Graphic Novels
Graphic Novels: Not Your Daddy’s Comics
Martin O’Brien
Why should we use graphic novels?
Discussion of what constitutes literacy.
Many teens are reading and writing, but they don’t read books. Until recently, the number of books read was a predictor of college success. However, teens are becoming “bookless” readers…they read advertising, webpages, comics. We live in a “text-saturated” world.
“New Times” (I don’t think this is the best link to illustrate this, but when I was searching, I kept drawing blanks) saturated with print-based and multimedia info. Causing us to re-envision what we mean by reading and writing? Creating a “new literacy”. Webpages, billboards, TVs, etc. Students and adults are reading all the time, but there is little time to read a book.
Shorter attention spans? Ways in which we think are being impacted by our new realities-“sound bites”.
Active reading—we must teach students how to “consume” a “new” literature.
Teaching graphic novels teaches all students to process information in multiple ways—presents challenges to both students and teachers. How to read a graphic novel? Where do you go first? To the words? To the pictures? Problem of “restless” eyes—moving back and forth between text and pictures.
Facility with text depends on the contextual knowledge of/familiarity with a text. Adolescent readers are familiar with comic books/graphic novels. They are adept at situations where the imagery shortcuts the spoken word (example of music videos)
Facility with text and student comfort level doesn’t mean students can negotiate the text and make meaning from it. (coming from “new times” literacy)
What are the special challenges of reading/teaching graphic novels?
- Students read quickly and thus need to re-read. The “slow process” of reading—getting lost in the world of the book may be getting lost. Students miss “clues” and small details. Must teach students how to read for the clues and small details.
- Stressing that students need to learn to read *all* kinds of text, not just literary texts.
Link between medieval texts and graphic novels.
Becky Foley-Boston Public Schools
In Boston all English teachers (K-12) are required to teach reading/writing workshop. Need to be familiar with graphic novels. One of the biggest barriers for students *and* teachers with regard to graphic novels is the unfamiliarity with the surface features of the text. How to get familiar with the surface features?
Don’t read the words. Look at the pages. What do you notice?
- TV-like. Close-ups, long shots, different angles
- Framing devices
- Multiple facial expressions
- Poster-like
- More dramatic, less realistic.
- Clear distinction between narration and dialogue
- Background and foreground details.
Get comfortable with the surface features.
Comic Histories
1950’s attack on comics as “detriment to literacy”. “Unwelcome influence of comic strips and strip newspapers”. From Fredric Wertham. Seduction of the Innocents.
Garden metaphor. No good comics. “poisonous plants” “weeds”
Horror comics published
Garden metaphor. No good comics. “poisonous plants” “weeds”
Horror comics published by EC Comics—ghoulish fables, narrated by gruesome figures like the crypt keeper and witches. Mutilations, explicit violence, gallows humor.
There was a house sub-committee to investigate comics.
Wertham started as a very liberal psychiatrist. Believed that we needed to look to both the reality and the fiction of the lives of juvenile delinquents to understand why they were doing the things they were doing. Where did it go wrong? Lafargue clinic in Harlem—multi-racial staff and clientele. Reference to an Ellison article about the Lafargue clinic in particular and Harlem in general as being a “maze” for African Americans. Connections?
Conducted a psychological and social study of murder. He found that comic book reading was a factor in all cases of disturbed children. Study flawed in many ways, but it changed his thinking about reality and fiction. Increasingly began to believe that fiction held great sway.
Wertham’s chief complaints about comic books:
1. discouraged “true” or “real” literacy
2. encouraged delinquent behavior
3. gave children a warped view of sexuality
He felt that children were becoming “book worms without books” and that poor readers were “addicted” to reading comics. (problems with studies…flawed methodology). He also felt that the eye movements were too complex (?)
Ran out of time—cut-off.
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Last Updated April 11, 2011
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