Aw Yeah! Comics and Popular Culture in the Classroom

Cartoons have historically held an advantage in breaking into world popular culture. (McCloud 42) Comic books form a vibrant, vital, part of popular culture. Legendary cartoonist, Will Eisner (1917-2005) describes them as “the world's most popular art form” (Comics xii). They entertain, inspire, and transport us. They influence our collective imagination and reflect the concerns of the time in which they appear (Duke Library 1). One sees their influence in literature, radio, television, films, and video games. Eisner explains in Comics and Sequential Art that comic books combine the words, images, and layout of artists and writers to weave the fabric of communication (xiv). Comic books involve readers because the characters speak for them and to them. To paraphrase theorist Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics, we don't just observe comic books, we become them (36). This process constitutes an interactive sociocultural act. Some consider comic books lowbrow entertainment. Jules Pfeifer, a cartoonist for the New Yorker, describes them as “junk” (Eisner Contract xvii). Eisner prefers the term “sequential art.” He thinks it would help “to correct the feeling of inferiority by artists and writers in this field” (Library of Quotes). Comics gained a measure of respectability after Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize for his graphic novel Maus in 1992. Today, comic books are the subject of scholarly study in a variety of disciplines. The text-image format provides creators with a multitude of story options or genres. They run the gamut from webcomics, to graphic novels, to manga. In the past, people looked at comic books as “funnies” meant for children. Jahsonic, a contributor to the Art and Popular Culture website, observes that modern day comics “are not necessarily funny or for children” (1). Ben Saunders, a professor at the University of Oregon, terms comics “[t]he most effective form of communication ever devised” (cited by Cooper 8). Everything from airline safety cards, to instruction manuals, to Preventative Maintenance Magazine, to Eisner's work for the US Army, employs this medium. There is a comic book for people of every age, disposition, and predilection. This analysis focuses on one comic book in a series written for children. The perspectives gained from such an examination reveal that Tiny Titans, Welcome to the Treehouse Vol. 1 encourages and facilitates literacy and opens children's minds to stories that delight and enchant them. There's a lot more in cartoons than meets the eye. (McCloud 45) Welcome to the Treehouse Vol. 1 is a colorful, amusing comic book for all ages, especially young children. Art Baltazar (writer and artist) and Franco Aureliani (writer) won Eisner awards for Best Publication for Kids in 2009, 2011, and 2014. Baltazar self-published his first comic book, Wolf Boy. One morning, while feeding his children breakfast, he received a call from Jann Jones, an editor at DC Comics. She asked him to create a comic book series for children. His reply to the offer of a dream job for a cartoonist was, “YES! Possitootly Absolootly!” (Baltazar, Tiny Titans webpage). From then on, Baltazar considered it his job to write comics for six-year-olds. The context of the history of comics and their use in the classrrom helps one better understand the importance of Baltazar and Franco's work. Gene Leung Yang won an Eisner award in 2007 for his graphic novel, American Born Chinese (208). He based his 2014 The Shadow Hero, on the Green Turtle, the first Asian American superhero. Yang's true-to-hi story graphic novel is a contender for another Eisner award. Yang discusses the controversy over comic books and children on his webpage “The History of Comic Books in Education.” Yang explains that the employees of Eastern Color Printing Company introduced the first modern comic book in 1933. They collected a number of political cartoons and printed them in book form (1). DC Comics introduced Superman (1938), Batman (1939) and Wonder Woman (1941). This marked the advent of the superhero and ushered in a golden age of comic books. Comic book publishers responded to demand for their product by printing hundreds of issues. Some single-issue comic books sold millions of copies. Children loved these early comic books. However, many parents, teachers, and librarians remained skeptical, despite the findings of Robert L. Throndyke, a pioneer in educational research at Columbia Teachers College, who determined the grade level for Superman #11 (1940) at 6.6 and Batman #8 (1940) at 5.9. He published his results in an article, “Words and Comics” (1941), that appeared in the prestigious Journal of Experimental Education in which he concludes that comic books are of “real value” in teaching children to read (112). Subsequently, he co-authored a language arts workbook featuring Superman. Those who saw little value in comic books found an advocate in Fredric Wertham, a well-known psychiatrist. In his 1953 work, Seduction of the Innocent, he argues, “Comic books with their words and expletives in balloons are bad for reading” (10). In the course of interviewing delinquent youths, Wertham found that they all read comic books. He concluded this is what caused their dysfunctional behavior. Wertham gained publicity