Literacy Expert Stephen Krashen: " For Me It Was Comic Books"

Click here to listen to USC professor, literacy expert, and, oddly, current rabble-rouser Stephen Krashen talk about language acquisition , pleasure reading (or narrow reading), and academic discourse. Right before the 21 minute mark, he begins talking about his love for comics and respect for their importance in his own literacy development:

"For me... it was comic books, and I gotta confess, it's still comic books.... Batman, Superman....What a wonderful foundation that gave us for higher levels of literacy, and we treated it as literature...."

He then talks about having Stan Lee taking him to lunch -- and paying! :)

Continuing on, he says, "I've never gotten over comic books. There's nothing like a new graphic novel."

His basic thesis is that language acquisition, especially academic language acquisition, is best facilitated by lots of reading in the forms and genres that you love best.

Krashen's synthesis on many studies and writings on comics and reading in The Power of Reading should be among the first things comics-and-literacy scholars read, in my opinion.

YALSA's "Great Graphic Novels" for 2012

See YALSA's list of exemplary graphic novels here. And since they made finding their top ten a little difficult (what is it with folks this year? Is it suddenly not hip, or is that not hipster [librarians were the original svelte, black-glasses-wearing, know-it-all hotties, afterall], to make top ten lists?), here's a link to it too.

Among the top ten, there's an interesting mix of genres. Even the capes got a nod or two.

University of Chicago Hosting Comics Mega-Event!

The University of Chicago's Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry is hosting a conference this May. "Comics: Philosophy & Practice Conference" will run from May 18-20 and feature an amazing line-up of top-tier comics talent. Visit the link in this post's title for more information, and be sure to click the "Conference Participants" link too.

Go Maroons!

See My "Comics" Entry in the Massive *Encyclopedia of Adolescence*

Edited by Roger J.R. Levesque of the University of Indiana, this impressive tome (3363 pages!) covers a range of topics pertinent to the development of adolescents and features my "Comics" entry on pages 460-468. What makes this encyclopedia unique is that not only were experts invited to talk about their areas of interest, as with many such texts, but were asked to highlight their own work in the area.

I'm honored to be included in such a worthy, if not expensive ($2050.00) project that will make a great resource for educators and researchers everywhere. It's a library purchase, to be sure, but a great contribution to adolescent literacy studies and all other areas of interest to those who study young people and their habits and behaviors. It just published and is available online as well. Get on the phone with those campus librarians, people! ;)

Check Out These Great High-Low Covers from Marvel

Click here to see the bulk of them. Or is that the "Hulk" of them? :) Here's my very favoritest:

Rationales Project Gets Attention in Education Review

Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels, a project I edited with around twenty other teachers and teacher educators last year, has been reviewed for Education Review/Resenas Educativas, a multi-lingual journal of book reviews.

Available as a CD-ROM, an Ebook, and in chunks through publisher Maupin House's a la carte feature, Rationales offers reviews, lesson ideas, and advice for integrating 108 graphic novels into the classroom.

Reviewer Tiffany A. Flowers calls the project "practical and useful" and "a great resource." Read her full review here.

Thanks for the kind words, Tiffany! :)

*The Comics Journal* Recaps 2011: "A Year of Comic Ambition"

TCJ has come up with a cleaver way to avoid posting a "best of" list. ;)

FOX News Worries About Comics and Kids

CBR has great coverage of a recent news short that ran on FOX stations regarding comics, sex, and kids. CBR says everything I would have said about it, plus offers video of the story, so click here to access the link. Hopefully this is an isolated story and we're not going to see another Seduction of the Innocent type of backlash against comics. Afterall, FOX does have a psychiatrist as an expert in this story....

On the other hand, as CBR notes, the comics in mention are bad and not good for kids to read or anyone to read due to being so crappy. Not that FOX really has a leg to stand on hen it comes to issues of morality. On the other hand, that's never stopped them before.

Super Ladies Illustrate Breast Exams

If this story is to be believed, Marvel and DC characters are featured in several ads in Mozambique aimed at helping women learn how to give themselves breast exams. Seriously, see them here.

Blue Beetle & DC's New 52: Out of El Chuco and Into the World

It has been several months since DC relaunched its universe with 52 new comics titles. As we speak, several books have been cancelled and several others, less than 6 issues old, are undergoing creative changes. I've only been reading two of the new books, Swamp Thing and Blue Beetle, though I hear great things about Animal Man.

My interest in Blue Beetle stems from my fascination with Watchmen (Night Owl is the analogue for Charlton Comics' Steve Ditko-era Blue Beetle) but intensified when I came to UTEP at right around the same time as the most-recent Blue Beetle, featuring 16 year old Hispanic El Pasoan Jaime Reyes as the eponymous hero, was coming into his own. Alas, Jaime's first series was cancelled after less than 50 issues, but the character was revisited in 2011 in a new Blue Beetle series that is ongoing and not bad.

One of the things that made Jaime's first series so interesting -- and which made it a liability to DC, most likely -- was that it dealt with issues of the Borderland, immigration, and Mexican American life in the American Southwest. Jaime found himself becoming the regional hero for both El Paso and Juarez, MX. One editor has said that DC overestimated the amount of attention Americans were putting on immigration issues at the time and has stated that the first Reyes series was a "gimmick."

I don't buy it. While I do think DC tried to appeal to new, younger, browner demographics with the character, I don't think he is a gimmick, as evidenced by the fact that DC sees him as important enough to keep him around now and in how they built him up as a character on the cartoon Batman: The Brave and The Bold. They know they've created an important property.

Interesting, then, that the series' writer wants to take Jaime away from El Paso and place him in the larger, more "traditionally Euro-Anglo" world of the DCU. Frankly, I think they had to do it because keeping him in El Paso would have meant revisiting the violence in Juarez,MX. A fictional hero has no clout when he's saving lives in funny books while 8 murders a day are taking place in the real world territory he's claiming to protect. And who knows who might have protested the previous Reyes series and for what reasons.

At any rate, CBR has an interview with current Blue Beetle writer Tony Bedard in which he explains plans to move Jaime out of the Sun City and into the world at large. Read it here. Whether DC is asking him to do so to move him further away from real-world local problems and closer to global and galactic fake ones remains unknown.

Image: Are real-world issues boxing in the potential of DC's Hispanic Superhero?

African American Classics Anthology Published

Poems and short stories are given the comics treatment by important comics artists of our day in this must-have collection. Click the link embedded in this post's title to see some preview art.

"Son Testing" 4 TOON Books

One thing I love about being alive at this precise moment is that I have children growing up at the exact same time as the folks at Toon Books have established a line of comics/graphic novels for emergent readers. When I get review copies of their books, I know I have a perfect focus group waiting for me at home. I have a 4 year old and a six year old, and recently the wife bathed and pajama-ed them up, the beginning ritual for a good half hour or more of book reading.

Based on my eavesdropping and the wife’s feedback (my wife is a veteran teacher with over 12 years of experience at the k-12 level and has worked with kindergarteners on up to special needs high school students. She currently works with special needs pre-k/kindergarteners and holds multiple certifications in elementary education and special education and has a Masters degree in Reading with a focus on Special Education which qualifies her for IRA-approved Literacy Coaching), here are what the boys thought of a quartet of TOON titles:

Silly Lilly in What Will I Wear Today? by Agnes Rosenstiehl held little appeal for my kids. Described by wifey as a “girl power” book in which Lily tries on certain roles or future occupations during playtime sessions, this text was tolerated but not exactly enjoyed. But, it’s not a “boy’s book,” really. It is good for helping young readers know that their imagination is important and that anyone can be anything they put their mind to, but I think my boys already get that. I hope so, anyway. They have been making pretty interesting statements about boys and girls lately, and sometimes they do need to be reminded that girls and boys are equally cool. Silly Lilly might have seemed didactic to them in that regard, though. Still, if I had a daughter, I’d be sure to have the book.


