This document discusses how comic books can be effectively used in English classrooms to engage students and teach important skills. It begins by explaining that many students dread English classes and see literature as boring. However, comic books can surprise students by addressing mature topics through words and images. This helps students empathize with characters and sparks discussion. The document then provides several examples of comic books that could be used in history, social issues, and global affairs units due to their complex stories and humanization of difficult subjects. It concludes by stating comic books develop critical thinking as students must analyze words, images, and their relationship to ask deeper questions.

1. How Comic Books Can Change the
Way Our Students See Literature:
One Teacher's Perspective
Rocco VERSACI
henever I meet someone for the firsttime andtell him or her thatI am an En-
glishteacher,theresponseisalmostalwaysthesame:ashakeofthehead,agrinned
promiseto speakverycarefully,andadeclarationthat"Englishwasmyworstsub-
ject."Thoughthe person'scomments areonlysemi-serious,they arethe linger-
ing tracesof a once farmorepalpabledread.I haveseen thisdreadin the eyes andwordsof
my students,and I taketheir apprehensionseriouslyenough to spend some time at the be-
ginningof each semester to learnsomething about the attitudesthey have towardreading,
writing,andEnglishclassesin general.BecauseI
teach at a communitycollege and thereforeen-
counterstudentsclosetotheendoftheirformaled-
ucation,these attitudesare, for better or worse,
firmlyentrenched.Nevertheless,airingtheminmy
classisuseful,forsuchknowledgenotonlygivesme
a senseoftheirexpectationsofme,butalsoreveals
somethingabouttheoriginsoftheseattitudes:their
middleandhighschoolEnglishclasses,the places
wheretheyfirstengagedin the formalandforma-
tivestudyofliterature.
Asameansofindirectlyuncoveringtheseat-
titudes,I pose thisquestion:"Whatis literature?"
Studentresponsesvary,thoughcertainremarksare
prevalentandconsistentfromsemesterto semes-
ter:literaturemakesusthinkabout"bigideas,"lit-
eratureis difficult,literatureis boring,literatureis
somethingthatpeoplehavedecidedwas"good"or
"important."Thetenoroftheremarksisbothposi-
tive andnegative;certainstudentsareeagerlyan-
ticipatingthesemesterahead,whileothersarenot,
havingsloggedtheirwaythroughliteratureclasses
before. Obviously,the openlynegativeresponses
concernme;theysuggestthatthosestudentshave
yet to experiencehowengagingandvitalliterature
canbe. ButI amreadyforthischallengeinsofaras
I havechosenmyreadingsanddesignedmyassign-
mentstoattempttoprovidethisexperience.Ofmy
students'comments,however,theonethatintrigues
andtroublesme mostisthelastone.Theresponse
interestsmebecauseitrevealsmystudents'aware-
ness of a "canon"(howeverproblematicthatword
hasbecome) andthe sense thatcertainworksare
moreworthyofseriousattentionthanothers;atthe
sametime,thewaytheyexpressthisdefinitiontrou-
bles me becauseit indicatestheirsenseof removal
fromtheprocessesofevaluationthathelpestablish
this canon.In theirview,decisionsabout"literary
quality"--whateverthat term might mean-are
madebyothers,the"they"fromwhichsomanyim-
portantdecreesflow.
Asteachersofliterature,weshouldnotstrive
to getstudentsto acceptwithoutquestionourown
judgmentsof what constitutesliterarymerit,for
suchacceptanceinevitablyplacesstudentsinthepo-
sitionof seeingliteratureasa "medicine"thatwill
somehowmakethem better people, if only they
learntoappreciateit.Whenstudentsviewliterature
inthislight,theyresentit,andliteraryworksremain
amysterythattheycannotsolve.Whatis more,this
goalof simplypassingourownjudgmentsalongto
ourstudentsoftenimpedeswhatshouldbe ourpri-
marygoal:toencouragestudentstosee themselves
ashavingavoiceinthequestionofwhatconstitutes
EnGLISH journai~
in: The English Journal, 91:2(Nov., 2001), pp. 61-67.

