This article was downloaded by: [200.222.1.

254]
On: 31 July 2015, At: 10:58
Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered
office: 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

Publication details, including instructions for authors and
subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcom20

Adventures in genre!: rethinking genre

through comics/graphic novels
a
P.L. Thomas
a
Education, Furman University , Greenville, SC, USA
Published online: 29 Nov 2011.

To cite this article: P.L. Thomas (2011) Adventures in genre!: rethinking genre through
comics/graphic novels , Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 2:2, 187-201, DOI:
10.1080/21504857.2011.633090

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2011.633090

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the
“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,
our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to
the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions
and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,
and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content
should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources
of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,
proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or
howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising
out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any
substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,
systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &
Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-
and-conditions
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
Vol. 2, No. 2, December 2011, 187–201

Adventures in genre!: rethinking genre through

comics/graphic novels1
P.L. Thomas*

Education, Furman University, Greenville, SC, USA

(Received 4 May 2011; final version received 14 October 2011)

Historically, comics and graphic novels have been marginalized as quality texts
and significant mediums for study. However, in the past decade comics have found
their place in educational establishments. This essay offers a brief literature review
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

of attitudes toward comics/graphic novels as a medium and then explores the use
of comics/graphic novels within multigenre units of study that challenge student’s
assumptions about genre and text. These unit examples include interrelated works by
William Blake and Alan Moore and by Tori Amos and Neil Gaiman. The piece ends by
examining the range of subgenres within comics/graphic novels, including traditional
views of genre literature (mystery, western, etc.) and considerations of text as adaptation
(graphic novel adaptations of traditional literature, film adaptations, etc.).
Keywords: comic books; graphic novels; genre; multigenre; text adaptation; canon

Poet Nate Pritts offers this insight from his childhood:

As a kid, I read comic books. My foundational experiences with language either came directly
from or were constantly colored by comic books. Many characters in many comic books
use exclamation points to punctuate everything they say, I suppose to communicate the
emphatic/heroic nature of their utterance (Hildreth 2010).

Writer, notably of young adult novels, Sherman Alexie (1998) shares a similar experience:
I learned to read with a Superman comic book. Simple enough, I suppose. I cannot recall
which particular Superman comic book I read, nor can I remember which villain he fought
in that issue. I cannot remember the plot, nor the means by which I obtained the comic book.
What I can remember is this: I was three years old, a Spokane Indian boy living with his family
on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state.
The value of comic books in the lives and germination of writers is common, including
Margaret Atwood (Thomas 2007), and that same value in thousands and thousands of
children’s and adults’ lives should not be ignored.
While some argue about classifying comic books/graphic novels as genre or medium,
the impact of comic books/graphic novels on students’ and all readers’ perceptions of
what counts as reading, what counts as text, and what counts as genre (or medium) is a key
reason to embrace comic books/graphic novels as powerful texts and as powerful entry
points for critical literacy.
•••

*Email: paul.thomas@furman.edu

ISSN 2150-4857 print/ISSN 2150-4865 online

© 2011 Taylor & Francis
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2011.633090
http://www.tandfonline.com
 188 P.L. Thomas

Writing about Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451 (1996), Boxer (2009) observes:

Think back to the original novel. Comic books are the only books shallow enough to go
unburned, the only ones people are still allowed to read. Beatty, the fire chief, who seems
to have loved books once and whom Bradbury has called ‘a darker side of me’, explains it all
to the hero, Guy Montag, the reluctant fireman. When photography, movies, radio, and televi-
sion came into their own, he says, books started to be ‘leveled down to a sort of pastepudding
norm’. Burning them isn’t so tragic, he suggests, because they are already so degraded.

In his consideration of a graphic adaptation of Bradbury’s classic sci-fi novel, Boxer is

concerned about the inherent failure of graphic novels to meet the high standards of the
original novel:

Fast forward 56 years to a condensed, comic-book version of the very novel in which comic
books and condensations are presented as pap. Surely this is black humor, a resigned joke
about the imminent eclipse of books on paper by images, both digital and analog. Except that
it isn’t. The graphic novel of Fahrenheit 451, with pictures by Tim Hamilton and a condensed
text authorized by Bradbury himself, seems quite earnest.
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

The language and assumptions of Boxer’s critique of the graphic novel Fahrenheit 451
(Hamilton 2009) reveal that in the first decade of the twenty-first century, comics and
graphic novels still have much to overcome. Below I offer a historical consideration of
comics/graphic novels as well as examine briefly comics/graphic novels as adaptations of
traditional texts; this discussion focuses on the medium from my perspective in the US and
from a scholarly stance (Rhoades 2008) that situates comics/graphic novels as a medium
uniquely, but not exclusively, tied to American popular culture.

Comic books/graphic novels, a historical consideration

Establishing the comics/graphic novels medium as a legitimate medium contributes to
but does not ensure respect for the medium in academic settings, from English courses
to history courses to English Language Learner (ELL) settings. Even if and when scholars
and educators recognize comics as a mature and complex medium, Yang (2003) notes, ‘The
educational potential of comics has yet to be fully realized. While other media such as film,
theater, and music have found their place within the American educational establishment,
comics has not.’
Within a decade of comics appearing in the 1930s, scholarship and considerations
of teaching with comics appeared, in surprisingly abundant numbers. Advocates and
detractors started a debate about comics as a medium and about including comics in the
classroom that has lasted until today. The 1950s were a powerful and negative period for
comics – typified by Dr Fredric Wertham’s talks and publications – that stunted both the
growth of the medium and comics being studied and implemented in classrooms (Yang
2003, Coville n.d.).
Then interest in comics and teaching with comics was essentially dormant until the
1970s, but ‘[t]he legacy of the 1954 investigation, however, still loomed. Many educators
who advocated comics condescended them in the same breath’, adds Yang (2003). The
growth of comics that occurred in the 1980s and into the 1990s – the reviving of Batman
by Frank Miller (Miller and Mazzucchelli 2007) and the development of graphic novels
through Watchmen (Moore and Gibbons 1986, 1987) and Maus (Spiegelman 1986, 1991)
following the powerful work of Will Eisner (2004, 2008a, 2008b) – helped spark a renewed
appreciation for comics as a medium and as worthy of instruction in the classroom. By the
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 189

2000s, Yang declares, ‘Many of today’s teachers use comics to encourage the very abilities
some educators in the 1940s feared it would squelch: reading and imagination.’
Challenges to using comics in the classroom (or to allowing children to read and enjoy
comics) have been based on issues unrelated to the quality of the medium. In fact, Yang
(2003) identifies the qualities inherent in comics that he believes make them ideal for the
classroom. First, he notes that comics are motivating, citing evidence over many decades
of the powerful connection between children and comics. Next, Yang highlights the visual
nature of comics as a powerful educational quality associated with multiple intelligences
and multiliteracies.
That comics are spatial, and not time-bound, is ideal for teaching and learning:
Time within a comic book progresses only as quickly as the reader moves her eyes across
the page. The pace at which information is transmitted is completely determined by the
reader. In educational settings, this ‘visual permanence’ firmly places control over the pace
of education in the hands (and the eyes) of the student (Yang 2003).