Nina in That Makes Me Mad! by Hilary Knight was received with a little more aplomb. “They can relate to it,” my wife said in which the eponymous main character shares her pet peeves about her young life, like “”When you get made at me and I didn’t do it…. I get mad” and “When I try and it doesn’t work… I get mad.” To be frank, I think anyone can relate to Nina’s perturbances (instances of being perturbed). Therein may be the rub for these first two titles and my boys’ reactions to them, though: they’re important books for reasons adults might get but that some kids might not care for.

Of course, TALKING THROUGH things with your children as you read is essential, and I can see this text’s utility in helping the boys feel connected to others. While it is a strange aspect of human nature, it really does seem to help us, old or young, to know that other people suffer frustration and aggravation and failure just like we do. So, Nina is another one of those books to keep in reserve for when the times are right for it.

Patrick in A Teddy Bear’s Picnic and Other Stories, another Geoffrey Hayes offering from the publisher (see the Benny and Penny books), was one of the two big winners with my kids. How do I know for sure? Because they asked for my wife to read them again the night after their first exposure to the titles. “Read that one with the bear and the one with the bear and other animals” was how my oldest put it (my youngest is sort of the Chester to the oldest’s Spike at this point, mostly saying, “Yeah, yeah!” when he wants the same thing). Perhaps they take after me in that I’ve always liked anthologies and collections, but it seemed to be the multiple stories in one book that appealed to them most about this one. They liked seeing an involved daddy character, a streaking Patrick, and a bully get his comeuppance. I was intrigued to see an explanation for TOON Book’s leveling system at the back of this text (it is also in the other titles, save for Silly Lilly). That’s a welcomed and needed addition for the line. I appreciate transparency and feel like most other parents do too.


Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by Philippe Coudray was the runaway favorite, though. My boys have been devouring the Mo Willems books lately, and the mix of humor and meta-narrative seem to be what gets them chuckling. In both Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books and Fuzzy Thinking, for example, the characters know they are in a book and discuss it and make use of the tropes and limitations of being bound in paper and pressed between cardstock to great effect. “I am a bear in a comic!” starts one adventure.


As well, both my boys enjoy visual and verbal puns, which makes me happy for two reasons: 1. That’s a sign of high intelligence in little kids. 2. It gives me more evidence that they are my kids after all! :) This little gem of book is full of them through a series of self-contained minis. My kids love how rabbit escapes a snow storm, for instance, and how bear one-ups him in a fishing contest. They haven’t laughed so hard since reading the aforementioned Willems books and, of course, Walter the Farting Dog. What can I say?: They love highbrow and lowbrow funny.


My wife says this one was good for kids who like “filling in the gaps” between what the words and images provide, which is where many of the puns develop in this book. Furthermore, if what she says is true, then Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking might be a perfect primer for more advanced comics reading.

Archie's Gay Character Kevin Enrages Some on Religious Right

Or, in other words, "Duh." Read Rob Boston's coverage of the outrage here.

Whatever happened to live and let live? Maybe there's a caveat because no one ever dies or stays dead in comics?

Must-Read Book on Government Comics

Richard Graham, librarian at the University of Nebraska, has done some great work digitizing old comics with a political and educational flair. Now available is his new book Government Issue: Comics for the People 1940-2000s. It's some collection, some commentary.

I can't wait to read it!

12 to Watch in 2012

Comic Book Resources has a neat preview of comics they think will make a big impact in the coming year.

Edutopia Spotlights Comics and Education...

....through spotlighting Andrew Miller of the Buck Institute of Education. Buck, eh? Maybe I am in the right field. ;)

So cool that when I was a middle school AIG teacher, we did a lot of problem based learning stuff, which is a focus of the Buck Institute focuses. Gotta love kizmet.

Constitution Gets GN Treatment!

Round Table is realesing a comics version of the United States Constitution, complete with a reader's guide from our friend Katie Monnin. To read more about the project, click here.

Stuck in the Middle Survives Censorship Scare, But Not Unscathed

Comics news sites like Comic Book Resources (CBR) are reporting that the comics anthology Stuck in the Middle has survived a challenge to be removed from middle school libraries in some of Maine's public schools. A parent had complained that the book, which is subtitles "Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age" and does deal with some of the "dirty underbellies" of adolescent life and identity.

The Comic Book Legal Defense fund offered support for the books' continued inclusion, and I would have as well had I known of the story! How this one escaped my notice I have no idea. The book will remain on the shelves of schools like Buckfield Junior-Senior High, but a 2009 challenge in South Dakota had less fortunate results for the text and its potential readers. The Souix Falls, SD, school board voted to remove the book from shelves for "foul language, sexual references and depictions of teen smoking."


Still, a student will need special permission to read the book in Maine's Region 10. It's not a complete victory, but it's not a total defeat either. Kudos to CBLDF for its support of the text, and a "good enough" to the special committee formed to decide the fate of the book.

You can read more about the local coverage of the story here.

I can't help but remember the work that I and many other teacher educators and k-12 teachers did last year in creating the CD-ROM and E-book versions of Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels, which offers statements of summary, use, reputation, and value for 108 different graphic novels. Stuck in the Middle wasn't one of them, but I wonder if troubles could have been avoided if a rationale for the text had been available. Of course, the challenge for this book regarded its place in a library rather than a classroom.


This case reminds us that comics need our help and our vigilance regarding their inclusion in schools and libraries and that we need to fight for students' rights to read them,

NCTE journal _Language Arts_ Provides Podcast with Jerome C. Harste and Gunther Kress

Gottsta love an opportunity to listen to my homeboy Gunther Kress! The audio is a little rough and the conversation a little bit rambling, but if you've got about 40 minutes to spare, this is a neat offering from the editors of Language Arts, an NCTE journal with the theme of "Writing the image, Writing the World" for its January 2012 issue. Sooo, soooo interesting to me how close the conversation mirrors many of the aspects of Miles Myers' Changing Our Minds, which is why I use that text and some Kress when I teach courses that focus on multimodal literacies.

Katie Monnin Offers Up Batch of Reviews for Diamond Bookshelf

Visit Katie's Korner here.

General Electric's Educational Comics

There's been some chat within the Interwebs regarding General Electric's old educational comics. The Washington Post mentioned them in conjunction with an article on teaching STEM. That article, available here, features a slide show of old covers and comics.


Also, UNL librarian Richard Graham has virtually all of those GE comics archived at Nebraska's impressive online Educational Comics Collection here.

Ohio State's Project Narrative Summer Institute to have a Comics and Film Spin

If only I had $1200 and the time to apply! Anyway, click here for information on OSU's Project Narrative Summer Institute, which is exploring comics and film in a big way June 11-22 of this year.


Application deadlines are early March, and one has to be a faculty member or graduate student to apply.

Frederick Aldama and Sean O'Sullivan are core instructors.

