This past Saturday was an amazing moment in the evolution of the graphic novel and comics market.  Fordham University hosted a symposium called “Graphica in Education” which took place at the university’s Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan.   The event was amazing on a couple of levels.  For one, the event committee, led by Dr. Marshall George, was able to assemble more than 25 presentations in less than three months.  The depth of the programming was incredible.  Academics and teachers from across the country came in to discuss how the use of graphic novels is being used to enhance literacy, improve self-awareness, augment ESL programs and they showed how the format is helping to meet the needs of today’s students who are immersed in a world which demands a greater amount of visual literacy.

There were many favorite moments during the event.  Professor James “Bucky” Carter opened as the keynote speaker and he talked about comics and how they were the first books he read.  Jon Scieszka is another amazing campaigner for including comics in literacy, he is also the first Ambassador for YA Literature and a hilarious speaker.  The panel on the Power of Graphic Novels with Jimmy Gownley of Amelia Rules! and Dr. Michael Bitz of The Comic Book Project, was a great discussion on just what it is that kids love about comics and graphic novels.  The main point that came from this is that kids today are very critical about their sources of information and that translates into literacy for them.  Publishers, teachers and an entire market needs to deliver better information to this audience in a more efficient manner-or lose the market.

It was an amazing event and if it is an indicator of things to come, we really are on the cusp of another great change in our culture.

“]Rob Kurtz, the publisher of Worthwhile (and author of the upcoming February 09 title SEAMUS MCNAMUS), and marketing director Jennifer O’Donohue put together a cozy event celebrating Worthwhile’s line of picture books and early reader graphic novels. The Puck Fair bar was the perfect location because SEAMUS MCNAMUS tells the story of a goat who becomes king for three days at Ireland’s legendary Puck Fair.

“]”] 

 After partaking in a good Irish meat-and-potatoes lunch, Rob spoke to the crowd about his reasons for launching Worthwhile Books — his passion for creating funny, accessible stories for kids. He described the success of Worthwhile’s 2008 bestseller, MICHAEL RECYCLE, and mentioned his excitement about the new ROBOT GALAXY early reader graphic novel series.

“]”] 

 Most importantly, lots of guests were caught reading.

The feature, by Mary Ellen Flannery, is structured to look like a comic with lots of illustrations by Peter Richardson. I always like that. In this adventure, Super-Teacher fights back against the reluctance to read that threatens his classroom by using the power of comics and graphic novels. Thanks to the visual cues and high-interest material in the comics, his class is soon reading at an accelerated level.

It’s nice that this article not only goes into some detail about how comics and graphic novels can be handy classroom tools, but also illustrates that teachers are heroes.

Check it out here.

NEA also has a great article about using comics in the classroom here.

When it comes to selecting books for your library or classroom, you may be hesitant to approach graphic novels out of a lack of familiarity with the medium. Pages packed with visual information may appear chaotic and confusing, and informational sources may assume that you are already a fan.

There is no need to be intimidated! Graphic novels are accessible on a number of levels and need only a discerning eye and a little practice to be understood.

When it comes down to it, the best way to understand comics and graphic novels is to read them. Examine the structure and mechanics of a single page and you’ll discover a treasure trove of information that rewards multiple modes of reading. By paying attention to how this information is organized and presented, you can strengthen your own reading and observation skills!

There are actually several ways to read a graphic novel page, which is why new readers can sometimes find them intimidating or confusing. Some readers choose to focus on the text, reading the story as they would prose and letting the images work on a subconscious level.

Others will pay attention primarily to the pictures, understanding the story by what is shown more than by what is told. These readers allow their imaginations to fill in the gaps between pictures and make a narrative out of them.

Ideally, you’ll glean the most from a comic both by reading and looking. A good exercise to strengthen both skills is to examine one page several times, breaking it down into separate parts.

Let’s start with this page from GT Lab’s Dignifying Science: Stories about Women Scientists. (c) Jim Ottaviani and Stephanie Gladden, Courtesy G.T. Labs. Click on image to enlarge it.

To put this page in context, it appears in a story about Rosalind Franklin, an English biophysicist whose work on X-Ray diffraction images of DNA was instrumental to Francis Crick and Jim Watson’s famous hypothesis on the structure of DNA, published in 1953. In the sequence before this page, Franklin and Raymond Gosling (the man in the glasses) are studying images created from wet and dry samples of DNA. Gosling has suggested they take a break for some tea at the lounge, forgetting that Franklin would not be welcome in the Boy’s Club atmosphere. They part ways and this page shows Franklin preparing the lecture that will inspire Jim Watson.

• What do you learn from reading just the boxes of text and dialogue balloons, without looking at the pictures?
• What if you block out all the text and only look at the pictures? Can you verbally describe what is happening?
• Now put them back together and look for connections and disparities between the pictures and the text. When do the pictures illustrate the words, and when do the words clarify the pictures? Does the combination of what is shown and what is told change the meaning of each individually? Can you spot any visual puns?

