Reinventing Comics
A couple weeks ago I was given a copy of the book Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud so that I might be able to participate in a professional development group that is being offered by the Communication Arts Coordinator in my district. The purpose behind the group is to explore a variety of media and explore how it is changing the reading and communication patterns of those in society. With the popularity of graphic novels in the English classroom and with my interest in media literacy as a whole, the topic intriques me.
One of the comics that McCloud brings up is Maus by Art Spiegelman as a turning point comics in our society. I read Maus many years ago and was completely enthralled by the retelling of a Holocaust survivors story in the form of a graphic novel. However, until reading McClouds book, I didn’t realize how much symbolism and purposeful placement went into the creation of the work. Through the use of pictures and text, the medium itself can engage in ways that have, in my opinion, not been explored by most teachers of literature and reading. In many ways, the techniques that I used to teach in my media classes regarding video production, also lend themselves to comics and graphic novels.
The book itself is a little meta in that, in order to analyze comics and the industry, McCloud explains his thoughts through the use of a traditional comic book. It’s interesting to see the book evolve as he changes topics and gives insight into the world of the comic artist.
While I don’t feel as though I came away with anything revolutionary from the book, I do have a better appreciation and am starting to look at comics and graphic novels as a real possibility for teaching media literacy. McCloud’s premise that computers and the Internet have the ability to change the way people read comics has great possibilities for both the creation and consumption of comics in and out of the classroom.
“Understanding Comics” is McCloud’s best book. It still is an excellent introduction to the narrative techniques of comics. “Reinventing Comics,” I thought, was more ambitious because it tries to show where comics ought to go.
Graphic novels are one of the fastest growing collections in many of the Parkway libraries!! There’s a lot of librarians who totally believe in these as a great means of literacy. There is also a lot of research out there (I think Keith Lance, but I’d have to check that) showing these do improve I’m also hearing many folks who are using cartoon creators on the Web in their classes. Probably a definite
possiblity for a new type of literacy and learning in the future. You might ask Brian Welch at West High to help with that committee- he’s an expert at graphic novels in the High School setting.
I realized as I read comments, that I wasn’t clear as to my experience. I’ve used graphic novels in my classroom. I just didn’t use them as my primary source material. They were supplemental but I am beginning to look at them a little differently.
Eric, I also have “Making Comics” by McCloud and am looking forward to that.
After “Understanding Comics,” I like “Making Comics” by McCloud. If you’re interested, Neil Cohn, who blogs as The Visual Linguist, is engaged in research on how we read comics and has some theories that argue with McCloud’s. I’m interested in finding teachers who are using comics as either primary or supplemental material for research projects and a book I’m working on. You can contact me directly at Louann.Reid@colostate.edu or through LinkedIn.