Graphic Novels Then and Now

Recently I went home for a weekend and stopped into the St. Marys Public Library, where I work over the summer, and spoke with a co-worker, Liz Baldwin, about this project. She told me that in the 90s she gave a talk about graphic novels, or comes as they were called then, while she worked for the Nashville Public Library and provided me with the research she did for it.
The first piece of material that intrigued me was a posting asking for supporting information for comic books within a library. It reads:
"I am posting for a YA librarian in the area:
"She is in need of supporting documentation for comic books within her library. A patron has filed a complaint and is concerned that the comic books will lead children to become murderers."

Now, when Liz and I first looked at this we laughed. But, some people still hold these ideas about graphic novels. There was a follow-up posting from another librarian that reads:
"... Children will commit murder????? Come now. Just like any other genre of literature, there are comics in questionable taste - that's why we have selection policies and read reviews and spend the public's money as wisely as we can. And anyway...since when did anyone commit a deed after reading about it?
"... Just like beginning-to-read readers absorb clues to words from the illustrations, other readers gain an amazing amount of knowledge from the powerful graphics in many comics and graphic novels. It's a visual society - and readers who have grown up on TV and movies know how look! Readers in my library (young and not so young) love the collection and I would have no trouble justifying it. In fact, our Friends gave me $500 last year to supplement it."

I think this shows that graphic novels were, and most likely still be, a hot topic with libraries. Some people, and some librarians, feel that they are not true forms of literature and are only for kids still persists and will simply not go away. But there will always be that group of people, like myself, who fight for graphic novels and know their true potential.

Another piece of material that I liked was Liz's annotated bibliography of the material that she found on the topic of comics in general and her personal insights. She says that the first thing she wants to "put forth is Mr. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science: 1) Books are for use. *2) Every reader, his or her book. *3) Every book, its reader. 4) Save the time of the reader. 5) A library is a growing organism." She has numbers 2 and 3 starred because they are of the most importance to the topic. As a library science student, I think it's always important to keep these Laws in mind when doing anything related to the library. They ring true, no matter what topic they are being used for.

In this annotated bibliography I found a few titles of articles or books that caught my attention:
Comic Book Evolution. Rolling Stone 3/27/86, p56
In recent years, the comic book field has undergone perhaps the most wide-ranging and meaningful creative explosion of its 50 year-plus history, spawning a generation of storytellers who are among the more intriguing literary and graphic craftsmen of our day.
An Introduction to the World of Children's Books (2nd edition) by Margaret R. Marshall, Gower : Brookfield c1988. Excerpt:
Comics are usually attractive to look at, easy to read, and on themes similar to those found in books: family life, school, adventure, humor, sport, science fiction, war, romance.
Told in a sequence of narrative pictures with succinct captions or "balloon" talk they capture the interest of a large proportion of children and young people. The immense popularity of picture strip for both children and adults is due to the following features:
* The pictures, which tend to be informal, fluid, attracting the attention even in black and white; informative in indicating the next step in the visual story progression.
* The contents, which basically conform to the contents of book plots in the elemental themes of love, hate, greed, pride, bravery, cowardice, good and evil, but all starkly simplified by the constraints of the picture-strip format.
* The familiarity of the regular characters and the familiarity of the formula that enables good to triumph over evil, the hero to win in the end and the emphasis on the moral that goodness pays.
* The regularity of the format and its weekly or monthly availability, which provides something to look forward to.
* Comics being the least middle-class of all reading matter for children, cut across social boundaries in both content and readership.

Liz also goes on to say that she "came across every type of comic book for educational purposes, christian comic books, safety, etc. I spoke with a student teacher on staff and she was totally supportive of them in the classroom. She cited several reasons to use them: vocabulary, English grammar, the science and math, story sequence, plot, characterization, she went on and on about them."

I think this support from a teacher is important because it shows that an educator sees the potential of graphic novels. I too believe that graphic novels could be useful in teaching hard to understand English concepts such as point of view and flashbacks. These concepts are easily seen through the pictures being used to tell the story. I also think they could be used easily to help reluctant readers feel more comfortable with reading. It is stated, in the list above, how graphic novels can help reluctant readers by having something to look forward to since some are released on a monthly basis. This is most true for manga because the newly translated volumes are released once a month. Something like this could really make young adults excited about reading.

Finally, I'd like to end this post with a quote from Stan Lee Liz included in her research on graphic novels. It was found in the newspaper The Tennessean for March 1, 1995. The title of the article was "Holy shotgun! Violence sells with comic book fans."
"When I first got into the business, about 1940, comics were only read by youngsters from the age of maybe 5 to 10. Those were the ages we were trying for.
"We get fanmail today and at least 50% is from adults.
"We've tried to make the stories more three-dimensional, to flesh out the heroes. For instance, our heroes are never quite perfect. They have their own faults, their own personal problems and physical problems.
"... Over the years I've lectured at many, many colleges. I've spoken to professors, deans, students. The one prevailing concept that they keep throwing at me is they consider comic books one of the greatest weapons in the battle against literacy.
"You know, we're bombarded with visual images, television primarily, video games, and yet a kid will sit still read a comic book of his own volition.
"They enjoy the comics, and they begin to equate enjoyment with reading. The more they read comic books, the more they develop a facility for reading. The more the world opens up."

Liz Baldwin is the YA supervisor for the St. Marys Public Library and can be e-mailed at xyberchick@hotmail.com