I included the above comic strip for a few reasons, most having to do with how we can look at and talk about comics in the classroom

setting. Often, comics, particularly graphic novels, are used like novels in the classroom, or, in early elementary school settings, as a

bridge between picture books and longer chapter books. While these are certainly valid uses, they often don’t get at what makes comics

unique— what makes them their own medium, wholly distinct from visual arts like painting or language arts like novels.

What I often tell parents (or students who feel that comics aren’t “serious” enough for them), is that comics— whether in strip or

magazine form, or in the longer form of graphic novels, memoirs, and other nonfiction— use the tools of visual arts in the forms and

structures of the language arts. Put simply, comics create and share vocabulary, syntax, narrative, and grammar that relies more heavi-

ly on visual imagery and symbols than on words.

Look above— the comic communicates much about me as a person, and not just visual. You also have a sense of my character and tone

here, all established by the drawing of me, Justin. Through the comic you have a rounder sense of the person writing this than you would

just reading text — similar to attending a workshop or having a conversation.

Most of this is probably not anything new to you; however, my hope with this material is to jumpstart the conversation about how to

look at comics with students in ways that are specific to comics— what makes them different from prose.

The material I’ve created here is just a beginning, just a few notes with some resources upon which to build your integration of El Deafo

into your classroom. Hopefully, this will begin a larger conversation about how comics can be used across the curriculum, because

students are reading graphic novels in droves, and there’s lots of good material out there that addresses all kinds of subject matter.

Should you have any questions or want to pursue this further, I’m happy to talk about comics and graphic novels, and point you toward

the academically rigorous and helpful resources you need.

Justin Colussy-Estes, Little Shop of Stories

The very first thing I do when I’m talking with a group about comics, whether that is in a

classroom setting, a summer camp, a workshop, or even a conference among peers, is I

get everyone to draw. I think this is important for several reasons, but most of all, it

helps bridge the gap between observing and making— for comics, more than any other art,

the two are closely linked.

I tell students to draw two things quickly and without thinking too hard about it: a televi-

sion and a telephone. The results have shifted a bit over the last decade or more I’ve been

doing this, but a solid number of students, no matter their age, will draw old technology.

The phone and television will look like what you see on the right.

The reason for this is, in part, that these are iconic— they are symbols of TVs and phones

more than they are actual TVs and phones. Comics are not about drawing something real,

but drawing something that symbolizes that person, place, or thing. For instance, look at

the art of Matt Holm in Babymouse or his and his sister’s semi-autobiographical work

Sunny Side Up. These are not realistic portrayals of anything, even appearing crude on the

surface. Another great example of this is Jarrett Krosoczka’s Lunch Lady series.

On the left is a page from the first

Babymouse. The desk and bench outside the

principle’s office don’t necessarily exist in a

specific school, but are representations of

places that suggest something specific. On

the right you see page 39 from Lunch Lady

and the Field Trip Fiasco. Even without the

words, you have a sense of who these

characters are, what their conflicts are

about, and where this is all taking place.

I don’t mean to suggest that more refined

illustration or more specific details are

not good or important to comics. What I’m

pointing out with this exercise is two

things: the symbolic or iconic nature of

comics, and that realism in art doesn't

equal the best comics.

These are just some of the most basic entry points and obser-

vations about comics, and I still haven’t touched upon the larger

notion of how comics work as a whole— how these multiple im-

ages work together to tell a story. The best place to begin for

this discussion is a work by a cartoonist named Scott McCloud

(pictured at left). Understanding Comics is a book-length explo-

ration about the mechanics of comics in the comics form itself.

The core notion that McCloud builds upon is that comics are pic-

tures and words juxtaposed to create narrative. This is where

the term “sequential art”* comes from — the idea that comics

are about creating a sense of time and place through a sequence

of images.

*The term Sequential Art is awkward, but we’re kind of stuck with it. It was created by Will Eisner in his book Comics & Sequential Art.

Again, much of this is material that you know, and your students especially will know, but this gives them the vocabulary and the agency

to think and talk about another way of storytelling. How do symbols work? How does the way a character is drawn affect how we think

about them? How does the art itself encourage us to think and feel about thematic or other content of the story?

How, for instance, does the art style of Zeina Abirached (Game for Swallows, I

Remember Beirut) reflect something about the art and culture of her childhood?

What other art traditions might she be relating to with her style (Persian wood

cuts, or the comics of Marjane Satrapi, for example). Although her drawings aren’t

realistic, how does she get at the emotions of her characters? To this point,

demonstrate the lines of the children’s mouths, or the lines under the parents’ eyes.

These are lines that don’t necessarily have “real world” equivalents, but are used to

convey inner emotional states of characters.

Anthropomorphism is so common in comics that we don’t even

question it most of the time, but some good questions can come

of asking why the cartoonist may have chosen the particular

animal in question. Babymouse is a mouse for multiple reasons,

many of which a class can get at through some good group dis-

cussion: mice are small, just like kids; mice have a long history in

comics and cartoons (Mickey, most obviously, but also Jerry).

What kinds of traits are most associated with mice?

More to the point, CeCe Bell has said that one of the reasons she

made all her characters into rabbits was to emphasize their

ears and to make her awkward hearing aid even more obvious to

the reader.

