Comics in the Classroom

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’re probably not thinking about your classroom right now.

You should be.

Comics in Culture

A recent explosion in 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. (For an abbreviated history of comics, check A Brief History of the Comics Universe.) 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.”

The Case for 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 pulications 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 D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read) time. Comics have a wide range of subjects, well beyond the super-hero.

Comics are cheaper to produce now than ever before, and the industry has adapted to the point where they are able to take gambles on more artistic fare that’s been less traditionally marketable than super-hero comics. Until the 1980’s, comics appeared on newsstands, and up to 50% 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 speciality 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.