What does this picture tell you about what Raymond Gosling is thinking?

Even without understanding the text, you can see that serious work is being done. Look at Franklin’s determined expression in the last panel, the amount of space taken up by the text she is producing and the motion lines around her pen. Also notice the illustration on the chalk board behind her, which can be considered the visual manifestation of her studies - and thus no accident that it appears right next to her head.

Why might Ottaviani and Gladden choose to show Gosling and Franklin’s separate activities on the same page? What does this tell you about the conditions Franklin worked under?

Do the words and images ever contradict each other? If so, which seems to be telling the true story, and why? This could also serve as an introduction to identifying unreliable narrators in prose.

Now to mix it up: try to look at the text, rather than reading it. What does the size and style of the lettering tell you about what is being said? Pay particular attention to sound effects. Since comics are a silent medium, all noise must be rendered visually. How is this achieved?

This may be tricky at first, but you can also “read” the pictures, separating different thoughts and ideas as you would in prose. It is possible to construct a sort of grammar out of the layout and individual panels of a page. What is communicated by each panel individually? What about a row of panels? What about an entire page? There are no exact rules, but you can often think about the arrangement of images in terms of sentences, paragraphs and chapters.

For a much more in depth approach on the combination of reading and looking required by comics, I highly recommend reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden.

Once you are comfortable reading and understanding graphic novels, you will also be able to develop a confident critical approach. What does the author succeed in communicating? How might they have done it better, or differently?

Graphic Novels can be an absorbing read, pulling you into a world that you both see and imagine at the same time. A singularly compelling story may make you forget that you are reading at all, which is one of the reasons that graphic novels are successful with normally reluctant readers. But without denying the pleasure of that particular reading experience, you may also find that slowing down and focusing on how you understand graphic novels will yield surprising insights and a more confident approach to both art and literature.

So much has happened in the graphic novel publishing industry over the past few years and yet we have only begun to scratch the surface.  I had a phone conversation with my boss this summer after Bob Thompson’s story ran in the Washington Post and he made the observation that everyone is still acting like this is a new thing.   While that’s a true thing to say I think it’s still going to be a new thing for quite a while more.  Or, at least until we hear the term graphic novel being used in every day conversation much like you would hear someone describe rock and roll.

So here is where we are:  graphic novels have made some major inroads into the library market, more comic shops are carrying them in addition to comic books, independent retailers are just beginning to take a look at them and now, teachers are starting to use them in the class room.   What adds fuel to the fire is when you have major block buster movies generating billions-yes BILLIONS of dollars in ticket sales.

That is when the stuff blows up.

It would be a wonderful world if something actually sold on the merit of being a well crafted story.  In the movie, music and book publishing industry it’s about the latest trend.  If one person creates something that works well, you can bet the rest of the industry will follow.   Success breeds a herd of followers.

In the case of our graphic novel world, I really hope it stays that way.   You get great books that stand on their own as a memoir or fictional work, or maybe a new line of beginning readers launches a new category of books.  Take for instance the line of TOON Books from Francoise Mouly and her husband Art Speigelman.   These are well crafted graphic novels for little kids!   They took this idea to virtually every publishing house and were told “this is nice but we just don’t see it happening”.   Had it not been for their persistence and belief in what they were doing, the books would not have been created.

Now, you have more publishers saying “hmmmmm maybe they have something there.   We will see quite a few books for beginning readers on the market next year.  Our good friends at Udon were smart enough to learn from TOON Books and will have four new titles-manga titles- for little kids next year.  From what I have seen they look perfect.

2009 is going to bring about some amazing books and movies.   Just when we think we have reached the peak we discover another bigger mountain range just ahead of us.  I can’t wait to see what’s on the other side.

John Shableski is a sales manager with Diamond Book Distributors.   He has also been a moderator and panelist for graphic novel programs at Book Expo America, New York Comic Con and San Diego Comic Con.  He has collaborated on graphic novel symposiums around the country including the launch of the Comix Galaxy at the Miami Book Fair International.  Shableski is also a panel judge for the 2009 Eisner Awards.   He can be reached via email at shjohn@diamondbookdistributors.com

This month’s features include an interview with Ralph Macchio, editor of Marvel Comics’ Marvel Illustrated series, a look at Udon Entertainment’s upcoming Manga for Kids, a Graphic Novel Outreach Roundtable in which leading comics-in-education advocates present their best elevator pitches, courtesy of educator and frequent BookShelf guest writer Peter Gutierrez, and a whole lot more.

Newcomers and long time aficionados are all welcome to join the discussion. We will be sharing links, resources and news pertaining to graphic novels, as well as providing our own reviews and close readings.

Stick around! The fun is just beginning…