You may recognize Dr. Aldama's name from this blog, as he has written 2 books on comics and multiculturalism with a strong emphasis on Latino characters.

The Daily Beast/ Newsweek Cover "Graphic Novel Renaissance"

Thank to Mark L. for sending the link embedded in this post's title!

Jezebel Shares "13 Fantastic Female Comics Creators"

Click here for the great list!

AV Club Chimes in with Best of 2011 List

Not quite a top ten list, rather several lists covering different categories. 'Tis the season!

Renewal for IRA MIA for 2012

The envelope reads "Now It's Time to Renew." Not so fast, there, Sparky. That's up to me.

Dont Miss Jeff Smith, Professors, etc. on this Canadian Telecast

Click here to see Jeff Smith and others answer questions on comics/graphic novels, the classroom, and learning. Or, just scroll down. Listen to a woman call comics "quick, easy" and suggest the idiotic idea that the visual elements of comics take away from students' ability to use their imaginations. Jeff Smith's reaction is priceless. He reminds us of the complexity of process as well as reminds us that comics evoke reader response.



We (cartoonists, comics scholars, and comics-and-literacy advocates) fight SOOOO much ignorance, even from otherwise "educated" people. Thank goodness we get a mix of ideas here.

Eh? More like "Yeh!"

"Comics Worth Reading" Blog Offers Best of 2011

Johanna Draper Carson and friends offer up what they feel are the year's best graphic novels here.

NPR offers Six Graphic Novels that will "Draw you In"

Click here for an article on 2011's salient graphic novels, according to National Public Radio's Dan Kois.

SLJ Publishes Best GN's for 2011 (Kids)

Click here to see School Library Journal's list.

A Little Synthesis on GN's and Learning

Here's a link going around from the Free Writing Tips website. If you follow the link and do not get a large sentence reading "Graphic storytelling teaches better than text" (ahem), do a search for a column entitled "Now You See It." The piece details work from studies at Texas Tech, East Carolina, UC Santa Barbara and others that suggests words and images together in comics form help people learn and retain knowledge.

One day enough people will catch on such that articles like this will simply be entitled "Duh: Here We Go Again." But, hey, researchers, keep those studies coming.

Thank You Again, NYSEC!

Today I received a very nice "thank you" letter from the coordinator of this year's NYSEC (New York State English Council) and evaluations from folks who attended my workshop, "Comic Composition Crash Course." All 5's all around, the highest score on the eval sheet.

Below are the very kinds words that I'll be adding to my files very soon. Thanks again to all the great folks in Albany!

Ironically, this news arrived to me on the very same day that I learned my tenure as a Co-sponsored speaker with NCTE has expired and that there seems to be little interest from NCTE in extending my position as a speaker at this time.

SANEjournal issue 1:2 Now Available!!!

"Teaching the Works of Alan Moore," the second edition of volume 1 of SANEjournal:sequential art narrative in education, just published!

The issue features thoughts and ideas on teaching Moore Classics like Watchmen and V for Vendetta, but it also explores Promethea, Lost Girls, and other texts from Moore's amazing opus.

Three articles, three rationales, and one review make up the table of contents, which features scholars from Northwestern University, The University of New Mexico, and even a practicing high school teacher who uses Watchmen with his upperclassmen.

Click here to visit the journal, and here's to happy reading and fun learning! Warning, you might get tachyons in your eyes or find yourself in a flux resulting from rifts in the space-time dimension!

You've heard of Book Fairs, But....

Have you heard of comic book fairs???

Chris Claremont Donates Files to Columbia University Library

From the Publisher's Weekly story:

"Renowned comics writer and novelist Chris Claremont, best known for his many years writing Marvel’s X-Men and Uncanny X-Men series, has reached an agreement to donate his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. During his 17 years writing for the series, Claremont is credited with both developing strong female characters as well as introducing complex literary themes into superhero narratives while turning the X-Men into one of Marvel’s most popular series.

Karen Green, Columbia University's Ancient/Medieval Studies Librarian and Graphic Novel Librarian, who has been instrumental in building a graphic novel collection at Columbia University, said the acquisition of Claremont’s archive will form the basis for establishing a research center for New York City-based cartoonists and comics writers. “We hope this is the first of more comics papers to come to the University,” Green said, “we want it to be a magnet for these kinds of archives in New York City, where the comics medium was born.”

Click the link embedded in this post's title to get the rest of the article!

It's Coming......

UNL Goverment Comic Collection Helps Faculty Member with Book

Richard Graham has a new book on"government" comics, or comics that various countries or national organizations have created to educate, inform, or propagandize. The book's main resource is the government comics collection at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Some of the collection is online, if you'd like to look into it. In the meantime, I can't wait to see this book!

New Book on Teaching GN's at the High School Level Now Available!

Yep, that blurry little name at the bottom is mine. Maureen Bakis asked me to write the forward for this text, which is based in her real-life experience teaching graphic novels at a high school in the Northeast. Check it out! It's available NOW! :)

Bucky's First Rage Comic

What I find interesting is that Rage Comics, a popular meme, integrates comics with logographic ques. Certain images come to signify without words. Wonder if students would get a kick out of taking notes via the Rage Comics??? Hmmmm....

Maureen Bakis Talks Graphica and Standards for Diamond Bookshelf

2011 ALA Teen Read Week was Themed "Picture It @ Your Library"

From the website, with my bolds:

"Teen Read Week started in 1998. This year's theme is Picture It @ your library®, which encourages teens to read graphic novels and other illustrated materials, seek out creative books, or imagine the world through literature, just for the fun of it. Libraries across the world celebrate Teen Read Week with a variety of special events and programs aimed at encouraging teens to read for pleasure and to visit their libraries for free reading materials."

Teen Read Week ran from October 18-22.

I am the 66.6%: Frustration with the "2/3's Curse"

I just received notification that my proposed session on graphic novels and the common core has not been accepted to IRA. Surprise, surprise. I've yet to crack the International Reading Association's code of acceptance. What makes this year's rejection sting all the more is something that has happened to me too often in recent years:

The two-thirds curse.

The two-thirds curse has affected me in this way: I write a book proposal, an article, or a conference proposal, and 2 out of 3 peer reviewers have something very positive to say. The third is either not positive or downright damning, and the publishing house, journal, or conference editors or higher-ups decide to side with the minority opinion.

For example, see the reviewer feedback for the GN/CC proposal:

Proposal: Grading Form for Graphic(a) To the Core: Comics, Graphic Novels, and the Common Core

Comments for Submitter

1. The proposal gives a lot of background information on graphic novels and their importance, but does not describe what the attendees will "do" in the session.

2. Very relevant and provocative and timely session! Well written proposal - clear, substantive objectives!

3. As educators "scramble" to understand the Common Core Standards every strategy that is presented is worth examining. The conversation about student achievement, teacher performance and the Common Core takes classroom instruction to the level that has not been thought of in previous years. Hopefully with the method presented, the audience will grasp a clearer understanding of the Common Core and see its alignment with students academic achievement.

Two of those statements seem fairly positive, eh? Alas, it was not enough.

Some will say it is unprofessional of me to share this information, but I've established a record of peeling back the curtain on academia since I've established this blog, and I won't stop now.

I think I'm also going to start putting my money where my mouth is. Conferences are so expensive anyway, and so are membership fees. Add in the costs of journals that my university library already subscribes to or can get me through ILL, and I have to wonder why I keep shelling out dollars and getting a frustrating "return" on my investment.