As well, Yang references evidence that comic books serve well to connect students to con-
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

cepts and disciplines beyond addressing literacy. Finally, Yang values that comics are a
significant part of popular culture, thus a conduit to a critical consideration of pop culture.
Carter (2007) represents the assertion made by Yang (2003) that comics have reached
some level of acceptance and even high regard as both a medium and as a valuable text
in the classroom: ‘With the growing understanding of the importance of critical literacy,
visual literacy, and other types of literacy that were once considered “alternate”, more
attention has been paid to graphic novels’ (Carter 2007, p. 1). Carter also places the value of
comics/graphic novels within calls for art and democracy by Dewey (1934), who believed
art and artistic expression were essential elements of education. Further, he references
successful implementations of comics, such as the Comic Book Project (Bitz 2004, 2006)
and increased use of the medium in ELL settings (Cary 2004, Ranker 2007/2008). Comics
also support educators addressing critical literacy and visual literacy, Carter (2007) adds.
The field of comics/graphic novels and the related scholarship on teaching the medium
are both incomplete and emerging, but if we take a historical look over the scholarship and
claims both for and against comics as a medium and as suitable texts for the classroom, sev-
eral patterns emerge that help inform a case made for comics/graphic novels. Considering
a number of published articles from the 1940s until the 2000s, I outline below the main
themes found when considering comics and teaching comics:

• Use comics, although they are a lesser medium – especially with weak and reluctant
students (Alongi 1974, Frank 1944, Gruenberg 1944, Haugaard 1973, Hutchinson
1949, Koenke 1981, Schoof 1978, Wright 1979). Many endorsements of comics for
classroom use have carried with them a disturbing caveat – at least disturbing to
those of us who appreciate the medium. Wright (1979) explains that comics have
all of the literary elements of traditional literature, adding, ‘By no stretch of the
imagination can comic book stories be called great literature’ (Wright 1979, p. 159).
And, ‘Finally, comic books should never be expected to serve as art or literature’,
Schoof (1978, p. 827) explains; ‘[i]n a sense, comic books are still nothing more
than entertaining junk’. While many educators and librarians have advocated for
allowing and encouraging children to read comics and for teachers to use comics as
instructional texts, the vast majority of that support has come with broad rejections
of the medium. My case, however, includes both an endorsement of the medium
and the use of the medium in classrooms. Comics/graphic novels as a medium has a
 190 P.L. Thomas

significant amount of high-quality work that should not be trivialized or marginalized

because some (even if many would argue ‘most’) of the medium is of a questionable
quality.
• Creating comics is a powerful activity for students – notably for urban and strug-
gling students (Bitz 2004, 2006, Dyson 1997, Frey and Fisher 2004, Koenke 1981,
Morrison et al. 2002, Schoof 1978, Williams 2008; Witty 1941). The work of Bitz
(2004, 2006) and Dyson (1997) are compelling messages about composing original
texts by choice, especially but not exclusively for children struggling in school (and
often in their lives outside of school). Bitz explains:

The story of afterschool comic book clubs is in many ways a story about afterschool
education itself. . . .Students who elect to participate in these programs are encouraged
to express themselves and to take risks in what they say, draw, and write. They use
creative methods to put their knowledge into practice and application. All of these
things occur in the comic book clubs, but they occur in many other afterschool clubs as
well: film production, hip-hop dance, slam poetry, and on and on (2006, p. 18).
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

Comics represent something that children value, and when we support those chil-
dren as they create those things that already matter to them, we are tapping into the
potential for critical literacy and democratic ideals that we often claim the education
system is pursuing. We must not ignore the importance of students composing those
genres that we ask them to read, and the work of Bitz, Dyson and many others reveal
that comic creation is an ideal avenue to authentic composing by our students. To cre-
ate text is to create self, as Dyson explains: ‘Their [her students’] literary drama is
presented . . . in the interest of fostering other such dramas, in other classrooms,
where superheroes of a human sort are waiting for their cue’ (1997, p. 9).
• Comics are positive influences on children and reflect social norms (Belk 1987,
Frank 1944, Gruenberg 1944). During the assault on comics in the 1940s, several
professionals claimed that comics were in fact, on balance, a positive influence on
children. That claim was based on the reality that comics often reinforced the norms
of American culture (see Rhoades 2008, Wright 2001). Belk, examining the mes-
sages in comics related to wealth, concluded, ‘There is some suggestion here that
comic books may have a positive socializing influence on children’ (1987, p. 38).
Further, Belk acknowledges that the shift he detected in comics during the mid-
1980s – ‘more fallible and human superheroes’ – could create another backlash
against comics as they turned against the social norms they have historically reflected
(1987, p. 38). The dilemma for critical educators is that such endorsements of comics
are similar to the mixed messages noted above – teach comics, but they are poor lit-
erature. That comics reinforce uncritically social norms is both a strength and a
weakness of the medium since those social norms may in fact be flawed (consider
the racial stereotypes too often present in comics throughout the first half of the
twentieth century or the objectifying of women still common in comics). For criti-
cal educators, comics endorsing norms we believe need confronting allow students
a window to those norms and to growing as critical readers themselves.
• Comics are a useful step to other literacy developments by students – notably liter-
acy skills (Alongi 1974, Frank 1944, Guthrie 1978, Haugaard 1973, Koenke 1981,
Marsh 1978, Morrison et al. 2002, Norton 2003, Richie 1979, Schoof 1978, G.E.
Schwarz 2002, G. Schwarz 2006, Sones 1944, Strang 1943, Versaci 2001, Weiner
2004, Williams 2008, Wright 1979). Since many arguments for incorporating comics
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 191

