic screen; that many people no longer have the stamina or taste for long, unillustrated texts. “[T]he graphic novel gives us the subtlety and intimacy we get from good literary books while providing the speed of apprehension and the excitingly scrambled, hybrid reading experience we get from watching, say, computer screens that are full of visuals as well as text. (Tabachinck, 2007, p. 25) If this is true, then education using comics may be serving an entire demographic of non-readers we have not been reaching before, as well as preparing readers for the demands of the numerous texts interrelated with pictures they will experience in the future.
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