Ah, the duality of the academic: complaining about not getting into a conference while simultaneously complaining about how much it would cost to attend it!

But, one has to show affiliations to national organizations in academia. It's just sort of a fact.

Maybe it is time for me to seek out a new one and let IRA be for a year or so.

Any takers? Maybe I should just shop myself around to different organizations like a free agent and see if they'll take me. My guess? 2/3's of their membership would be glad to have me, but the key decision-makers will have reservations about associating with someone so clearly exhibiting "self-destructive" behavior like letting the cat out of the bag....

Heck, maybe this is just a little birdie's way of telling me now is the time to get involved with ALA, YALSA, and their new graphic novel subgroup. And haven't I been thinking about joining a middle school-centric organization for a while anyway?

Plus, isn't this the sort of thing that led me to founding SANEjournal? Seeing that a process seems to be broken and instead of *just* complaining about it, trying to do something about it? Yeah, it is.

Yeah... :)

Thank You, NYSEC!

I'm back from my keynote, book signing, and workshop. Albany, NY, was such a neat place, even if I never did get more than 5 miles from the airport. The Desmond is a GREAT little getaway hotel if you're ever in the area, and the biggest restaurant in the bar may have delivered the best meal I've ever had, which is saying a lot coming from a big guy like me.

Thanks to all who attended my keynote on comics and character education and to the folks who attended the seminar on comics and composition. Thanks also to the conference organizers. I felt well-treated and well-respected the entire time and hope I was worth the trouble! ;)

PBS's Independent Lens TV Show looks at The 99

Some great coverage for an important comics series! Click here to see a spot.

We're Famous! UTEP Shows up in Love and Rockets

Angel, a character from the acclaimed Love and Rockets series, is quite the athlete. No wonder she got a full scholarship to a certain University in El Paso that hosted author Jaime Hernandez a year or so ago. For proof, see this image from the recently-released and awesome Love and Rockets New Stories #4, of which you should all go out and buy seven copies.

Spiegelman Talks Meta Maus with NPR.

The new book about the phenomenon surrounding the graphic novel Maus, MetaMaus, is finally here! I've got my copy, don't you know, since we'll be reading Maus in Jewish American Literature in the next couple of weeks. Hear what Art Spiegelman has to say about the texts by clicking the link to this post's title. It'll take you to an interview from NPR.

Wall Street Journal Covers "Using Comics to Teach Kids To Read" Story

The focus is one the new TOON Book Nina in That Makes Me Mad, by Hilary Knight and Steven Kroll.

The Syllabus for What Might Have Been the First-Ever All-GN's Ya Lit Class

English 418 (H002): Young Adult Literature: Graphic Novels as YA Lit.
M-F 8:00-12:00 March 14-25, Summer 2007

Instructor:
James Bucky Carter
357 Liberal Arts Building
James.B.Carter@###.###
###-4807
Office Hours:________________________________ and by appointment

Course Descriptions:
This is a 3 credit hour, undergraduate course that is a requirement for English Education students but may not be a required course for other students. It is your responsibility to know if this is a required course for you. We will be exploring what pedagogical research and practice has to say about using graphic novels in the secondary (grades 6-12) English language arts classroom, and we will be sampling from a number of graphic novels that are worthy of strong consideration for use in our future classrooms.

Required Texts:

Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel
James Bucky Carter (Ed.) NCTE 2007.

Going Graphic: Comics at Work in the Multilingual Classroom.
Stephen Cary. Heinemann 2004.

The Amazing True Story of a Single Teenage Mom (on reserve); American Born Chinese; The Best American Comics 2006;Big Fat Little Lit; Beowulf; Bone: One Volume Edition; A Contract with God; Deogratias, A Tale of Rwanda; Electric Girl (or Queen Bee, whichever is at the bookstore); Fagin the Jew; Goodbye, Chunky Rice; In the Shadow of no Towers; King; Maus I; Maus II; Pedro and Me; Persepolis I; Persepolis II; Pride of Baghdad; Pop Gun War; Rose; The Tale of one Bad Rat; Runaways; Truth: Red, White, and Black (on reserve); Ultimate Spider-Man Vol.1; Unstable Molecules; The 9/11 Report; 300.

As well, you will be required to read a number of articles and book chapters, all of which are on reserve at the library. Most are available for digital download via any computer with an Internet connection.

Recommended Texts:

Getting Graphic: Using Graphic novels to Promote Literacy with Preteens and Teens.
Michele Gorman. Linworth 2003.

The Power of Reading. S. Krashen. Heinemann 2004.

Reading Don’t Fix No Chevy’s: Literacy in the Lives of Young Men. Smith and Wilhelm. Heinemann 2002.


CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ADDRESSED IN COURSE:
This course “Frees the Power of the Individual” by helping pre-service teachers come to understand the need for choice, access, and time in reading literature and also the importance of knowing how to assess and increase their students’ literacy skills. The course has the power to transform its students’ preconceived notions about reading and literature and gives them the tools to transform or inform their students’, peers’, and administrators’ notions as well. Students have ample opportunities to experience various ways they and their students can work in small group communities and engage in New literacies, Multimodal literacies, critical literacies, cultural literacies, and functional literacies. The course seeks to inspire its students to transform and inform themselves and those around them via communal activities and discourse and to be able to apply their experiences such that they can inform, transform, and inspire their students’ reading habits and attitudes.

COURSE OBJECTIVE(S): Students will…
• Increase their interest in and knowledge of literature for adolescents via traditional texts as well as newer forms which correspond with notions of “New Literacy.” (NCATE/NCTE 3.4.1, 3.6, INTASC 1)
• Survey graphic novels and books written for and read by adolescents. (INTASC 1)
• Accrue first and second-hand knowledge about these books for the purpose of making informed recommendations along the lines of student interest. (3.5, INTASC 1)
• Develop skill in evaluating, discussing, and writing about adolescent literature in traditional and virtual environments. (3.1.3, INTASC 2,3,4)
• Increase their knowledge and expertise in helping students become better readers. (4.9, INTASC 3,4,5,7,8)
• Learn how to help adolescents discover and develop their own reading interests.(4.0, 4.9, ITASC 5)
• Learn the NCTE/IRA standards for English language arts and learn about NCTE’s statements on Multimodal literacy
• Read an array of articles on using graphic novels and comic books in the classroom.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
• Attend every class
• Read every assignment
• Make a concerted effort to actively participate
• Keep a journal in which you reflect on each of your readings and your thoughts on graphic novels before, during, and after the class.
• Create a 3-page, inked and lettered comic entitled “How I Became a Reader.”
• Write a 5-page paper on how you see graphic novels linking with NCTE /IRA English language arts standards and the NCTE statement on Multimodal literacies.
• Complete the “Assessment Days” final exam activities over the course of the final two days of the class.

GRADING/ASSESSMENTS:

• 15% -- Attendance and ACTIVE Participation
• 20% -- Journals: You will journal about your thoughts on graphic novels as they stand/stood before, during, and after the class, and you will write reactions to your readings.
• 20% -- “How I Became a Reader” 3-page comic, inked and lettered.
• 20% -- 3-5 pages on how you see graphic novels matching up with NCTE/IRA standards and statements on Multimodal literacies.
• 25% -- Complete participation and completion of activities during “Assessment Days Final Examination”

GENERAL GRADING RUBRIC:
100-90 – Work is completed on time and meets the requirements of the assignment or goes beyond it in insightful ways. The work is mature in thought, clear grammatically, and shows exceptional application of ideas brought forth from readings, discussions, etc. Attendance is not an issue.