into the classroom belittle the quality of comics themselves, comics are often por-
trayed as useful tools to some other literacy end – much as we often do to other
wonderful and engaging texts. Just as we teach The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway
1926/1954) in order to address modernist fiction, point of view, characterization
and a whole host of terms and concepts (with little concern for enjoying a wonderful
story filled with interesting and flawed characters), comics are often touted as some-
what limited texts that can help teach literacy skills and (we hope) move students to
better texts:
Well-done graphic novels offer teachers another tool to be used in the classroom and
can enrich the students’ experiences as a new way of imparting information, serving as
transitions into more print-intensive works, enticing reluctant readers into prose books
and, in some cases, offering literary experiences that linger in the mind long after the
book is finished (Weiner 2004, p. 115).

• Comics are psychologically and developmentally appropriate for children (Bender

1944, Frank 1944, 1949, Schoof 1978, Strang 1943, Zorbaugh 1949). One of the
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

more interesting points running through 1940s endorsements of comics was the
claim that comics were appropriate for children, that they matched children’s inter-
ests and needs. From a clinical perspective, many argued that comics, in fact, were
appropriate for children, although these assertions tended to acknowledge that any
popular medium should not be viewed as a monolithic form. As with other mediums,
whether or not a text is suitable for a child depends on a variety of factors related to
the text and the child. What we should note is that nothing inherent in the medium of
comics makes them inappropriate for children, just as no text is inherently inappro-
priate for children (except, of course, a text designed solely for consenting adults,
such as erotica).
• Comics are well suited to teach critical literacy, especially critical media literacy
(Morrison et al. 2002, Ranker 2007/2008, G.E. Schwarz 2002, G. Schwarz 2006,
Versaci 2001, Williams 2008). One sign that comics as a medium has turned a cor-
ner toward respectability for the medium and for taking it seriously in academic
settings is the growing acknowledgement that comics/graphic novels are well suited
to aid in the teaching of critical literacy, especially as related to enhancing our stu-
dents’ critical lens for media. Versaci (2001), who implements comics in most of his
courses, notes,
As teachers of literature, we should not strive to get students to accept without ques-
tion our own judgments of what constitutes literary merit[, but] to encourage students
to see themselves as having a voice in the question of what constitutes literary merit
by defining reasonable parameters by which to judge a creative work and articulating
why and how that work is – or is not – within those parameters. Only by helping stu-
dents achieve this voice do we help them become active, critical, and engaged readers
(pp. 61–62).

While seeing comics as powerful means to critical literacy ends presents comics as
a tool, that argument at least acknowledges a higher level of sophistication in the
medium than many of the published pieces did from the 1940s through to the 1980s.
• Comics, popular culture, and multiliteracies are all important elements needed
in the classroom (Berger 1978, Frey and Fisher 2004, Gruenberg 1944, Lopes
2006, Morrison et al. 2002, Norton 2003, Ranker 2007/2008, G.E. Schwarz 2002,
G. Schwarz 2006, Sones 1944, Versaci 2001, Williams 2008). ‘In an increasingly
visual culture’, Schwarz explains, ‘literacy educators can profit from the use of
 192 P.L. Thomas

graphic novels in the classroom, especially for young adults’ (2002, p. 262). Another
suggestion that comics are becoming a respected medium is the acknowledgement
that they represent popular culture – which fits within a growing belief that pop
culture must be regarded more highly itself in the classroom. The New London
Group (1996) established an environment that questioned the nature of literacy,
and comics/graphic novels have begun to fit well within that expanding acknowl-
edgement and embracing of multiliteracies: ‘The graphic novel now offers English
language arts teachers opportunities to engage all students in a medium that expands
beyond the traditional boarders of literacy’ (Schwarz 2006, p. 58).
• Comics help educators acknowledge out-of-school literacies and interests in the
classroom (Berkowitz and Packer 2001, Frank 1944, Frey and Fisher 2004,
Hutchinson 1949, Morrison et al. 2002, Norton 2003, Sones 1944, Versaci 2001,
Wright 1979, Zorbaugh 1944). Gallego and Hollingsworth (2000) note that schools
dictate for students what counts as literacy. Frey and Fisher explain, ‘We had
observed students actively engaged with anime and manga materials. . . , although
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

not in sanctioned school activities’ (2004, p. 19). Children often have vibrant literacy
lives that go untapped because teachers fail to acknowledge those literacies, resulting
in ‘many adolescents. . .begin[ning] to see comic books as many adults do: subliter-
ate, disposable, and juvenile’ (Versaci 2001, p. 63). Further, Frey and Fisher call for
not only honouring comics and children’s out-of-school literacies, but also moving
beyond seeing comics as a medium for literacy skills work: ‘[W]e resisted the temp-
tation to focus on remedial skills instruction and instead used popular culture and
the media to invite students into school literacies’ (2004, p. 24).
• Comics are a legitimate (emerging) medium (Berger 1978, Gruenbrg 1944, Lopes
2006, Marsh 1978, Richie 1979, Schoof 1978, Schultz 1949, Versaci 2001, Weiner
2004, Zorbaugh 1944). In his work on stigma – specifically of comics as a part of
popular culture – Lopes notes that comics have been marginalized ‘as less than liter-
ature and less than visual art’ (2006, p. 404). Despite a historical tide against comics,
including the devastating attack in the mid-twentieth century, Lopes sees the medium
rising: ‘With the recent success of graphic novels [since 2002] catering to both chil-
dren and adults, and the success of film adaptations of comic books, perhaps normals
have finally discovered that the American comic book is a unique and complex art
form’ (2006, p. 411). The view that comics is a substantial medium is still rare, how-
ever, but my case here supports acknowledging comics/graphic novels as a powerful
and sophisticated medium as valuable as any other.
• Comics are well suited for a variety of instructional settings including art, ELL and
foreign language (Berkowitz and Packer 2001, Marsh 1978, Ranker 2007/2008,
Williams 2008). Cary (2004, p. 1) admits, ‘Superman made me a reader’. In his
book on incorporating comics in ELL instruction, Cary represents a growing move
to identify the value of comics/graphic novels for a variety of educational purposes
beyond teaching native language literacy skills. Comics have been used in art courses
(Berkowitz and Packer 2001, Williams 2008) and in the teaching of French (Marsh
1978), as well as in ELL classes (Ranker 2007/2008).