2. literarymerit by defining reasonableparametersby
which tojudge a creativeworkand articulatingwhy
and how that work is-or is not--within those pa-
rameters. Only by helping students achieve this
voice do we help them become active, critical,and
engaged readers.
Clearly, a delicate balance exists between
passing on our literaryjudgments and encouraging
our students to develop theirs, and this balance is
especially precariousin the middle and high school
classroom,where students firstneed exposureto lit-
eraturebefore they can be in aposition to arguelit-
erarymerit.Teachersin these schools arefacedwith
the significant challenge of presenting literature in
awaythat atonce interests students, presents some
model of literaryevaluation,convinces students that
such evaluationis important,andleaves them room
inwhich to develop their own model. Creatingsuch
aclassroomis not easy,especiallywhen we consider
that they will carrythe attitudes they form in these
earlycourses for a long time. But several years ago
in one of my bolder and more rewardingmoves as a
graduate student, I lit upon a genre that is an ideal
way for middle, secondary, and post-secondary
school Englishteachersto accomplishwhatwe need
to do more of:energize classes andengage students,
teach much needed analyticaland critical thinking
skills, and-most importantly-invite students to
develop meaningfulopinionsaboutwhatconstitutes
literarymerit.
I gavemystudentssome excerptsfromcomic
booksto read.The coursewasanadvancedfirst-year
composition class that I had designed, and the ob-
jective for the course was to investigate and analyze
popular culture representations of life experiences,
ethnic and culturalgroups, and historicalevents. It
was my hope thatover the semester studentswould
develop a more criticaleye toward the representa-
tional poetics and motivations of advertisements,
television shows, movies, and comics. Many of my
students were already familiarwith most of these
media, though not familiarenough to protect them
fromsurprise.Caseinpointwere the comics. Shortly
afterwe began to discussJohnCallahan's"IThink I
Was an Alcoholic Waiting to Happen," it became
clear that my students were unaware that comics
could anddid addressmaturesubjectmatter.In this
short, autobiographicalcomic, Callahandescribes,
in averyglib,unexpectedmanner,hisalcoholismand
the car accident that rendered him a quadriplegic.
Mystudentswere initiallysurprisedby the tone and
focusof thestory,onestudentgoingsofarastosay
"Thisisn'ta comic."Suchreactionsshouldbe wel-
comedinourclassrooms,forasteacherswe should
neverundervaluetheabilitytosurpriseourstudents.
Adolescentsandteenagerstodayaresurroundedby
diverseandincreasinglycomplexmedia,andsome
willoftenfindclassroommaterialstobe dull,irrele-
vant,orboth.Butbyplacingacomicbook-the basic
formof whichtheyno doubtrecognize-into the
contextof a classroom,teacherscancatchstudents
off guardin a positiveway,andthisdisorientation
has,inmyexperience,ledstudentstobecomemore
engagedbyagivenwork.ThoughtheCallahanpiece
wasascantthreepageslong,ourensuingdiscussion
abouthistone,useof irony,andcharacterizationof
himselfeasilyfilledtwofifty-minuteperiods.
As teachers of literature, we should
not strive to get students to accept
without question our own
judgments of what constitutes
literary merit, for such acceptance
inevitably places students in the
position of seeing literature as a
"medicine"that will somehow
make them better people, if only
they learn to appreciate it.
The reason for this engagement is largelyat-
tributableto the formitself.Unlikemore"traditional"
literature,comic booksareable to quite literally"put
ahumanface"onagivensubject.Thatis,comicbooks
blend wordsandpicturesso that,in additionto read-
ing text, readers"see"the charactersthroughthe il-
lustrations.Whatis more,the interplayofthe written
andvisualis acomplicatedprocess;acomic "doesnot
'happen'inthewords,orthe pictures,but somewhere
in-between, inwhatis sometimesknownas'themar-
E november 2001

3. riageof text and image'"(Sabin9). Because this "in-
between"spaceisdifficultto identifyandvariesfrom
title to title, readingcomic books requires an active,
thoughlargelysubconscious,participationonthepart
of the reader.Suchparticipationhasbeen referredto
as "closure,"whereby the readerfillsin the detailsof
the empty space between the panels, and the result
of this process is to "fosteran intimacy ... between
creatorandaudience"(McCloud64,69). One signif-
icant outcome of closure is that readers are able to
sympathizeand empathize with comic book charac-
ters in unique ways, as evidenced by my experience
with the Callahanpiece.