89-80 – Work is completed on time and meets the requirements of the assignment for the most part and has potential to be an exemplary effort but falls just short due to lack of clarity. In other words, it is good work, but could still use some work. Attendance is not an issue.

79-70 – Work is completed on time but fails to clearly meet the requirements of the assignment. It appears to be perfunctory, just completed to be completed, with little major insight into ideas brought forth from readings, discussions, etc. Attendance may be an issue.

69-65 – Work is completed on time but does not meet the requirements of the assignment, may be grammatically unsound or very murky in clarity and very shallow in depth and application of ideas brought forth from readings, discussions, etc. Attendance is an issue.

64-0 – Work is most probably late and shows little to no respect for the assignment and appears rushed or, for lack of a better term, “thrown together,” with very little connectivity to anything stemming from the assignment, class readings, discussions, etc. Attendance is an issue.


PLAGIARISM/CHEATING STATEMENT:
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. By staying enrolled in this class you understand that I have the right to take every necessary action to make sure your work is yours and your sources are properly cited. Plagiarism will result in a zero in the course. Be sure to educate yourself on what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it by visiting http://www.lib.usm.edu/research/plag/plagiarismtutorial.htm and taking the Plagiarism Tutorial. You will need the understanding in order to complete the writing assignments.

WRITING CENTER NOTICE:
The Writing Center offers free tutorial service to all students and on all writing projects, in order to help students meet the demands of university writing. It also houses instructional resources such as handouts, reference guides, with some limited access to word processing and internet. The Writing Center is located in the LAB and usually opens for business during the second week of classes. For more information, call ### 4821.

DISABILITY STATEMENT:
If a student has a disability that qualifies under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and requires accommodations, he/she should contact the Office for Disability Accommodations (ODA) for information on appropriate policies and procedures. Disabilities covered by ADA may include learning, psychiatric, physical disabilities, or chronic health disorders. Students can contact ODA if they are not certain whether a medical condition/disability qualifies. [Contact information followed.]

SCHEDULE:

5/14 – Introduction. Initial writing activity. “SANE” presentation. Comic Book Show N’ Tell activity. HW: BLCWGN Chs. 1 and 11; Cary Chs.1-2; Cadiero-Kaplan; Morrell1; Goodbye Chunky Rice; Ultimate Spiderman Vol.1; Big Fat Little Lit.

5/15 – Discussion and activities. HW: Maus I and II; Persepolis I and II; BLCWGN Ch. 3; NCTE/IRA Standards for English language arts, available here:
http://www.ncte.org/store/books/bestsellers/105977.htm

5/15 (continued) -- HW: NCTE statement on Multimodal Literacies, available here: http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/media/123213.htm ; Brown Maus; Maus Crown Heights.

5/16 – Discussion and activities. Share other 9/11-related comics. HW: The 9/11 Report; Pride of Baghdad; In the Shadow of No Towers; Bitz; Gallo; Leckbee; Bruggeman.

5/17 – Discussion and activities. HW: American Born Chinese; Truth (on reserve); Fagin the Jew; BLCWGN Ch. 8; Versaci; Using Student Generated..

5/18 – Discussion and activities. HW: King; Pedro and Me; Unstable Molecules; BLCWGN Ch.2; Schwarz1 and 2; Bucher and Manning; In the Middle Chs.2-8.

5/21 – Discussion and activities. HW: A Contract with God; The Tale of One Bad Rat; Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom (on reserve).; Mitchell & George; Jacobs; BLCWGN Ch. 4; Begin reading Bone.

5/22 – Discussion and activities. HW: BLCWGN Chs. 5-6; Deogratias; Beowulf; Pop Gun War; 300.

5/23 – Discussions and activities. HW: Bone; Rose; Electric Girl or Queen Bee; Reid Manga; Links to Other Articles.

5/24 – Discussions of readings. Begin Assessment Day Final Exam Activities. “How I Became a Reader” comics due. Come prepared to work in groups for your final exam. “Leveling” activity; Rationale/write-up activities; Thematic analyses; Pairings and Units activities. (More information later)


5/24 – Continue Assessment Days Final Exam Activities. Journals due. Papers due. Come prepared to work in groups for your final exam. “Leveling” activity; Rationale/write-up activities; Thematic analyses; Pairings and Units activities. (More information later)

UTEP Student Newspaper (The Prospector) covers EPCON!

CDC Teaming with Comics Makers to Produce AIDS Awareness Web Comic

Women YA Lit Graphic Novelists

Tracy White, Raina Telgemeier, Hope Larson, Audrey Niffenegger, Vera Brosgol, Jessica Abel, and Danica Novgorodoff, Marjane Satrapi, just to name a few.

"So many women 'toonists/ Are in the YA GN biz!/ Tom Cruise's wife isn't./ But I heard her agent is!"

Forgive my placeholder, yo!

Like a Brick to The Head!

The 2011 Ignatz Award winners have been announced. As we all know, winners receive notification of their honor the same way Ignatz shows his "affection" for Krazy Kat. (Kidding, of course).

EPCON IS THIS WEEKEND!!!

The second-annual El Paso Comic Convention is being held in the El Paso Convention Center this weekend. I'll be moderation the panels on the first day, which will include conversations with stars of screen and TV and academic presentations by 3 UTEP graduate students, two of whom are my former or current pupils! :)

If you're in the area, stop in, spend some cash, and enjoy!! Click here for more info. Chewbacca's gonna be there! Cosplayers! Billy Dee Williams! Local talent from both sides of the border!

Minero Magazine Covers EP Comic Scene

El Paso comics creators Jaime Portillo, Julian Lawler, and Joe Lopez are profiled. And with good timing too, since El Paso Comic Con is this weekend!!!

Minero is one of UTEP's student magazines.

Jay Hosler's Article in *Life Science Education* Journal

Click here to read Jay Hosler and K.B. Boomer's article "Are Comic Books an Effective Way to Engage Nonmajors in Learning and Appreciating Science?," recently published in Life Sciences Education, a peer-reviewed journal.

Some VERY intriguing findings!! :)

It's Coming...

"News @ UTEP" weekly Newsletter details ENG 3327

Click here for the scoop on my ENGLISH 3327: Jewish American Literature Through the Graphic Novel course, offered for the first time this semester at UTEP.

The Late Harvey Pekar's Book on Yiddish Coming Soon!

Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land is edited by Pekar and Paul Buhle. There's a preview waiting for you if you click the link embedded in this post's title. I can't wait to tell my ENGL 3327 class about it!

What are you waiting for? Mench up and stop being a putz! Go read it! ;)

*Maus* on TIME's Top 100 Autobiographies

TIME is releasing "top 100" lists for a variety of nonfiction genres. Someone with more patience than me will have to find a way to easily access the top hundred for each category besides looking at them one at a time, but my guess is more graphic novels (or graphica, for those of you who just must distinguish graphic fiction from graphic nonfiction) are in the lists. I'll try to keep you posted as other people do this work. ;)

The Compelling Story of How a GN Collection Was Saved

Click here to read how students and volunteers in Vermont rushed to save the graphic novel collection at the Center for Cartoon Studies' recently-acquired building known as the Charles Schulz Library. Rain from Hurricane Irene caused some flooding an could have seriously threatened all the library's contents had dedicated folks not made some serious efforts to keep them safe and dry.

