LITERATURE REVIEW
Graphic Novels
Liz A. Gómez Bonilla
Universidad del Este
ENGG 633: Literature for Adolescent
December 16, 2010
Prof. Evelyn Lugo
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Graphic Novels
A graphic novel can be described as a novel whose narrative is conveyed through a combination of text and art, usually in comic-strip form, but with lengthier and more complex storylines. Graphic novels can play an important part in encouraging reading amongst students.
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The flexibility of the comic medium, which is used in graphic novels, means that they can tell complex stories or explain difficult ideas in a simple way. The term graphic novel was first popularized by Will Eisner to distinguish his book A Contract with God (1978) from collections of newspaper comic strips. Although today’s graphic novels are a recent phenomenon, this basic way of storytelling has been used in various forms for centuries early cave drawings, hieroglyphics, and medieval tapestries like the famous Bayeux Tapestry can be thought of as stories told in pictures. The term graphic novel is now generally used to describe any book in a comic format that resembles a novel in length and narrative development (Scholastic, ).
According to Monnin (2010), graphic novels can be used to teach multiple aspects of literacy in the secondary classroom setting. She believes that there is need to include visual print storytelling to increase students’ awareness and understanding of many types of literacy. By the other hand Pennella (2009), exposes that:
“Literacy does make sense with graphic novels. We, as educators of young and old alike, have always known that reading is a series of skills: questioning, visualizing, inferring, predicting, connecting and responding to name a few. With graphic novels, the scaffolding necessary to build solid readers is in the architecture of the genre. The illustrations not only support the text, they are a part of the text. Students are given context clues within the subtle and sometime not so subtle expressions, symbols and actions of the characters with in the story. Vocabulary is also supported within the

LITERATURE REVIEW illustrations and text. The framework or grid layout of this art form lends itself perfectly
3 to the predicting strategies needed to reach higher-level understanding in reading comprehension”.
How do graphic novels promote literacy?
Graphic novels powerfully attract and motivate kids to read. Many librarians have built up graphic novel collections and have seen circulation figures soar. School librarians and educators have reported outstanding success getting kids to read with graphic novels, citing particularly their popularity with reluctant readers, especially boys a group traditionally difficult to reach. At the same time, graphic novels with rich, complex plots and narrative structures can also be satisfying to advanced readers. In fact, graphic novels are flexible enough that often the same titles can be equally appealing to both reluctant and advanced readers. Providing young people of all abilities with diverse reading materials, including graphic novels, can help them become lifelong readers (Scholastic, ).
Graphic novels can dramatically help improve reading development for students struggling with language acquisition, including special-needs students, as the illustrations provide contextual clues to the meaning of the written narrative. They can provide autistic students with clues to emotional context that they might miss when reading traditional text.
English-language learners will be more motivated by graphic novels, and will more readily acquire new vocabulary and increase English proficiency (Scholastic, ).
What are the benefits of studying graphic novels as a format?
Novels speak to us usually in a linear written narrative; picture books tell a story with text accompanied by illustrations; film does so with moving images and dialogue; and poetry can communicate on levels that no other storytelling can.
Graphic novels combine all these elements

LITERATURE REVIEW in their own unique way.
They are like prose in that they are a written printed format, but they
4 are also like film in that they tell a story through dialogue, and through visual images that give the impression of movement (Scholastic, ).
Learning from the unique format of graphic novels
Students can compare the different experiences of receiving information through written narrative, versus receiving it visually without words. They can analyze how information about character is derived from facial and bodily expressions, and about meaning and foreshadowing from the pictures’ composition and viewpoint. You can invite students to find examples of where the viewpoint of the picture is critical to the reader’s experience of the story. Students can also discuss how in graphic novels, as in movies, readers can often deduce what happened but was not explicitly stated in the interval between one image and the next. Students hopefully know what it’s like to be so engrossed in a riveting novel that they feel as if they’re watching a movie of the story in their imagination. Graphic novels are literature that is actually in a cinematic format. You can discuss with students the similarities and differences between these experiences (Scholastic, ).
Creative writing
Graphic novels can be a springboard to many creative writing projects. Students can write their own alternative endings, or accounts of what happened before or after the story. They can fill in an interval in the story that is not depicted, or only depicted visually. Another great exercise is to take a prose passage from a traditional novel and rewrite it as dialogue in a graphic novel, then creates the pictures to go with it. Of course students can also create their own original graphic novels, and even have them published (Scholastic, ).

LITERATURE REVIEW
As it was exposed by Bylsma (2007), graphic novels require readers to be actively
5 engaged in the process of decoding and comprehending a range of literary devices, including narrative structures, metaphor and symbolism, point of view, and the use of puns and alliteration, intertextuality, and inference. Graphic novels provide new learning opportunities for adolescents in both middle school and high school. Many adolescents are already aware of this format, even though the reading of these books requires different skills than novels with prose only (Griffith,
2010). Several graphic novels with substantive content are accessible to even high intermediate
ELL students, and thus can enable them to engage in critical discussions in ways that are not always possible with only written texts, due to their scaffolding of textual meanings through their rich visual modes of representation. ELL students often face formidable barriers in a written text without any accompanying visual context (Chum, 2009)
English teachers around the country should realize the benefits of teaching graphic novels and include them in their curriculum more often. This addition would popularize an often ignored yet beautiful medium, intrigue unenthusiastic students, and diversify a high school subject that is frequently taught in an archaic, predictable fashion. There are multiple graphic novels that would suit an English class much better due to maturity in subject matter, quality in storyline, and complex character development. The beauty of graphic novels lies in their ability to blend two types of storytelling: drawn art and written word. Graphic novels are also good for book talks and reading (Griffith, 2010). Graphic novels are like prose in that they are written in a printed format, but they are also like film in that they tell a story through visual images that give the impression of movement accompanied by the characters’ dialogue. The skills students use to interpret graphic novels include analysis, interpretation, and conjecture, all higher order