Since then, I have used comic books in most
of my composition classes and all of my literature
classes. Before I introduce them, I askif anyone has
read comic books before. Amazingly,nearly every
hand goes up. True,manystudents do not currently
read them, but they did when they were younger.
What is incredible to me is thatthisreadingwasvol-
untaryandenjoyable.Asyouthswe probablyweren't
given comic books by our teachers or parents; in-
stead, we sought these out on our own and found
value in them. But then, along the way,we decided
that they were more fit for kids, that they no longer
had anything to sayto us, that after a certain age-
usually middle school, where students begin that
awkwardtransitionto adulthood-reading a comic
book became akinto climbing a tree;youjust didn't
do it anymore. What happens is that many adoles-
cents begin to see comic books as many adults do:
subliterate, disposable, andjuvenile.
But this perspective is grossly inaccurate.
Imagine, for example, meeting someone who dis-
dained all film because he was no longer interested
in Disney movies and associated all motion pictures
with that one narrow genre. Or someone who no
longer read fiction because she believed that all
books were like the picture books she had outgrown
years before. Clearlywe would say that these indi-
vidualswere radicallymisinformedaboutthese gen-
res. Just as misinformed are people who associate
comic books with any one type, such as superhero
comics. But manywritersandartistshave addressed
topics relevant to all levels of English classrooms,
making comic books an ideal and largelyuntapped
source of enrichment. Though industryprofession-
alsand fanshave alreadygrowntired of hearingthat
comics "aren'tjustforkidsanymore,"manyteachers
and students might still be unawareof the maturity
and relevance of variouscomic books. Manymiddle
schools-particularly those thathaveadoptedateam
approach-have discoveredthe valueof planningin-
terdisciplinaryunits that approachtopics in a more
interesting and productive way (Mills and Pollack
304). There are several graphic novels (long comic
books, for lackof a better definition) that provide a
sophisticated and interesting approach to various
events and issues.
For example, there are several titles that
would workwell in a historicalunit. The most pop-
ular, no doubt, is Art Spiegelman's Maus I and II,
which retell the storyof the author'sfather,a Holo-
caust survivor.Spiegelman'sbook is challenging in
every sense of the word, from the complexity of his
visual arrangements, to the weight of the subject
matter, to his brilliant use (and deconstruction) of
an extended animalmetaphor bywhich the nation-
alities of the people involved are represented by
various animals. More so than any other graphic
novel, Spiegelman'sworkhasentered academiaand
is taught in various types of courses at colleges and
universities throughout the country. For historical
units that focus on the settlement of the American
West, Texas historian and comic book artist Jack
Jackson has several well-researched and vital
graphicnovels-particularly ComancheMoon,Lost
Cause, and Indian Lover: Sam Houston and the
Cherokees-that retell the conquests froma Native
American perspective and provide a voice often
missing from more traditionalhistorical texts.
If Englishteachers areplanningunits on var-
ious socialissues fortheiradolescents andteenagers,
there aretwo titles--one dealingwith AIDS andthe
other with single motherhood-that humanize the
respective issues and engage their readers. Judd
Winick'sPedroand Me:Friendship, Loss, and What
I Learned recounts the author's friendship with
Pedro Zamora,ayoung manwho died of AIDS. The
hook here for our students (andwhich should in no
way diminish the book's appeal to adults) is that
Winick and Zamora were both cast members of
MTV'sTheReal World:San Francisco. But readers
attractedto the book on thatbasiswill soon find that
it is a moving story about tolerance. Similarlyvalu-
able is Katherine Arnoldi's The Amazing "True"
Story of a Teenage Single Mom, a semi-autobio-
graphicalaccount of experiences with abuse, single
parenthood at a young age, lack of family support,
and, ultimately, survival. The book does not ro-
manticize the idea of teen pregancy;instead, it pro-
vides a harsh look at its realities and underscores
ENGLISH JOUTrna l

4. the importanceof education.AsArnoldiwritesin
the "Author'sNote,"her"purposewasto help sin-
gle momsfeel worthyto pursuetheirrightsto an
equalaccessto education"(i).