While there is a mixed history of scholarship about comics/graphic novels as a medium

and as suitable for the classroom, a case for comics is still fighting against a popular and
academic perception that comics are for children and comics are a weak cousin to both
literature and visual art. One avenue to exploring and better appreciating the strengths of
comics/graphic novels is to examine graphic adaptations of traditional texts.
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 193

Graphic adaptations of traditional texts

Many people immediately think of Classics Illustrated when anyone suggests using comics
seriously in a classroom – the comic book adaptations of classic works of literature that
began printing in 1941. That assumption also often includes the belief that adaptations
are easier than the traditional texts and intended primarily if not exclusively for weak and
unmotivated readers.
‘When we were invited to review manga versions of four Shakespeare plays’, explain
Alexander and Lupton, ‘we were, frankly, a bit skeptical’ (2009, p. 85). And I imagine
that scepticism is common among teachers and the public. Alexander and Lupton add that
they assumed the medium, manga, and graphic adaptations were ‘watered-down version[s]
of the Bard’s work’ (2009, p. 85). Their consideration of manga Shakespeare reveals the
lingering negative attitudes toward sequential art as something less than traditional texts,
and their commentary also suggests a similar debasing of adaptations of traditional texts,
a lack of appreciation for adaptation that overlaps with films of classic literature.
However, Alexander and Lupton discovered, ‘[U]pon closer inspection the books reveal
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

great craft and care in the handling of their material’ (2009, p. 86). And here is a key
to considering the value of comics, graphic novels and graphic adaptations of traditional
texts – craft. That we consider both the messages of texts and how those texts are formed –
whether text-only, text with art, or film – is ultimately a concern for craft, medium and
genre. Alexander and Lupton include in their endorsement of the manga Shakespeare a
realization about the possibilities of a variety of texts:
Perhaps one of the most productive dimensions of the manga versions might lie in their abil-
ity not only to excite interest in Shakespeare’s dramas but also to stimulate consideration of
various media and their different affordances. A manga version of Hamlet, as we have sug-
gested, can make interpretive gestures that other media – the original text and even a filmed
version – cannot. As such, a consideration of these manga versions in conjunction with other
‘readings’ and renderings of Shakespeare’s work may open up lively discussions of media and
media literacy – discussions that our students increasingly need to have if we are to become
more literate about and fluent with the media venues and technologies that surround us (2009,
pp. 88–89).

Briefly here, I will discuss a few traditional texts that include graphic novel adapta-
tions – Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1996), Paul Auster’s City of Glass, and Mark
Twain’s (2001) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The focus of study-
ing graphic novel adaptations of traditional works should include both the craft of the
adaptations and how those adaptations conform with and differ from the original texts.
Above, I discussed Boxer’s (2009) dismay about Ray Bradbury endorsing a graphic
novel adaptation of his novel (Hamilton 2009), Fahrenheit 451. Boxer’s discourse is filled
with the typical marginalization and misunderstanding of the comic book medium. Boxer
notes that in Bradbury’s dystopian novel, the comic book is one of the very few allowed
printed text formats. ‘It’s hard to know what on earth Bradbury was thinking’, Boxer
muses, adding:
Maybe there’s another explanation, though. Maybe Bradbury sees the comic book as a kind
of life raft, a salvation, for books. At the end of Fahrenheit 451, an underground society of
persecuted book lovers picks volumes to memorize before burning them. They recite them to
others. It’s back to the oral tradition to save the literary world. Today a similar thing (minus
the burning) is happening in reality, as graphic novelists pick out classics to retell in their own
way. Fahrenheit 451 is but one of many (Boxer 2009).

Boxer, I believe, is missing the essence of graphic novel adaptations of traditional texts,
however.
 194 P.L. Thomas

Consider that Shakespeare, often acknowledged as the author of the greatest literature
ever produced, wrote his plays based on other texts – in other words, Shakespeare himself
adapted text to create his much praised works. A complex and engaging study, then, would
be to ask students to examine Bradbury’s (1996) original novel, the graphic novel adap-
tation (Hamilton 2009), and the film adaptation (Fahrenheit 451 1966). As Neary (2009)
explains about the graphic novel:

This isn’t the first time the book has been adapted for a new medium. In 1966, Francois
Truffaut made it into a film starring Julie Christie and Oskar Werner. Though the movie made
a few significant departures from the book, Bradbury supported Truffaut’s interpretation of
his story. And now he has given his full backing to the graphic adaptation. For Bradbury, a
comic book collector since age nine, the idea is exciting.

A graphic novel adaptation is yet another medium for telling a story, and the nature of
each medium impacts the narrative differently. Distinguishing among those differences
enhances our students’ literacy development in ways that approaching traditional text-only
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

cannot.
Different versions of Bradbury’s novel ask students to consider the science fiction genre
as well. Like the versions of Fahrenheit 451, Paul Auster’s City of Glass provides an excel-
lent unit around the novel and the graphic novel adaptation by Paul Karasik and David
Mazzucchelli (artist of Batman: Year One (Miller and Mazzucchelli 2007)) (Auster et al.
2004). Auster’s work is generally considered genre fiction itself; as part of his New York
Trilogy, City of Glass is a critically acclaimed noir mystery. Often in formal school settings,
genre fiction, such as science fiction and mystery, are marginalized as lesser than so-called
literary fiction – although some elite works of genre fiction often move into the literary
canon.
Art Spiegelman (1986, 1991), noted author of graphic novels (Maus), in the introduc-
tion to the graphic adaptation of City of Glass, opens by acknowledging the shift from
‘comics’ to ‘graphic novels’ to legitimize the medium. Spiegelman continues to explain
that he began a quest to join ‘some serious novelists to provide scenarios for skilled graphic
artists’ (Auster et al. 2004, n.p.). Spiegelman’s quest was interrupted by writers who agreed
and then abandoned any commitment. This process led to adaptations, suggested by Auster,
but Spiegelman saw problems with using City of Glass:

For all its playful references to pulp fiction, City of Glass is a surprisingly nonvisual work
at its core, a complex web of words and abstract ideas in playfully shifting narrative styles.
(Paul warned me that several attempts to turn his book into a film script had failed miserably.)
(Auster et al. 2004, n.p.)

