Made possible in part
by a family literacy
grant from the New
York State Library,
New York State
Education Department
What?
Why?
How?
• Same format as comic books
• Text & illustrations present information
• Book-length, usually contain one story
• Medium, not genre
Caption
Panel
Thought
Balloon
Sound Effect
Dialog Balloon
Gutter
Major Types
Humor
Non-Fiction
Fantasies
Adaptations
or
Spin-offs
Realistic Fiction
Personal
Stories
Toon Books
• For emerging
readers age 4+
• Can be read to or
by children
• Vetted by
educators
A little history
• Comic Strip=grandfather of Graphic
Novel
• Around since end of 1800s
• Originally used to draw people to
Sunday paper
First comic strip
• Appeared in New
York World: 1895
• R. F. Outcault
• Increased sales
• Eventually
endorsed soapwhiskey
Katzenjammer Kids
• 1897
• Used word balloons
• Used multiple panels to tell story
The Comic Book
• 1933-reprints
• Initially free
• 1935-new comics
& original
characters
• 10 cents each
Popular comics
• Superman
– First superhero
– On newsstands:
1938
• Superheroes big
during World War II
• After WWII: crime,
science fiction and
horror comics
1950’s: comics in crisis!
• Frederic Wertham
• Comics examined by US Senate
• Comics banned and burned
A New Beginning
• Late 1950’s: Justice League of America
born
• 1961: Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, &
Spiderman
• 1960’s: Self-published underground
comics
Milestones in the
Graphic Novel World
• 1978-Will Eisner coins term
• 1986- Batman: the Dark Knight Returns
• 1987- The Watchmen
• 1992- Maus: A Survivor’s Tale wins
Pulitzer
• 2005-”Graphix” imprint launched
• 2006- American Born Chinese named
NBA finalist for Young People’s
Literature
• 2007- American Born Chinese wins
Printz Award for excellence in YA
literature
• 2007 The Invention
of Hugo Cabret
finalist for NBA
• 2008 Invention
wins Caldecott
• 2007-YALSA creates new annual
booklist: “Great Graphic Novels for
Teens”
• 2009-NYT Graphic Books Bestseller List
President
Obama
collects both
Spider-Man
and
Conan the
Barbarian
comics
Manga
Manga history
• Manga=comic
books
• Period before
WWII=beginning of
modern manga
• Mid 1990s=came
to US
• “God of Manga”
Osamu Tezuka
• Hayayo Miyazaki:
anime & manga
• Manga read by ALL
How to read a Manga Page
Unlike traditional books, Manga is
read “backwards” from back-tofront
Often, if you
start at what
looks like the
front of the
Manga, you will
see a message
like this
3
2
1
4
6
7
Panel Order
& Dialog
Balloons
5
Panels and dialog
balloons are read
“reversed”
10
11
8
9
Manga Terms
• Shonen: teenage
boys
• Shojo: teenage
girls
• Shonen-ai /
Yaoi=boys love
• perceived as
subversive=attractive!
• Ratings
• Read by?
•2/3 of GN
market=manga
•75%=13-17 y/o
girls
Why Graphic Novels &
Manga?
• 6.3 million secondary school students are
reading below grade level.
• Average American age 15-24 spends only
7 minutes of daily leisure time reading.
• Students with access to a variety of
reading materials have higher average
reading scores.
Graphic Novels & Manga:
• Present complex material in readable text
• Serve as a bridge to more difficult reading
• Challenge readers of more traditional literature
• Embrace nature of multimedia world
• Fulfill NCTE’s “21st Century literacies”
streams, simultaneous information)
(multiple
Learning more about Graphic
Novels!
Reviews & More
School Library Journal
Library Journal
Diamond Comics Bookshelf
Cooperative Children’s Book Center
• Get Graphic!
• First Second Books
• Public Square Books
Creating Comics on the Web
• read*write*think comic creator
• MakeBeliefs Comix
• Stripcreator