when he presented his erroneous conclusions to a Senate sub-committee hearing on juvenile delinquency. Subsequently, he serialized them in the 1950s' arbiter of taste, The Ladies' Home Journal. The debate over comic books turned to their use in schools to teach reading. In 1944, Sidonie Gruenberg, a noted child development expert, saw comic books as a force for good, with multiple applications in education. Yang recalls that Nebraska Principal Lucile Rosencrans disagreed, calling comic books a “stumbling block” to learning (1). Emma Swain, a reading diagnostician, in her 1978 article “Using Comic Books to Teach Reading and Language Arts,” notes that “teachers and parents have criticized comic books for years” (1). Swain conducted a survey of 169 students in grades 4 through 12 and found that good students read more comic books than poor students. She pointed out the tremendous popularity of comics. Retailers sold 20 million comic books a month in 1977 (1). She concludes that the demand for comics is an indication of their potential for teaching children reading. She recommends that every classroom have a box of comics for students to read. Positive appraisals of comic books have flourished in modern times. Author Jennifer Haines, in her 2004 article, “Why Teach with Comics,” argues that comic books generally require high reading levels. She insists that it is a grievous mistake to dismiss reading material that is “challenging to read, thoughtful and insightful, and age appropriate,” simply because it is a comic book (1). The mission of school librarians is to support the curriculum and encourage reading. Librarians were originally some of the most vociferous opponents of comic books. Modern librarians have a different view. Carol Tilley, a professor of Library Science at the University of Illinois, in her article, “For Improving Early Literacy, Comics Is No Child's Play,” notes the influence that comics have had on children's literature, especially in the use of frames (panels), speech bubbles (balloons), motion lines, and sound effects (1). (See Appendix A). Librarian Jane Goodall describes the benefits of using comics in the classroom to readers of the Guardian (UK) in her article, “Ten Benefits of Reading Comics.” She argues that comic books encourage a love of reading, improve vocabulary, and increase confidence. She believed that comic books prove excellent resources for teaching reluctant and voracious students, as well as those for whom English is a second language (1). David Jacobs, professor of English at the University of Windsor (CN), in Graphic Encounters, states that comic books are effective in teaching print literacy, but more important, multi-modal literacy, which he defines as “the ability to relate something to create meaning with and from texts that operate not only in alphabetic form, but also in some combination of visual, audio, and spatial form as well” (3). Publisher and pundit Corey Blake in his article, “The Benefits and Risks of Comics in Education,” argues that comic books are stronger learning tools than textbooks, able to “combine story and information more effectively than any other medium” (1). As proof he cites two facts: the brain processes pictures 60,000 times faster than text; and humans communicated in pictures before they used words (1). The arguments against comic books have recently resurfaced. Amanda Hendricks, a recent graduate of the University of California, Chico, (2014) demonstrates in her honors thesis, “Sexism, Female Performativity, and Female Presence in Comics” that D.C. and Marvel Comics have become increasingly violent and sexist over the years. Koppy McFad, writing for the website, Comic Book Bin, charges that these comics were no longer suitable for children (1). Inigo Montoya (Dorkdaddy) concurs. He insists that publishers sell edgy comic books to appeal to a more mature audience that can afford expensive comics. He claims that Welcome to the Treehouse is more suitable for young children than modern superhero comics. Welcome to the Treehouse is a powerful and proven tool for teaching reading. Readers of all abilities identify with the characters and relate to the stories. The images help reluctant readers understand the text and proficient readers use it as a springboard to more advanced reading levels. This comic book is an excellent resource for bilingual education. Teachers of English can use Tiny Titans activity books as an invaluable tool. Welcome to the Treehouse is not only helpful in teaching children to read, but is wholesome and appropriate for young children. It helps to know something about the terms, attributes, and history of comics before attempting to analyze an individual comic book. It is even more important to start thinking like a child. Welcome to the Treehouse features those knock-knock jokes that make adults cringe, but results in gales of laughter from kindergarten through third graders who promptly repeat them again and again. For example, “Why are fish so smart?” “Why?” “Because they swim in schools.” (Baltazar and Franco 118). This is a very silly book, friends. (Monical, Goodreads) Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980), the French semiotician, establishes an analytical foundation in Image-Music-Text, He sees three messages in a visual work of art: a linguistic message in the