This all surely bodes poorly for adapting the novel to a graphic novel.
The key to making the adaptation work was asking Karasik to join Mazzucchelli,
instead of asking Mazzucchelli simply to adapt the work himself. The coincidence of
the project was that Karasik had years earlier already begun work on adapting the novel,
explains Spiegelman. The new project with Karasik and Mazzucchelli produced a fuller
and more successful approach to adapting Auster’s novel, including rethinking the use of
panels by the artist. Ultimately, Spiegelman explains,

By poking at the heart of comics’ structure, Karasik and Mazzucchelli created a strange dop-
pelganger of the original book. It’s as if Quinn, confronted with two nearly identical Peter
Stillmans at Grand Central Station, chose to follow one drawn with brush and ink rather than
one set in type (Auster et al. 2004, n.p.).
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 195

As Spiegelman states, the graphic novel is a model of the power of collaboration, a key
aspect of both graphic novels and adaptation that students need to consider in our culture
that values individual work (or at least the appearance of such) over collaboration.
‘Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court has been adapted to multi-
ple media since its publication in 1889’, explains Keebaugh (2007). The novel by Twain has
been adapted in film and comic format many times, she adds in a discussion of how those
many versions add to the Yankee, Hank Morgan. Keebaugh offers a detailed analysis of
Hank and other characters, reinforcing an argument that Twain’s work is underappreciated.
Next, Keebaugh (2007) looks at the film versions of the novel. A Connecticut Yankee
(1931) is explicated to show how the adaptation adds to and deviates from Twain’s original
work, concluding:
One critic calls Rogers’s A Connecticut Yankee ‘a very entertaining rendition of the story’
(Sindelar, July 5), but I would contend that this critic does not grasp the deeper relations
between the characters, which are largely lost with this rendition. Machinery and modern
inventions pervade the screen, but their original significance – peaceful industrial revolution –
is sacrificed to forced love stories and a weak characterization of Hank.
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

Four film versions are identified, including a cartoon version featuring Bugs Bunny. The
film versions are also interesting since they are often broad or loose adaptations unlike the
1931 film that attempts to follow the novel closely.
Keebaugh (2007) next turns to comic book adaptations, including five different ver-
sions from 1945 to 1997. The discussion of the comics, like the films, shows the nature of
adaptation and the mediums involved, leading Keebaugh to conclude: ‘Throughout differ-
ent adaptations of A Connecticut Yankee, a common trait is painstakingly clear: Hank is
not the character that Twain originally wrote him to be’ (Keebaugh 2007). The discussion
of different versions of Twain’s work offers Keebaugh an opportunity to present a solid
argument for evaluating comics as a medium and adaptations:
Comics should not be judged by whether or not they successfully stuff a long novel into a
comic format (which is surely impossible for many reasons), but by what lens they offer of the
original text. Each adaptation emphasizes a different aspect of the original, and these differing
lenses may serve to help us rediscover old texts in new lights, to see, in effect, those aspects
of prose narrative difficult to discern because they are present – rather than omitted – or are
differently integrated into the system of the work (Keebaugh 2007).

While I remain committed to the value of comics/graphic novels as an original medium

form, I also believe that comics/graphic novels as adaptations provide students with a
compelling and craft-rich avenue to exploring the essential adaptive nature of all created
works (as I mentioned about Shakespeare above) as well as the challenges any text faces
when working as an adaptation of another text.

Entry to graphic narratives – poetry and music

Many teachers continue to balk at including nontraditional texts in their classrooms, includ-
ing a decades-long debate over the canon of works suitable for study. When a teacher,
school, or community feels compelled to work within a traditional norm of what matters
as quality texts, a possible strategy for opening the door to comics/graphic novels is to use
canonical writers and works as an entry to less traditional texts. Here, I examine using the
poetry and art of William Blake (1997), a canonical author, as a doorway to comics; then,
I offer connections between songs – which can be linked to poetry as a traditional text –
and comics through the music of Tori Amos and the comic book work of Neil Gaiman.
 196 P.L. Thomas

Sequential art, by the nature of joining text and graphics, is a natural connection to
poetry since poetry as a genre is highly sensory, often driven by imagery. Using imagist
poets such as William Carlos Williams or E.E. Cummings to move to comics and graphic
novels seems to make sense when asking students to consider the conventions of genre.
In an issue of ImageText, the work of British poet and artist William Blake is examined as
a likely connection to comic books.
‘Two hundred and fifty years after William Blake’s birth, his work continues to have a
very strong visual resonance’, explains Whitson (2007a) in the introduction to the Blake
issue. Whitson makes a case for connecting Blake and comics, including noting that a
Blake descendent, William Blake Everett, created a comic superhero, Namor, the Sub-
Mariner. Then, Whitson offers Blake’s influence on major comic creators:
In a more general sense, Blake’s designs influence two generations of comic artists, from the
acid-induced philosophical ramblings of Grant Morrison, to the wide-eyed fleshy perversions
gracing the pages of work by R. Crumb, to the wistful fairytales conjured by J.M. DeMatteis
and the more independent work of Keith Mayerson. Each of these creators, in his own way,
foregrounds the indisputable visual presence of transformation and metamorphosis in Blake’s
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

work in their own (Whitson 2007a).

Finally, Whitson (2007a) identifies more direct connections between Blake’s work and
the journal itself. Referencing the coining of the term ‘imagetext’ by W.J.T. Mitchell,
Whitson explains the journal’s focus on the relationship between text and images and
Mitchell’s use of Blake’s work to develop his term and the concept behind ‘imagetext’
as one word. Whitson, then, adds:
The imagetext emerges in a bewildering haze of interaction, transformation and mutation –
thus signifying much more than just comics and cartoons. Or rather, the academic study of
comics and cartoons opens up its own infinite vortex – that of the imagetext itself – and
forces a broader study of woodcuts, novels, paintings, new media, film, television, graphic art,
advertisements, and indeed comics and animated cartoons (Whitson 2007a).