There’s lots of great comics going on in this image to the left,

lots of pure comics business for a class to discuss: the various

sizes of the panels (what does it mean that the top image is so

large?), the shape of the upper panel compared to the others, the

stars in the top panel, the “pop” that occurs between panels 2

and 3, the cape as symbol. All these things are part of the narra-

tive that are conveyed through the action of comics, and giving

kids the tools to discuss them can enrich the ways they get at

content-rich curriculum in interesting ways.

Cartoonists also use a number of purely symbolic

tools to indicate a variety of non-physical, non-

visual things, from speech balloons, to motion lines,

to “emoticons” — all demonstrated in this passage

from Hope Larson’s adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.

Another structural aspect of comics is how time

is handled. Often comics are completely linear, like El

Deafo. But it is not uncommon for cartoonists to

shift back and forth between past and present, or

imagined action and present action, all without using

anything but visual cues like hair length, as Jennifer

and Matt Holm do in Sunny Side Up.

Here are some comics and graphic novel resources:

Materials about comics: Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud— this is the granddaddy of all comics studies work. Some of it is dated, but I still find it useful, partic-

ularly chapters 4 and 6. Much of chapters 2 and 3 are really good as background as well, but are probably not as useful in the elementary level class-

room.

Andrews McMeel Publishing’s Teaching With Comics and Illustrated Novels, a guide for parents, librarians, and educators — This is a bit over-the-

top “comics-boosterism in my opinion, but it does have a good resource page.

Reading With Pictures, edited by Josh Elder — A book comprised of comics made to use in the classroom. On its own, it’s okay; the comics vary in

how interesting and/or useful they may be. The really useful material is the teacher’s guide (found here). It’s very thorough, breaks down each

comic from the book with lesson plans, includes overview materials, and provides resources.

Also done by the same people, the website www.readingwithpictures.org is a good resource with educator resources and suggestions for materi-

als to supplement your lessons.

What follows is a number of graphic novels I have used or found useful for the classroom, broken down by category with a few notes.

They cover a range of topics and reader levels. This list is by no means exhaustive:

Fiction: There are many graphic novels that use fiction to explore excellent topics of use in the classroom

Hidden, by Loic Dauvillier, Greg Salsedo, and Marc Lizano — a young Jewish girl learns about her grandmother’s life in Paris during the Holocaust.

Crogan Adventures series, by Chris Schweizer— Historically accurate adventures, of which there are three volumes out now with more planned.

Gaijin: American Prisoner of War, by Matt Faulkner— Japanese American Koji is sent to a concentration camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Laika, by Nick Abadzis— Historical fiction about the life of the first dog in space, it reflects the heightened tensions of the cold war.

Toon books’ leveled readers, by various— This publisher has done a great job of creating emerging reader graphic novels. Their website has several

good resources for teachers.

Memoirs: El Deafo is by no means the only graphic memoir created for a younger audience

Game for Swallows and I Remember Beirut, by Zeina Abirached— Zeina grew up in war-torn Lebanon. Her books are visually and thematically similar

to Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.

Smile and Sisters, by Raina Telgemeier— Telgemeier’s books are the first and most influential in this genre.

Little White Duck, by Na Liu and Andres Vera Martinez— eight very short pieces reflecting on Liu’s childhood in communist China.

Sunny Side Up, Jennifer and Matt Holm— A young girl wrestles with family difficulties stemming from a troubled older sibling.

The Dumbest Idea Ever, Jimmy Gownley— How Gownley came to become a cartoonist in high school.

History/Biography Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, by Nathan Hale— Humorous, historically accurate pieces about episodes from history, written and drawn by

a descendent from the actual Nathan Hale.

Boxers & Saints, Gene Yang— This pair of intertwined books explores the history of the Boxer Rebellion through myth and story.

Satchel Paige, Thoreau at Walden, Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, and Houdini the Handcuff King, produced by James Sturm and the Center

for Cartoon Studies— James Sturm created a school for comics work and used these projects to highlight the work of the school. Each one

chooses the life of the historical figure to look at not only their own personal journey, but how their life reflects on and opens up aspects of his-

tory. Each one includes several pages of notes and expanded discussion.

Science

Howtoons, by Saul Griffith and Nick Dragota— Experiments done as comics. Very hands on, with a bit of fun storylines underneath

Science Comics (coming in 2016 from First/Second)— First/Second is one of the top comics publishers, and this line of Science comics looks great

Last of the Sandwalkers, by Jay Hosler— A beetle discovers that the world is not what she believed. Explores issues of scientific inquiry.

Primates, by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks— Jim Ottaviani has made a career of writing science comics. This is a collection of biographies of Jane

Goodall, Diane Fossey, and Birute Galdikas

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards, by Jim Ottaviani and Zander Cannon— a history of the 19th Century battle over dinosaur exploration.

Mythology:

George O’Connor’s Greek Gods series— O’Connor’s series gives each of the Greek gods their own book and gets at the core of each god’s myth.

American Born Chinese, by Gene Yang— Yang uses the myth of the Monkey King to reflect on his difficulties as an immigrant kid in middle school.