LITERATURE REVIEW thinking skills. Graphic novels provide a valid vehicle for learning and knowing in an
6 increasingly media-rich world (Simetana, Odelson, Burns & Grisham, 2009). Graphic novels are extremely popular with teenagers, and using a few selections in different classes such as the social studies classroom is an enjoyable way to stimulate critical conversations about their world
(Christensen, 2006).
Graphic Novel Evaluation Criteria
Format is critical for any book, but most especially in graphic novels. Format includes exterior and interior elements such as font and font size, word placement and appearance, and arrangement of the art frames on the page. Format enables readers to effortlessly follow the story or hinders readers in their attempt to comprehend. According to Griffith (2010), some criteria for format evaluation are as follows:
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Does the graphic novel have an interesting cover that correctly depicts the content?
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Are the illustrations arranged in a way that readers can easily follow the sequence?
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Is the text clearly readable with an appropriate font and font size?
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Does the white space between the text, frames, and illustrations help readers move through the book, or are the pages too busy?
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Is there a glossary to assist with vocabulary in nonfiction graphic novels?
It is the illustrations that create the effect of watching a movie. Similar to that experience, the reader becomes part of the story through the illustrations and the words. It is also the illustrations that set the tone or mood of the story or nonfiction information. Although personal tastes in art may vary greatly from one person to another, the rule for graphic novels is that the illustrative art must be true to the content. According to Griffith (2010), the criteria for evaluating graphic novel illustrations include the following:

LITERATURE REVIEW
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Does the color palette (e.g., pastels, primary colors, sepia tones) aid the reader in
7 understanding the tone and mood of the story?
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Do the illustrations refine characterization by giving clues as to character emotion, mood, and personality?
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Does the style of art (e.g., abstract, impressionist, surrealist) fit the type of story or information in the novel or seem disjointed and out of place?
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Do the illustrations provide enough context and action to keep the reader moving through the story?
The final consideration is the fiction or nonfiction content of the graphic novel. Format is much like the bread on a sandwich and the illustrations like the toppings, and the content is like the meat of any graphic novel. For this category of criteria, evaluation of a graphic novel becomes much like evaluating any other book for the library or classroom. These criteria are familiar, but they are listed here to emphasize that good graphic novels contain all the literary elements we expect for quality fiction and nonfiction books.
For fiction graphic novels, evaluation criteria should include the following, (Griffith, 2010):
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Does the graphic novel have three-dimensional characters with characteristics similar to your readers?
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Does the graphic novel have themes relevant and important to your readers?
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Is the conflict relevant and appropriate for your readers?
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Are there age-appropriate moral, ethical, or political themes that resonate through the story?
 Does the action keep your readers’ interest and motivate them to continue reading?
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Is the climax realistic and true to the rising action?

LITERATURE REVIEW
Nonfiction graphic novels have different evaluation criteria, some of which are as follows,
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(Griffith, 2010):
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Does the content have a clear organization that aids reading comprehension?
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Is the information interesting enough to keep readers actively engaged with the text?
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Are there enough supporting details to explain or describe each main idea?
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Is the content relevant and age appropriate for the developmental level of your readers?
Conclusion
Graphic novels are a very helpful tool that we can use in our classroom with the students in order to encourage them to read literature for pleasure. As it was stated by some authors, this type of books can help our students that are learning English as a second language to acquire the language or understand the readings better. We can also work different skills with the students using the graphic novels as instrument of instruction in the class. I believe that one of our goal as teacher should be to encourage our students into the world of books and literature, and if for some of them the novels of traditional texts that are commonly use in the classroom are not attractive and motivating to read, we can use graphic novels as an alternative of literature work.

LITERATURE REVIEW
References
Bluford, Z. (2010). Graphic Novels Should be Taught More in English Classes. Retrieved from:
9 http://www.mhsmirador.com
Bylsma, W. (2007).Graphic Novels in the Classroom: An Overview. Retrieved from: http://www.ozcomics.com
Chum, C. (2009). Critical Literacies and Graphic Novels for English Language Learners.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
144-153. Retrieved from: http://ebscohost.com
Christensen, L. (2006). Graphic Global Conflict: Graphic Novels in the High School Social
Studies Classroom . Heldref Publications . 227-230. Retrieved from: http://ebscohost.com
Griffith, P. (2010). Graphic Novels in the Secondary Classroom and School Libraries. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
181-189. Retrieved from: http://ebscohost.com
Monnin, K. (2010). Teaching Graphic Novels: Practical Strategies for the Secondary ELA
Classroom.
Retrieved from: http://jmle.org
Penella, B. (2009). The Pow!-er in the Classroom! A Teacher’s Perspective. Retrieved from http://www.graphicnovels.brodart.com
Scholastic, ( ). Using Graphic Novels with Children and Teens . A Guide for Teachers and
Librarians.
Simetana, L., Odelson, D., Burns, H. & Grisham, D., (2009). Using Graphic Novels in the High
School Classroom: Engaging Deaf Students with a New Genre. Journal of Adolescent &
Adult Literacy.
228-240. Retrieved from: http://ebscohost.com