‘It is something of a novelty’, begins Broglio (2007), ‘to imagine a conversation

between the works of William Blake and the contemporary graphic novel’. And Broglio
believes that Blake’s sense of novelty lends itself to serious considerations of comics as
a medium since the medium is itself novel as a form of ‘text’. Through a discussion of
Blake’s merging of text and graphics, Broglio concludes:
Comics promise the opportunity of exercising the virtual in ways similar to those enacted by
William Blake and exemplified in America. There will always be comics that remain within the
axis of the possible-real. Yet, the limitations of mimesis and representation call for prophetic
works like those of Blake’s illuminated prophecies in which forces larger than character move
from residual roles to primary agents of change. . ..The ontological shifts that seem impossible
in traditional representational narratives become part of the fabric of Blake’s visionary poetry.
Such work actualizes its virtuality for and in the reader who opens ‘the doors of perception’,
and in the larger world to which the reader returns after closing the illuminated poems (Broglio
2007).

Comics share with Blake’s work a realization of the possible when we move beyond text-
only mediums.
Writing about Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1997), Leslie (2007)
observes:
The argument of a line’s words turns into a graphic representation of its sentiment. The top
edge of a drawing offers itself again as a horizon line for wandering figures. All this detail
makes the page’s surface a dynamic space of interrelating elements. It fizzes with life. The
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 197

surface swarms. Blake’s ‘infernal’ procedures of printing allowed him to entangle words,
illustrations, and lines on the same copperplate.

Like comics/graphic novels, the product Blake creates communicates in ‘a dynamic space
of interrelating elements’ that we often marginalize when compared to text-only works.
As Leslie explains, Blake’s mixing of text and graphics disrupts and impacts how the
reader views the text and the messages of the totality, again much as the panels and layout
of a comic allows and forces the reader to read and re-read the parts and whole of a comic
book.
More directly, Leslie (2007) believes Blake’s works ‘are the templates for comic book
superheroes: the musculature and the skin-tight costumes that showcase it, the globular
eyes ablaze, the strong legs flung apart, the bold gesticulations of the arms’. Leslie solidifies
this connection by examining the use of Blake in the work of Alan Moore – ‘Moore’s is a
bleak Blakeanism.’ Specifically, students can find these references in Moore’s From Hell
(Moore and Campbell 2000), Leslie shows.
Whitson (2007b) identifies further the connection between Moore and Blake:
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

As figures embedded in the globalizing mechanisms of postmodern capitalism, Blake and

Moore form a fearful symmetry where rebellion and visionary transgression become indis-
criminately intertwined with hip online markets offering everything from autobiographies
to action figures and computer games. Blake’s poem ‘The Tyger’ and Moore’s comic
book Watchmen show an awareness of a split between self-image and its commodified
dissemination.

Whitson’s explication of the elements shared between Moore and Blake can serve students
well as they examine these two creators’ works, following thematic patterns and motifs
running through both canonical works, Blake’s poetry (specifically ‘The Tyger’), and chal-
lenges to our perceptions of text, Moore’s sequential art (specifically Watchmen (Moore
and Gibbons 1986, 1987)).
Whitson (2007b) focuses on Chapter 5 of Watchmen, ‘Fearful Symmetry’, which incor-
porates the motif of symmetry into the panels and pages of the work – with the central
pages, 14–15, mirror images of each other, thus symmetrical. The explication of Blake
within the work and ideology of Moore’s canon leads Whitson (2007b) to conclude:

While William Blake possesses the capitalist subject, the capitalist subject possesses Alan
Moore – Alan Moore becomes William Blake – and one cannot tell if the capitalist sub-
ject is being perverted or if the capitalist subject is dominating everything: transforming and
commodifying mysticism, superheroics and prophecy in a flourish of postmodern monetary
exchange. Who made the Tyger? Who made William Blake, or Alan Moore, or the tran-
scendental unity of apperception? All are fearful symmetrical reflections of one another. All
contribute to, pound away at, and fracture the sublime network that is contemporary global
capital.

Whitson (Talbot and Whitson 2007) offers another connection between Blake and
comics with an interview with Bryan Talbot, whose comic book work is also connected
with Alan Moore (Swamp Thing (Moore, Bissette, and Totleben 1987)). Talbot discusses a
wide range of influences on his life and career, noting:

I went to a School of Art to do a one year foundation course. This is where I learned to hate,
like Blake, the contemporary fine art world as I was taught by three obnoxious abstract artists
who allowed no figurative work of any kind. They taught by fear, using sarcasm to humiliate
before the entire studio students who didn’t fit in (Talbot and Whitson 2007).
 198 P.L. Thomas

Throughout the interview, Talbot reveals in his work, paralleling the patterns in Moore,
the conscious influence of Blake’s ideas and work on Talbot’s evolution as a comic book
creator.
Once the connection between a canonical writer like Blake and an alternative text such
as comics/graphic novels has been established, another multigenre/multi-medium consid-
eration that can be made is between the music of Tori Amos and the comic book work
of Neil Gaiman, as Reed (2008) identifies: ‘There are remarkably numerous textual cross-
pollinations and direct references that writer Neil Gaiman and musician Tori Amos make
to one another’s creative efforts and friendship in their own works.’ While the relationship
between Blake’s creative works and Moore’s sequential art is more Blake influencing and
informing Moore, the relationship between Amos and Gaiman is one of references and
allusion that supports the individual works but also appears to promote the work of the
other artist.
Reed (2008) provides a sophisticated explication of the works of Amos and Gaiman
to establish the relationship between the two and the significance of the references within
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

each artist’s works. The examination of the Amos/Gaiman connection also includes a use-
ful listing of the works reflecting the overlap of references and allusions in Amos’ music
and Gaiman’s comics and more traditional texts/genres (Gaiman’s work is itself an exam-
ination of many genres, in fact). Reed’s concluding commentary offers a strong argument
for the value of exploring the Amos/Gaiman textual relationship for students as an avenue
for challenging genre, medium and text:
Between Neil Gaiman’s flirtations with the mythic and Tori Amos’s impressionistic self-
portraiture, their friendship as presented in their public works is an encoded one that inspires
curiosity and devotion in audiences, drawing them in with sincere advertisement. Within the
social and economic operations of textual mediation through such individuals, the variable
that allows the authors’ commentary on one another to have difference and thereby to take
meaning is revealed to us in the ways that readers and listeners take on the name, image, and
idealized reflection of each author, searching to bridge the imaginary in the give and take of
words and song (Reed 2008).