Unitsoncontemporaryandimportantglobal
affairscanbe especiallychallengingduetothelevel
ofcomplexityofthepoliticsinvolved.Inthesecases,
the need to humanizethe conflictbecomes even
more crucial,and the benefits of comic books'
uniqueformcome throughclearlyin severalim-
portantworks.Thebestexamplesarethe booksof
comics journalistJoe Sacco, whose two volume
Palestinechroniclesthetwomonthshe spentmov-
ing between the GazaStrip,the West Bank,and
Jerusalem.Thoughhe wastherein late 1991and
early1992,theconflictshe depictscontinuetoper-
sisttoday.Whatismostimpressive,however,isthat
Saccoorganizeshisgraphicnovel(ashe doesinhis
book,SafeAreaGorade,whichfocusesonthewar
in EasternBosnia)aroundthe citizensinvolvedin
the conflict.Saccois interestedinbringingto light
thevoicesandfacesofthosecaughtinthecrossfire
ofideology,andtheeffectofthisstrategyistomake
theincidentsmuchmoreaccessibletoreaders.Sim-
ilarly,JoeKubert'sFaxfrom Sarajevotellsthestory
of Ervin Rustemagic,a man whose familywas
trappedin Sarajevoduringthewarin 1992.Amaz-
ingly,Kubertputthisbooktogetherfromaseriesof
sporadicfaxessent to him andotherswhile Rus-
temagicandhis familywere underseige. Aswith
Sacco'sbooks,Kubertretellsanimportantchapter
inrecenthistorybyliterallyputtingfacesonthepar-
ticipants,thus offeringreadersa humanizingac-
countthatengagesinauniqueandpowerfulway.
Aside from engagement, comic
books also help to develop
much needed analytical
and critical thinking skills.
A finalexample of atitle thatwould certainly
engage our students in middle and high school En-
glish classes is Neil Gaiman'sSandman,collected in
ten graphicnovel collections. Duringits seventy-five
issue run, Sandmanhad the distinctionof being the
only mainstreamcomic bookwith nearlyasmanyfe-
male asmale readers(Bender 117). Describing this
marvelous and imaginative series cannot help but
be reductive, but in essence it chronicles the lives
andintriguesof the Endless, seven siblingswho pre-
side over various facets of existence. They include
Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, De-
struction, and Dream. This lastcharacteris the pri-
mary focus of the series. Gaiman also interweaves
elements of variousmythological and religious tra-
ditions, history, popular culture, and even Shake-
speare. Equal parts fantasy, science fiction, and
horror,Sandmanappealsnot onlyto adults,but also
to avastnumber of ourstudents fascinatedby these
genres. Being both exciting and highly literate,
Sandmanoffersagreatdealto teachersandstudents
who are not yet aware of how relevant and mature
comic books can be.
Aside from engagement, comic books also
help to develop much needed analyticaland criti-
cal thinkingskills.A common goal, regardlessof the
level we teach, is to help students read beyond the
page in order to ask and answer deeper questions
that the given work suggests about art,life, and the
intersection of the two. Comic books facilitate this
analysisin away unlike more "traditional"forms of
literaturebecause in additionto makinguse of stan-
dard literary devices such as point of view, narra-
tive, characterization, conflict, setting, tone, and
theme, they also operate with avery complex poet-
ics that blends the visual and the textual, as dis-
cussed above. By combining words and pictures,
comic books force students, ratherdirectly,to rec-
oncile these two means of expression. Important
and analyticalquestions that I pose to my students
are "Howwould you describe the style of these pic-
tures?""How does this drawing style interact with
the story?""Whythese particularpictures?""How
would a different style change the story?"The an-
swersto these questions arenot obvious, andby an-
swering them students begin to see themselves as
analyticalcritics working to assemble and uncover
the deeper meaning of a work.