Yesterday was "Read Comics in Public" Day

Seems like I missed it last year too. The Beat reports there was a special "Women Read Comics Too!" theme to this year's event, which was overshadowed by weathery concerns, no doubt.

AP Picks up Story on Jaime Portillo's Historic GN

This weekend, The El Paso Times ran a story on Borderlands comics creator and Xeric-award winner Jaime Portillo's recent six-part series Hell Paso: The Story of Dallas Stoudenmire. Portillo is earning his Masters in History and has been putting his research skills to use through the comics format. I'm quoted in the article, as is local comics figure Julian Lawler.

Several people emailed me different links, so it it looks like the Associated Press picked up on the story, hopefully meaning it might have gotten some national attention. With such a neat comics scene in El Paso and El Paso Comics Convention coming up soon, that timing is great, and Jaime certainly deserves some recognition for his efforts to capture part of the history of this area.

What? You didn't know Dallas Stoudenmire was a real person? Time for you to visit what the kids call "The Google." ;)

There's Something in My Office/What Could it Be??? :)

Classic!

I found this image online and would love to attribute it to the proper artist, so if you know who that is, please let me know. I added the words. :)

*Friends With Boys* Available Online 'Till it Ain't

Faith Erin Hicks is publishing a YA graphic novel from First Second in the coming months, but you can read some of it in serial form online nowzers!

Friends With Boys is being shared bit by bit along with author blogs and "is about Maggie McKay, a home-schooled teenager entering her first year in public high school and who is stalked by a local ghost," according to Comic Book Resources.

Seems a little Anya's Ghost with more punk rock thrown in to me, but whatevs. I'll check it out anyway. :)

And you can too by visiting the book's main web page here.

*Uglies* Optioned for GN Adaptation

The YA series Uglies, penned by Scott Westerfield, will soon get the graphic novel treatment. Click here to see what IVC2.com had to say about this development, and if you aren't familiar with the series, here's a review of one of the Uglies books written by C.C. Almodovar, a student in my most-recent YA Lit class!

Apparently a film adaptation or two is underway as well. We'll see how The Hunger Games fairs as a film franchise and will keep an eye out for these Uglies GN's and films too as studios tray to catch the Harry Potter series lightening in a bottle.

Why is Captain America Apologizing to Me?

I've written before that I've long felt a strong connection to Marvel comics, especially to the X-Men and to Captain America. I tried to grow up to be tough as Wolverine, funny and spry as Nightcrawler, and as silently strong as Colossus. I really, really did used to look like James "Bucky" Barnes when I was 12, especially since that was during the denim jacket era, and I really did once act as sidekick to a scholar who was and remains a huge fan of Captain America.

So, humor me a bit as I continue my childhood desire to feel like these characters were meant to speak to me when I share this image with you:

Why is Steve Rogers apologizing to me, and why does it cause me emotion as I consider the words? First, I'll give you some options for answering the former query:

1. He's apologizing for not being able to avenge Bucky Barnes' (second) death, if not for not being able to save him.

2. He knows I've been buying the last year's worth of Avengers even though it's been nothing but talking heads a la Bendis at $4 a pop.

3. This:

If it is true that Captain America is a zeitgeist figure for our country at any given time, I have to feel that he's apologizing to me, and that if you go buy your own copy of Avengers # 16, he'll be offering you an apology too.

He's saying he's sorry for the selfishness of so many of the Baby Boomers and their ingenues. He's apologizing for the Hippies who became Yuppies who have been thinking they have all the answers and have never been wrong about anything since they've been 16 years old.

He's apologizing for the stupidity of our falling for the bipartisan traps that have been put before us and for the country's leadership slowly moving away from Democracy toward a cold Capitalism that cares little for government beyond economy.

He's offering condolences for the terrible job market and for the death or perversion of the American Dream.

And you know what? If that's what he's offering, I'll take it. Who else who supposedly embodies the spirit of America has the gumption to offer apologies without blaming an "other side?"

I suggest you take it too, because you're not gonna get it from a greater American that Steve Rogers, and it's just a crying shame that he doesn't really exist.

But, if he's willing to take some responsibility, I should too, eh? Maybe he's apologizing to help me wake up and try to do more to make a difference. Or maybe he's apologizing because he knows I'll think that, and things are so bad that making a difference can't even make a dent anymore.

Anyway, if you'be been as disappointed with leadership as I have been for the last 12-16 years or so, please feel free to join me in thinking that Captain America speaks to us directly.

Support This Project!: Chain World Graphic Novel

Comics scholar and creator A. David Lewis is attempting to create what he is calling a "freeform comic experiment," and he needs your help to fund the project.

Here's a short description in his own words:

The "Chain World" Comic Book Experiment is, with the endorsement of several comics industry professionals, aimed at producing one artisan-designed hardcover slipcased 200-page comic book/"graphic novel" with a full-color wrap-around cover, beautifully illustrated initial page of story, and...199 pages left blank.

Call it the most aesthetic chain letter ever, call it the most beautifully tangible campfire "continue-the-story" game, or call it the oddest "jam comic" to ever come down the pike: This whole Experiment is about creating and releasing one book -- only ONE -- to find its narrative destiny unchecked. The book would be passed quietly from one artist to another, never discussing the ongoing story and likely never seeing the book again. Kickstarter donors would be contributing to a social experiment but also becoming part of something simultaneously exclusive and covert.

Sounds cool, eh? To learn more about the project, view a film about it, and help fund it, click here.

"Get Your Excorcise On, Girl!": A Review of *Anya's Ghost*

Anya Borzakovskaya attends a private school even though her mother can barely afford it. Despite being curvy in all the right places, Anya worries about her body and that she might one day be obese like her mother. She also worries about being seen as an outsider and has worked hard to eliminate any trace of her Russian accent. She's been in America since she was five, and all she feels she has to show for it is fitting in slightly better than the only other Russian immigrant at her school, the "fobby" -- to use a word that First Second apparently wants in everyone's lexicon -- and nerdy Dima.

But when Anya falls down a well and discovers the spirit of a girl about her age who died at its bottom, a typical teen angst narrative takes a tantalizing turn for the weird and creepy. By story's end, Anya has to grow up a bit and realize what is most important about family and self.

Or, to put it in cheesy film preview language, "A girl so worried about her weight is about to get some exorcise!"

Vera Brosgol's Anya's Ghost (2011, First Second) has been compared to Gene Yang's American Born Chinese, and surely Brosgol is paying homage to First Second's most commercially successful graphic novel to date. While the story is creepy cool and Anya is an attractive, relatable main character who deals with similar feelings as did Yang's, I do not see this book earning a National Book Award nomination. Maybe a Printz, and most-likely high praise from ALA.

Neil Gaiman has called the book a masterpiece, and certainly its themes and integration of the uncanny appeal to him. They appeal to me too, and I do think this is a very good, well-written, compelling graphic novel that meshes elements of the typical teen bildungsroman, the immigrant narrative, and the ghost story. While I do not think it will come to be seen as one of the best graphic novels ever published, as many consider American Born Chinese, Anya's Ghost holds its own and may be even more interesting to read to its target audience than ABC.