Comics/graphic novels as a medium are much more than superhero comic books, the
type of work most people associate with the medium. And, while I remain convinced that
sequential art is a valuable medium for its own reasons, many educators and scholars balk at
the medium still. Using connections between what has already been established as quality
text, such as Blake above, and comics allows both teachers and students the opportunity
to examine comics as a medium while not straying too far from recognized works and
traditional views of ‘text’. I am hard pressed to imagine a more powerful experience for
students than a challenging look at Blake, Moore, Amos and Gaiman as an adventure in
genre/text that rivals the adventures we tend to associate with the world of the comic book.

•••

When children are coming to know the world and those aspects of existence that
make humans human, such as language, they discover and form theories that are increas-
ingly tempered by what they have decided before. Human perception is a series of biased
perceptions leading to solidifying already held beliefs or transitioning to new beliefs.
Once children enter school, their perceptions are often set aside for the authoritar-
ian views of the school, embodied by teachers and administrators. Soon children come to
embrace narrow views of text, reading and genre – jaded by the weight of school. Often,
deep down inside, those children know better, but remain silent or silenced.
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 199

Reconsidering text, reading and genre through comic books and graphic novels – texts
often associated with those children’s worlds – is a step toward honouring more nuanced
and sophisticated perceptions of text – perceptions that children and adults alike have
already embraced beyond the walls of school.

Note
1. Adapted from Thomas, P.L. (in press). Challenging genres: comic books and graphic novels.
Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Notes on contributor
P.L. Thomas, Associate Professor of Education (Furman University, Greenville SC), taught high
school English before moving to teacher education. He is currently a column editor for English
Journal (National Council of Teachers of English) and series editor for Critical Literacy Teaching
Series: Challenging Authors and Genres (Sense Publishers), in which he authored the first volume
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

‘Challenging genres: comics and graphic novels’ (2010). He also has an entry on comics/graphic
novels in Boy Culture (Greenwood Press, 2010) and maintains a blog addressing teaching
comics/graphic novels at http://comicsasliterature.blogspot.com/. His work can be followed at
http://wrestlingwithwriting.blogspot.com/.

References
A Connecticut Yankee, 1931. Film. Directed by D. Butler. USA: CBS/Fox Video.
Alexander, J. and Lupton, J., 2009. Reviews: ‘the play’s the thing’ – really: manga Shakespeare.
Journal of Teaching Writing, 25 (1), 85–89.
Alexie, S., 1998. Superman and me. Los Angeles Times [online], 19 April. Available from: http://
articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/19/books/bk-42979 [Accessed 11 August 2010].
Alongi, C., 1974. Response to Kay Haugaard: comic books revisited. Reading Teacher, 27 (8),
801–803.
Auster, P., 1985. City of glass. New York: Penguin Books.
Auster, P., Karasik, P., and Mazzucchelli, D., 2004. City of glass. New York: Picador.
Belk, R.W., 1987. Material values in comics: a content analysis of comic books featuring themes on
wealth. The Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (1), 26–42.
Bender, L., 1944. The psychology of children’s reading and the comics. Journal of Educational
Sociology, 18 (4), 223–231.
Berger, A.A., 1978. Taking comics seriously. The Wilson Quarterly, 2 (3), 95–101.
Berkowitz, J. and Packer, T., 2001. Heroes in the classroom: comic books in art education. Art
Education, 54 (6), 12–18.
Bitz, M., 2004. The comic book project: forging alternative pathways to literacy. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 47, 574–586.
Bitz, M., 2006. The art of democracy/democracy as art: creative learning in afterschool comic book
clubs. Afterschool Matters. Occasional paper series [online], Fall, 1–20. Available from: http://
www.robertbownefoundation.org/pdf_files/occasional_paper_06.pdf [Accessed 25 February
2010].
Blake, W., 1997. The complete poetry and prose of William Blake. D.V. Erdman, ed. New York:
Anchor.
Boxer, S., 2009. Is it time to burn this book? Slate [online], 17 August. Available from: http://www.
slate.com/id/2223495/ [Accessed 9 February 2010].
Bradbury, R., 1996. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Ballantine Books.
Broglio, R., 2007. William Blake and the novel space of revolution. ImageText: Interdisciplinary
Comics Studies [online], 3 (2). Available from: http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/
v3_2/broglio/ [Accessed 22 April 2010].
Carter, J.B., ed., 2007. Building literacy connection with graphic novels: page by page, panel by
panel. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
 200 P.L. Thomas

Cary, S., 2004. Going graphic: comics at work in the multilingual classroom. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Coville, J., n.d. The comic book villain, Dr. Fredric Wertham, M.D. Integrative Arts 10: Seduction of
the Innocents and the Attack on Comic Books [online]. Pennsylvania State University. Available
from: http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/cmbk4cca.html [Accessed 11 August 2010].
Dewey, J., 1934. Art as experience. New York: A Perigee Book.
Dyson, A.H., 1997. Writing superheroes: contemporary childhood, popular culture, and classroom
literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.
Eisner, W., 2008a. Comics and sequential art. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Eisner, W., 2008b. Graphic storytelling and visual narrative. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Eisner, W., 2004. Keynote address, Will Eisner Symposium. ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary
Comics Studies [online], 1 (1). Available from: http://www.english.ufl.edu/ImageTexT/archives/
v1_1/eisner/ [Accessed 22 February 2010].
Fahrenheit 451, 1966. Film. Directed by F. Truffaut. UK: Anglo Enterprises.
Frank, J., 1944. What’s in the comics? Journal of Educational Sociology, 18 (4), 214–222.
Frank, J., 1949. Some questions and answers for teachers and parents. Journal of Educational
Sociology, 23 (4), 206–214.
Frey, N. and Fisher, D., 2004. Using graphic novels, anime, and the internet in an urban high school.
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

English Journal, 93 (3), 19–25.