In an introductoryliteratureclass, for exam-
ple, I gave students an excerpt from Debbie Drec-
shler'sDaddy's Girl, a fictional work that follows a
girlnamed Lilythrough adolescence. What is most
shocking about her life-and which is presented
from the very startof the book-is that she is being
sexually abused by her father. The excerpt I used,
g novemBer 2001

5. "Dear Diary,"doesn't directly address this occur-
rence, but it does allowstudentsto makeinterpretive
conclusions about Lily'slife based on Drecshler'svi-
sual style and the interplaybetween word and pic-
ture. Forced to look at a relatively confined space
with such intensity,students noticed thatthe panels
graduallybecome darkeras Lily'sinitialenthusiasm
athavinga diaryis undercut by the factthather pri-
vacyhasbeen violated.They alsonoticed how the di-
rection of Lily's gaze varies throughout the four
panels and thatin the crucialthirdpanel, where she
is responding to thisviolation,she seems to be look-
ing directlyatthe reader.Some studentsinterpreted
this visual strategy as Drecshler's way of "reaching
out"to readersandbuilding a bridge between them
and Lily. Students also had much to say about the
finalpanel, where Lilyis absentfromthe frame,and
all we are given is her diary entry, the banal "You
knowIjustcan'tthinkof anythingto writethese days.
The weather's okay,I guess" (10). One student in-
terpreted the composition here asshowinghow Lily
is hiding as a result of her mother's transgression:
she is physically missing from the page, and her
words don'trevealwhat she is reallythinking.All in
all, this activityappeals to me because it forces my
students to be more critical viewers. Our students
certainly spend much time using their eyes watch-
ing movies and television, playingvideo games, and
surfingthe Internet. Butwhatwe need to do is make
sure thattheir criticalfaculties arelikewise engaged
duringthese activities.Manyof mystudentstellme-
sometimes angrily-that afterone of ourclassactiv-
ities they can no longer watch movies or look at
magazine advertisements as they did before, and
this comment lets me know that I have been doing
myjob.
Butperhapsmyprimarymotivationforusing
comic books in class is to provoke my students to
think more deeply about how artistic value is ac-
corded to particularworksor genres. As mentioned
above,the biggest dangerI see in ourEnglishclasses
is the failure to enable and encourage students to
define and defend their literaryjudgments. Comic
booksmakeanideal subjectandsourceforthisfocus
because they give us the opportunityto raise larger
questions of literarymerit and canon formationand
in the process allow students to understand that all
voices-including their own-need to be heard in
matters of judging literary quality.As Paul Lauter
suggests, "aliterarycanonis asocialconstruction...
it changes, and... people can and do organize to
ListofKRec11oien[edWorksJ
Callahan,John."IThinkIWasonAlcoholicWaitingtoHap-
pen."TheBestComicsoftheDecade.Seattle:Fantagraph-
icsBooks,1990.93-96.
Gaiman,Neil,etal.Sandman:BriefLives.NewYork:DC
Comics,1994.
-.Sandman:ADoll'sHouse.NewYork:DC
Comics,1991.
1.Sandman:DreamCountry.NewYork:DC
Comics,1990.
-. Sandman:FablesandReflections.NewYork:DC
Comics,1993.
-.Sandman:AGameofYou.NewYork:DC
Comics,1993.
-.Sandman:TheKindlyOnes.NewYork:DC
Comics,1996.
1.Sandman:PreludesandNocturnes.NewYork:DC
Comics,1997.
•-.
Sandman:SeasonofMists.NewYork:DC
Comics,1992.
--. Sandman:TheWake.NewYork:DCComics,1997.
..
Sandman:World'sEnd.NewYork:DCComics,
1994.
Jackson,Jack.ComancheMoon.SanFrancisco:RipOff
Press/LastGasp,1979.