But, you know, there's nothing wrong with not being considered the best by everyone but still being considered among everyone's favorites. And as end-of-narrative Anya will tell you, even that isn't all that.

Comparisons to other texts aside, Brosgol has crafted an engaging narrative that nails the teen experience while adding a supernatural twist that should keep this graphic novel on the minds of adolescents and teachers for years to come.

Article in *InLand* Published!

So you've probably already hunted down my article "Graphic Novels, Web Comics, and Creator Blogs: Examining Product and Process" in this summer's Theory Into Practice 50.3.

Right? It was the most urgent thing on your list of urgent things. Remember? You 'member!

Now sink your teeth into "Aligning the IRA/NCTE Standards to Graphic Novels: An ELA Pedagogy of Multiliteracies," co-written with Katie Monnin and Brian Kelley, which is appearing now in InLand 28.1.

Both these journals' summer issues explore YA literature, and there's plenty more good readin' beyond the the stuff from the professor in the West Texas town of El Paso.

*Captain Confederacy* Comics Available Free Online

Read this controversial series dealing with super heroes and race-relations by clicking here. The comments left behind are pretty interesting too, as this is still a series that seems hard to pin down for many.

Interesting to see that Marvel's retcon of Captain America in Truth:Red, Black and White seems to have pulled from Captain CSA's mythos in that in both stories it is revealed that the Captains gained their powers from a serum that was tested on African Americans. Guess Marvel, which published some of Captain Confederacy back in the EPIC days, thought the idea was a good one.

Thanks to Tom Spurgeon for wishing a big "HBD" to the series' writer over the Comics Reporter, which spurred me to look into the series on a whim today.

Your 2011 Harvey Award Winners

Lots of Jaime Hernandez representation in that list! :)

Welcome Fall 2011! GN-A-Palooza!

Tomorrow classes start at UTEP, and as I've mentioned in other posts, we'll be packing in the graphic novel goodness in my three classes this semester. I have one GN for my main methods course; two for my New and Multimodal Forms course, and a whole slew for Jewish American Literature (through the Graphic Novel) class, which is holding steady at 32 students!!

I'll also be a keynote speaker for one of the days of the New York NCTE affiliate in October and will be part of a panel of NCTE in November. Both appearances deal with comics, of course. Maybe I'll even introduce some graphic novelists at this year's ALAN, like I did last year.

I've got the "Comics" entry in the upcoming Encyclopedia of Adolescence, and I've published articles on graphica and education in Theory into Practice and Inland this summer.

I'll also be working to publish the second issue of SANEjournal. You may recall that the theme is "Teaching the Works of Alan Moore." We have some good articles lined up, and I can't wait to get back to this aspect of my advocacy for comics and literacy.

Then there are the things "in the works" that I want to talk about but probably need wait before doing so. Suffice it to say, by the end of the semester, I expect to announce a major library-based addition to the UTEP stacks.

And, if things fall right and I find evidence of equitable treatment to my liking, I may be making a professional milestone soon too.

I do need to get to writing new material and to sending out more proposals, etc. But, due to working with others, I'm not on empty there either.

Here's to a great Fall 2011 semester and beyond!

2011 Ignatz Award Nominees Named

My Summer Pleasure Reading: *Saga of the Swamp Thing*

I've now read 5 of the 6 volumes of Alan Moore's run on Saga of the Swamp Thing, and I just gotta say that I'm loving it.

I don't know if living the Southwest has me yearning for the South, or if the desert and recent humidity has me yearning for bodies of water and marsh, but I've found myself drawn to Swamp Thing since reading Jeremy Love's Bayou and noticing that the eponymous character of that series is a clear homage to Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson's soggy slosh super-hero.

(Did you know that Swamp Thing and Man Thing debuted almost simultaneously, and that both are an homage to an obscure character called The Heap?)

It's also fun to see Moore playing with Watchmen themes prior to releasing that text and seeing scenes and that seem "tested" in this series, as if the bayou of Louisiana became the Brit's natural playground. I enjoy wondering if Moore every visitited the Southern swamps. I enjoy the romance between Swampy and Abbie, the taboo that isn't really.

I also sort of like seeing an elemental character kick the asses of DC's more mainstream capes.

I do think the series could be used in the high school and college classroom, especially as a text to illustrate Southern Gothic literature. I even wrote a rationale for volume 1 of the collected series while working on the Rationales for Teaching Graphic Novels text.

Right now I just want to savor the story's essence, though, as if I don't have allergies and moss makes me feel alive and erotic and connected and free at the same time. Nothing fancy. Just want to say I recommend these volumes.

Seriously, if you like Moore and you like brooding and romance, check out this Mr. Natural/Frankenstein via the Saga of the Swamp Thing collected editions.

*The Atlantic* Offers Up Top 10 List of Nonfiction GN's

That's right, I refused to call it graphic nonfiction. Whatchyagonnadooabouditt? ;)

Anyway, there are some neat titles on this list, some reportage and some history and some science. Teachers will note that suggests multi-curricular appeal!

On the New Biracial Spider-Man

The Spider-Man of the Ultimate universe has been in the media lately not so much because he replaces Peter Parker in that continuity, but because he is biracial. New York teen Miles Morales has heritage rooted in African American and Hispanic cultures.

And that's cool... but do we need to paint Peter Parker as whiter than the lilies now? I mean, just because he died fighting one of the few green people in his world doesn't make him a racist. ;)

And that's my problem with the story surrounding this new character. It's not about the character at all but about the meta-narratives surrounding his appearance. You may have heard that Glen Beck blamed the First Lady for this change. "Blamed?" Come on. The subtexts surrounding Miles' new role are disturbing to me, even if it is easy to gloss over some of their substance and focus on the "feel good" aspect of "diversification."

Let me explain:

Consider this article from WNYC:

Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis is quoted as saying " Wouldn't it be cool if Spider-Man was biracial? Somebody different than the comic book norm -- who represented New York more."

Sorry, hard working, loyal, conflicted, over-achieving everyteen Peter Parker. You just didn't represent your city. Sorry all white people; your time has come and gone. You have no place in the New York of the 21 century. Or, if you did, your incredible whiteness was so glaring, it was mucking up the metaphor.

Jeff Yang of the San Francisco Chronicle is quoted in the article as saying, "This is definitely progress....It's always great to see when the faces behind the masks -- the iconic characters we grew up with -- are finally starting to reflect the world around us."

So, progress is replacing white people with people who are of non-white backgrounds, because all white people are the same and have a singular homogeneous culture that is at odds with reality?

The next example comes from Cheryl Gladstone, a biracial citizen of Brooklyn, who says, "Being different is a superpower."

Again, is the intimation that all white people are the same, and all people who are non-white are different. Just people of biracial identity break the mold? A white, milky mold?

Don't get me wrong. I haven't been keeping up with the Ultimate Spider-Man character for a while now and probably won't read the new book either. Am I glad that this new Spidey might connect with new generations of readers? Absolutely. But, in my mind, that includes white readers too.

Diversification is not simply about exchange, about pitting one ethnicity against another as if "white" is old and everything else is "new." And, though I know more than a few of my liberal friends will probably think it, I don't mean to come off as a stodgy, out-of-touch white guy upset that the world around him is changing and he's getting left behind.

(Insert word balloon on above image of Green Goblin: "Crackers be hatin'!!")

Well, actually, some of that is how I'm trying to come off. True progress, true multicultural acceptance means not erasing white identities, but bringing them and all other possible identities along for the ride. Working together rather than against, with resistance being applied to paradigms of divisive difference.