form of a caption, a denoted message in the image itself, and a connoted message that is the result of the action of the creator and reflection of what society thinks (17). McCloud shows us how to graph transitions in Understanding Comics and Hendrix sends us her coding sheets. Richard Jenkins and Debra Detamore provide a math skills graphing activity in Comics in Your Curriculum. Bart Beatty, a comic books scholar, continues to to do extensive and valuable statistical research at the University of Calgary. The next question is how the comic book community received Baltazar and Franco's bright, lively, and fun comic book. The website Goodreads featured 803 community reviews. Most reviewers gave it high marks and some interesting comments were included (Goodreads 1). “Chuck” couldn't keep track of all the characters. Also there were two Wonder Girls. Reply: This is not a problem for children. Two five and seven-year-old research assistants easily identified all 43 characters after several readings. They noted that there were three Wonder Girls in the DC comic universe and were not in the least bothered by the fact that two of them appeared in Welcome to the Treehouse. After all, they wore different outfits. “Sesana” argued that Welcome to the Treehouse was really “much more about kids than super heroes,” and that “there's jokes that require some decent backstory” (Goodreads 1). Reply: True! No argument here, except to mention that having a DC back-story and continuity with it makes it more fun for kids. The DC universe provides an exciting milieu for young readers, but the focus is on the commonality of childhood experiences. “Michelle” noted that there was no story line in Welcome to the Treehouse. Reply: In contrast to DC comics for more mature readers that feature one story line throughout the entire work, Baltazar and Franco created a series of engaging one to three-page stories to match the short attention span of beginning readers. “D'Anne” commented, “The female characters are often portrayed in stereotypical ‘girly’ ways, playing with Barbies and talking about cute boys” (Goodreads 1). Reply: Boys romp, play, and have fun in groups. Girls play with Barbie dolls (albeit one is a Batgirl doll), problem solve, cook, help others, babysit, and quite often save the day. Although there is room for improvement in Welcome to the Treehouse as far as sexual stereotyping, overall, the creative authors are sensitive to this issue. Barthes' first level is about why and how writers present words. He uses the term “linguistic message” to refer to words as meaningful written images. Text answers the question, “What does a character say?” It binds the reader to the character. Text introduces, directs, anchors, and builds the story. In the absence of words, readers rely on their own experiences to understand the story. Comic book artists prove their talent by drawing a story with few words. The text-image nature of comic books helps children to read. Adults often read comics to pre-school children. This anticipatory preparation encourages them to learn to read. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level scale indicated a 2.5 reading level. Capstone publishers listed the reading level as grades 1 – 2, the interest level as grades 1 – 3, and the Lexile level as 150L (Capstone.com 1). The Lexile level allows teachers to match text with the developmental level of learners. MetaMetrics, the parent company of the Lexile Reading Framework, shared their research with the team that developed the Common Core Standards. Lexile bands (ranges) match Common Core bands. Capstone publishing added a hard cover and library binding to Treehouse for sales to schools at a price of $15.95. The Capstone website refers to this work as a graphic novel to avoid the stigma of advocating the use of a comic book in school. There is a tremendous amount of information in each frame. A sample of 593 words in 75 frames of Baltazar and Franco's Welcome to the Treehouse indicate that the average number of words per frame is 7.0. Some of the words reflect everyday speech patterns familiar to children, such as “urn no” (13), “Yep!” (13), and contractions like “that's awful” (17). Certain artistic devices provide emphasis. Nick Napolitanto (letterer issues #1 & 2) and Baltazar (letterer issues #3-6) both favor an They use of and Eisner this of because it is “the most and of the (Comics There are words in the frames of Welcome to the Treehouse (See Appendix of them are in speech bubbles that the action of the story and the reader to identify with the characters. of the words are in the effects like and and to the of the words are in the the of words, they are important because they the reader the of the story and the the reader does not the or understand the it is most to information in the first frame. Eisner artists that “[t]he most important to is the of the to (Comics Barthes the meaning the denoted level The sees images in the frames of a comic book. call a with one frame a there is no the a to indicate The first frame of a story is It the and characters. A frame is the of a McCloud notes that the images a frame like and of the characters in the frames of Welcome to the Treehouse indicate that and Franco do not use characters or in the except to the in the frame. 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