---. IndianLover:SamHoustonandtheCherokees.
DrippingSprings,TX:MojoPress,1999.
---. LostCause:JohnWesleyHardin,theTaylorSut-
tonFeud,andReconstructionTexas.Northampton,MA:
KitchenSinkPress,1998.
Kubert,Joe.FaxfromSarajevo.Milwaukie,OR:DarkHorse
Comics,1996.
Socco,Joe.Palestine1:ANationOccupied.Seattle:Fanta-
graphicsBooks,1994.
-.Palestine2:IntheGazaStrip.Seattle:Fanta-
graphicsBooks,1996.
--. SafeAreaGora.Seattle:FantagraphicsBooks,
2000.
Spiegelman,Art.MousI:MyFatherBleedsHistory.New
York:Pantheon,1986.
- .MausII:AndHereMyTroublesBegan.NewYork:
Pantheon,1991.
Winick,Judd.PedroandMe:Friendship,Loss,andWhatI
Learned.NewYork:HenryHolt&Company,2000.
EINGLISH journaL

6. effect such changes"(261). By using comic books in
the classroom, we open up a vital avenue of ques-
tions concerningwhat"literature"is, andin so doing
we begin to "organizeandeffect"importantchanges
in severalways.
First, we increase and diversify the voices
that our students experience in the classroom and
suggest to them that literature may take various
forms, even comic books. Such an act is important,
forthroughitwe not onlyexpandtheirreadinghori-
zons, but we give ourselves a startingpoint to dis-
cuss the complicated process of literary selection.
That is, because comic books are not typicallyper-
ceived as "literary,"they encourage us to step back
andasklarger,importantquestions aboutcanon for-
mation that sharpen criticalthinking skills:What is
considered "literature"?What is not? Who decides
this?What aretheir interests? Manyof ourstudents
maynot have considered askingthese questions be-
fore, but as they do, they begin to uncover yet an-
otherdimension of literarystudy.Thus, comic books
provide teachers with the perfect opportunity to
help create new impressions among students, and
these impressions allowstudents to understand, ul-
timately,that "high"and "low"are somewhat artifi-
cial designations that historically have had much
more to do with prejudice than merit.
Second, comic books invite students to par-
ticipate meaningfullyin a classroomdiscussionpre-
cisely because most of them are not already
convinced of theirliteraryvalue. If askedto critically
evaluateacomicbook,studentsmightbe muchmore
forthcomingwith their ideas and opinions than in a
discussion of a more "traditional"literary work--
Dickens'sA Taleof TwoCities orAlice Walker'sThe
Color Purple, for instance. Too often, students per-
ceive such works as occupying a space above their
level of thought, andthe importantquestion of why
or by whom these works were deemed "literary"
never comes up. And even if students ultimatelyre-
ject the idea thatcomic books areliterature,as I am
sure some of them will, they are stillformulatingan
argumentfor their rejection and thinkingabout the
issue, their own definitions of"literariness,"andthe
workitself in a more criticalway thanif they simply
accepted--or pretended to accept-our own views
andbiases.
Finally, by using comic books in class and
treating them with the seriousness they deserve,
teachers enact apowerful lesson for students about
the dangers of literary presumption: do not make
assumptions based on the appearance or popular
conception of certainworks and genres too quickly,
for such assumptions deny us access to awonderful
world of literarypossibilities. Most of my students
are surprised to learn that both film and the novel
were considered "trash"forms and not at all "liter-
ary."They are especially surprised about the latter
genre, giventhe factthatmost ofwhat they consider
to be literature are, in fact, novels. By presenting
comic books in an educational context, we demon-
strateto our students thatthey must never dismissa
type of workwithout fullyunderstandingor search-
ing for its possibilities and merits.