Gallego, M.A. and Hollingsworth, S., eds, 2000. What counts as literacy: challenging the school
standard. New York: Teachers College Press.
Gruenberg, S., 1944. The comics as a social force. Journal of Educational Sociology, 18 (4),
204–213.
Guthrie, J.T., 1978. Research views: comics. The Reading Teacher, 32 (3), 376–378.
Hamilton, T., 2009. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451: the authorized adaptation. New York: Hill and
Wang.
Haugaard, K., 1973. Comic books: conduits to culture? The Reading Teacher, 27 (1), 54–55.
Hemingway, E., 1926/1954. The sun also rises. New York: Collier Books.
Hildreth, E., 2010. An interview with Nate Pitts. Bookslut [online], February. Available from: http://
www.bookslut.com/features/2010_02_015660.php [Accessed 11 August 2010].
Hutchinson, K.H., 1949. An experiment in the use of comics as instructional material. Journal of
Educational Sociology, 23 (4), 236–245.
Keebaugh, C., 2007. The many sides of Hank: modifications, adjustments, and adaptations of
Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court. ImageText: Interdisciplinary
Comics Studies [online], 3 (3). Available from: http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/
v3_3/keebaugh/ [Accessed 20 April 2010].
Koenke, K., 1981. The careful use of comic books. Reading Teacher, 34 (5), 592–595.
Leslie, E., 2007. Blake’s lines: seven digressions through time and space. ImageText:
Interdisciplinary Comics Studies [online], 3 (2). Available from: http://www.english.ufl.edu/
imagetext/archives/v3_2/leslie/ [Accessed 22 April 2010].
Lopes, P., 2006. Culture and stigma: popular culture and the case of comic books. Sociological
Forum, 21 (3), 387–414.
Marsh, R.K., 1978. Teaching French with the comics. The French Review, 51 (6), 777–785.
Miller, F. and Mazzucchelli, D., 2007. Batman: Year one. New York: DC Comics.
Moore, A., Bissette, S., and Totleben, J., 1987. Swamp thing. Book 1. New York: Vertigo.
Moore, A. and Campbell, E., 2000. From hell. Marietta GA: Top Shelf Production.
Moore, A. and Gibbons, D., 1986, 1987. Watchmen. New York: DC Comics.
Morrison, T., Bryan, G., and Chilcoat, G., 2002. Using student-generated comic books in the
classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45 (8), 758–767.
Neary, L., 2009. Reimagining ‘Fahrenheit 451’ as a graphic novel. NPR [online], 30 July. Available
from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106929166 [Accessed 20 April
2010].
Norton, B., 2003. The motivating power of comic books: insights from Archie comic readers. The
Reading Teacher, 57 (2), 140–147.
Ranker, J., 2007/2008. Using comic books as read-alouds: insights on reading instruction for an
English as a second language classroom. The Reading Teacher, 61 (4), 296–305.
Reed, S.A., 2008. Through every mirror in the world: Lacan’s mirror stage as mutual refer-
ence in the works of Neil Gaiman and Tori Amos. ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics
 Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 201

Studies [online], 4 (1). Available from: http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v4_1/reed/

[Accessed 22 April 2010].
Rhoades, S., 2008. A complete history of American comic books. New York: Peter Lang USA.
Richie, J.R., 1979. The funnies aren’t just funny. . .: using cartoons and comics to teach. The Clearing
House, 53 (3), 125–128.
Schoof, R.N., 1978. Four-color words: comic books in the classroom. Language Arts, 55 (7),
821–827.
Schultz, H.E., 1949. Censorship or self regulation? Journal of Educational Sociology, 23 (4),
215–224.
Schwarz, G., 2006. Expanding literacies through graphic novels. English Journal, 95 (6), 58–64.
Schwarz, G.E., 2002. Graphic novels for multiple literacies. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy,
46, 262–265.
Sones, W., 1944. The comics and instructional method. Journal of Educational Sociology, 18 (4),
232–240.
Spiegelman, A., 1986, 1991. The complete Maus. New York: Pantheon Books.
Strang, R., 1943. Why children read the comics. The Elementary School Journal, 43 (6), 336–342.
Talbot, B. and Whitson, R., 2007. Engraving the void and sketching parallel works: an interview with
Bryan Talbot. ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies [online], 3 (2). Available from: http://
Downloaded by [200.222.1.254] at 10:58 31 July 2015

www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2/talbot/ [Accessed 22 April 2010].

The New London Group, 1996. A pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures. Harvard
Educational Review, 66 (1). Available from: http://www.static.kern.org/filer/blogWrite
44ManilaWebsite/paul/articles/A_Pedagogy_of_Multiliteracies_Designing_Social_Futures.htm
[Accessed 4 September 2011].
Thomas, P.L., 2007. Reading, learning, teaching Margaret Atwood. New York: Peter Lang USA.
Twain, M., 2001. A Connecticut yankee in King Arthur’s court. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
Versaci, R., 2001. How comic books can change the way our students see literature: one teacher’s
perspective. English Journal, 91 (2), 61–67.
Weiner, S., 2004. Show, don’t tell: graphic novels in the classroom. English Journal, 94 (2), 114–117.
Whitson, R., 2007a. Introduction to ‘William Blake and visual culture’, a special issue of ImageText.
ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies [online], 3 (2). Available from: http://www.english.
ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2/introduction.shtml [Accessed 22 April 2010].
Whitson, R., 2007b. Panelling parallax: the fearful symmetry of Alan Moore and William Blake.
ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies [online], 3 (2). Available from: http://www.english.
ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_2/whitson/ [Accessed 22 April 2010].
Williams, R.M., 2008. Image, text, and story: comics and graphic novels in the classroom. Art
Education, November, 13–19.
Witty, P., 1941. Reading comics: a comparative study. The Journal of Experimental Education,
10 (2), 105–109.
Wright, B.W., 2001. Comic book nation: the transformation of youth culture in America. Baltimore,
MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wright, G., 1979. The comic book: a forgotten medium in the classroom. The Reading Teacher,
33 (2), 158–161.
Yang, G., 2003. Comics in education [online]. Available from: http://www.geneyang.com/comicsedu/
index.html [Accessed 25 February 2010].
Zorbaugh, H., 1944. The comics –there they stand! Journal of Educational Sociology, 18 (4), 196–
203.
Zorbaugh, H., 1949. What adults think of comics as reading for children. Journal of Educational
Sociology, 23 (4), 225–235.