In a world where that is understood, I can't help thinking we'd have media exalting the character of Peter Parker and praising his accomplishments in his fictional universe while excited about the newcomer's ability to exemplify all the best of what Spider-Man represents, which, as the article points out, to its credit, has never been about race, but actions and decency and respect and the constant struggle to improve one's self and one's world.

That is not and should not be construed as a racial prerogative; it's a human one. But in our universe, that message seems to be getting lost.

Peter Parker is about to become an absent presence for Miles Morales, similar to how Ben Parker and Peter's dad were absent presences for him. I hope that Miles shares with his predecessor the common core value of judging people not on the color of their skin or the ethnic or cultural heritages from which they come, but on the quality of their character.

One of the most common teaser images on the web right now, in which an exhausted Morales lifts up his mask and thinks, "Maybe the costume is in bad taste," reveals to me that Miles is as deep a thinker and worrier as Peter, which is heartening. We might be getting it wrong, but maybe Spidey keeps getting it right.

If he's able to do that, in relation to what the media has revealed about us, anyway, he'll truly personify the "super" in "super-hero" because he'll clearly exemplify the best of all of us, the best of what we can be; all of us.

August 9th NCTE Inbox Full of Comics-and-Literacy Goodness

Something must be afoot....

In addition to reminding folks about my first edited collection, the award-winning and best-selling Building Literacy Connections with Graphic Novels: Page by Page, Panel by Panel, this week's NCTE Inbox has links to 3 articles about comics and literacy:

1."In the Fight for Better Literacy, Comic Books Are Teachers' Secret Weapon" from This Magazine

2."Wondering (Worrying?) about Graphic Novels" from the Tempered Radical blog which features a lot of unfounded idiocy from, where else, my home state of North Carolina? When it comes to North Carolina teachers, I just can't stand stupidity. Guess it comes from having worked in the North Carolina public schools for 3 years. Anyway, I gave a pretty fiery reply to this one....

3."The Literacy of Gaming: What Kids Learn from Playing" from PBS. The James Gee is quoted.
OK, the third is more about video games, but still.

OK, I'm gonna go fume about... wait, what is this?? Tempered Radical's Bill Ferriter has already updated and seems to backtrack a bit, acknowledging that he needs to do some research?? Maybe there is hope for teaching in the Old North State yet!

In the name of fairness, and since I blasted the guy without seeing the new post -- seriously, I actually told him to "read a f------g book!" -- I feel I must share the link to the"Lessons Learned" post about graphic novels as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow, that was about 10 minutes of roller coaster for yours truly. I started out excited but curious about NCTE's focus on comics, then furious at the second link they shared, then a little cooled upon noticing the update from the second source.

Anyway, if you want to subscribe to the NCTE Inbox weekly, free newsletter, click here. I guess I'm now living testimony that it will thrill, chill, elate, and anger you.

Pacific Northwest College of Art Creates Cartooning Award

"Pacific Northwest College is starting a new graphic award for comic arts, called the Oregon Book Awards in Graphic Literature," says Graphic novel Reporter's John Hogan. Click the link embedded in this post's title to learn how you might submit an entry!

for more info on PNCA, click here.

Illinois HS Teacher Talks Graphic Novels in the Classroom

Here's Graphic Novel Reporter's lead-in to the story:

Melissa Burke-Marquart, an 11th grade English teacher at St. Thomas More High School, a small Catholic high school in Champaign, Illinois, has been teaching graphic novels in the classroom on and off throughout her career. A lifelong comics fan and experienced educator, she says, "Years ago, I used superhero comics with my freshmen when I taught them the elements of fiction. I hear back from many of them—they're now grownups with families—that that was their all-time favorite lesson. We created a class superhero and then I grouped the students into creative teams; they wrote and created a comic and short story starring the class hero."

I could have used Melissa when I interviewed at a university in Normal, IL, a few years ago and a classroom teacher who was part of the hiring process told me that the curriculum was so full that at best, high school teachers could probably only use one graphic novel per year. The intimation was, of course, that my field of study was too limited to be of much use.

Live and let live, though, eh?

Tom Spurgeon Interviews Brannon Costello About Howard Chaykin

Click here to read an in-depth interview with my friend and colleague from way back, Brannon Costello, who will soon publish a University Press of Mississippi Conversations series covering the comics legend Howard Chaykin. Brannon also mentions a book he's editing that should be out soon and that I'm actually even more excited about owning, reading, and using. That one is a collection of essay on comics and the American South. It's gonna be a big year for Brannon, and that thrills me to no end! :)

p.s. Brannon, if you're reading this, thanks for the shout-out! :)

International Poll Asked Comics Readers to Name their Top 10 Singificant/Important Works

See the results here. There's also some good examination of what made the list and what didn't. N=+200, for those interested in how many folks The Hooded Utilitarian surveyed.


I was very happy to see Krazy Kat, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Maus, Watchmen, and Locas in the top ten.

Blue Water Adds Some Class

In the past, I've associated the products coming out of Blue Water comics publishers as, well, befitting a place in swirling blue water, if you know what I mean.

But I'm happy to announce the company is literally adding a "class" component. My friend and colleague in comics-and-literacy, Chris Wilson, of the popular blog resource The Graphic Classroom, has signed on to produce lesson plans for the company's nonfiction titles. I think this is a very smart move for Blue Water.

Click the link emdedded in this post's title to learn more, and, if you're reading, congrats on the gig, Chris!

"Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Constitee-anc-ee?"

Loves me some Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? While we're off topic, know what else I loves even though I fight it? College football....

GNR Talks with our interview with the CBLDF’s Executive Director Charles Brownstein

That's "Comic Book Legal Defense Fund" for the uninitiated. For a great interview with the head of the censorship-fighting force, click here.

2011 Eisner Winners Announced at SDCC

Raina Telgemeier won the Eisner for Best Book for Teens for Smile, the first book I asked my summer Ya Lit class to read (just days before it was honored in San Diego!).

NCTE Inbox Features Denver Comic Book Classroom Project

Summer II YA Lit Students Review YA Novels

Clich here to see some early reviews of mostly-traditional print YA novels my students wrote on for my recently finished YA Lit course.

Jacques Lacan Hearts...Rogue?

Since we've been talking about "the gaze" and "othering" and the mirror stage in my YA Lit class, which just wrapped up today and which featured several prominent YA graphic novels, I found this explication from Comixology both timely and fun.

Enjoy the Below GN Reviews from Students in my Summer II YA Lit Class!

This Summer, I'm asking students in my "English 3306: Young Adult Literature" class to review a graphic novel in relation to what Kenneth Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen have deemed the "best of the best" criteria for evaluating young adult literature. Students were given a template that I might post later, a slide show that offered the criterion points, and the opportunity to revise their first drafts, which were graded and edited by yours truly. The below reviews, then, should represent revised copies. Students are responsible for their own content, and I may or may not share their views and opinions. Students were rewarded one extra credit point for allowing me to publish their reviews. Reviews of the following texts are below:

Don Quixote Part II,In Defense of the Realm, The Wright Brothers, The Good Neighbors: Book One,Stolen Hearts: The Love of Eros & Psyche, The Swiss Family Robinson, Call of the Wild, Amulet Books 1-3, and The Babysitters Club: Kristy's Great Idea.