Along these lines, a brief history of comics
reveals that inaccurate perceptions of comics-
such as the erroneous idea that they contribute to
juvenile delinquency (Sabin 158)-has given way
to farmore troubling actions. That is, not only have
comic books been subjected to censorship, but they
have also suffered from a lack of public support in
these attacks.There are many reasons for this situ-
ation: the primaryaudience for comic books is ju-
veniles, and censorship is often carried out in the
name of "protecting"young minds;comic book cre-
ators and publishers often lack the funds to mount
a proper defense; and, most significantly, comic
books have a reputation forbeing "disposable"and
not "real"literature (Hermes 24). Combating such
views of comic books-that they are juvenile and
unchallenging-was exactly what I had in mind
when I made the decision to introducecomics to my
students asartisticworksthatmeritseriousscholarly
consideration.Afterall,thischallengeis exactlywhat
teaching is all about: bringing new understanding
and attention to some work thathad either been ig-
nored or misunderstood. Unfortunately,judgments
based on incomplete understanding are made not
only aboutworksof literature,but aboutpeople and
groups in our society aswell, includingour students
who might feel marginalizedfor reasons of ethnic-
ity,academic preparation,socioeconomic class, or a
host of otherfactorsthatimpactself-perceptions.No
doubt some of ourown students have,atone time or
another,felt unfairlyjudged on the basis of appear-
ances, and they may find some metaphoric reso-
nance in the plight of comic books in America.
I would be remiss if, at the end of this argu-
ment for the importance of developing one's own
sense of"literarymerit,"I did not explicitlystate my
own: greatliteraturesurprisesus;it makes us pause
to consider people and cultures and ideas and con-
0 novemBer 2001

7. flicts and dreamsand tragedies thatwe have not yet
encountered in quite the same way before. Comic
books, in my opinion, embody anddemonstrate this
potential.When masterfullycreated,they revealour
lives to us, and in so doing they help us to gainsome
insight into the world aroundus in surprisingways.
When introduced into our middle, secondary, and
post-secondary school English classrooms,they can
challenge andengage studentsinimportantandvital
ways.And if more students enjoy going to their En-
glish classes in orderto be surprisedand challenged
to think more deeply, and if they become more in-
volved in the creation of their own opinions about
literary merit, then we, as teachers of English, are
fulfilling our implicit promise to make the world a
placewhere readers,writers,andartistscanflourish.
Works Cited
Arnoldi,Katherine.TheAmazing"True"Storyofa Teenage
SingleMom.New York:Hyperion,1998.
Bender, Hy. The Sandman Companion. New York:Ver-
tigo/DC Comics, 1999.
Drecshler, Debbie. Daddy's Girl. Seattle: Fantagraphics
Books,1995.
Hermes, Will. "Drawingthe Line: A New Wave of Cen-
sorship Hits Comics." Utne Reader (November-
December 1995):22-24.
Lauter,Paul.CanonsandContexts.Oxford:OxfordUP,1991.
McCloud,Scott.UnderstandingComics.New York:Harper-
Collins,1994.
Mills, Rebecca Farris,and JudyP. Pollack."Collaboration
and Teacher Change in the Middle School."The
ClearingHouse(May-June1993):302-05.
Sabin,Roger.AdultComics.New York:Routledge,1993.
ROCCOVERSACIteaches at PalomarCollege, SanMarcos,
California.Moreinformationaboutcomicbooksandteach-
ing is availableon his Web site at http://english.palomar.
eduNersaci.
I
TheGrapesof Wrath
By: JohnSteinbeck
TalithaMaylivesinFortCollins,Colorado,wheresheteachesat
ColoradoStateUniversity.
NewSecondarySectionAssociateChair
Pat Graff, La Cueva High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, hasbeen appointed Associate Chairof the NCTE Sec-
ondary Section Steering Committee. Her two-year term will begin duringthe Annual Convention in Baltimore. Graff
has been a member of the Secondary Section Steering Committee since 2000 and was chair of the NCTE Standing
Committee on Affiliates from 1996 to 1998. She has served aspresident of the New Mexico Council of Teachers of En-
glish and of her local chapter of the InternationalReading Association.When NCTE held its SpringConference in Al-
buquerque in 1998, Graffchaired the local arrangements committee. In 1993, Graffwas New Mexico Teacher of the
Yearand one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Yearhonor.
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