Imagery and Comic Book Novels

This was interesting because we were just talking about images.

I get a regular snail mail newsletter from the Institute of Children's Literature. It focuses on marketing for children's writers with other commentaries. This time my puppies got hold of it before I did. . . sigh . . .

The one article that survived was by Patricia Curtis Pfitsch.* It's about graphic novels. In this context we're talking about graphic novels as stories formatted like comic books and bound like novels - G rated or better. Some graphic novels are X rated and above. That's not what we're talking about. Ms. Pfitsch made some interesting comments about visual story images that I thought rather profound.

Alot of people think of comic book style novels as evidence of society's decay but a librarian from the Children's Cooperative Book Center in Madison WI. named Rudiger (puppies chewed the first name, sorry) says "...sequential art - the communication of story in a series of pictures" has been around literally for ages probably for an audience of all ages. She cited cave paintings, but the stained glass windows in the old cathedrals are another example of images created to communicate story to non-readers.

When a child is struggling to read, almost anything that makes a child read is good news but Ms. Pfitsch says that the potential value of this form of visual story imagery is even greater. She says that reading the story in this format helps kids learn to interpret symbols, connect images, pick up subtle visual nuances and irony, and "see" voice. She says that reading this kind of book actually requires more interpretation and thought from the reader. The reader won't get everything from the text. The reader has to read the pictures and see all the visual clues. If I understand correctly, one of the values of iconography is the opportunity to visually tune in to visual details that illustrate qualities that make godly heros/heroines Christ-like. I'm sensing that, oddly, there's a similarity here.

Pfitsch says that to craft books like this requires an ability to create place, story, character, plot using only limited dialogue and visual imagery. I expect that the value of a book vs movie or TV is the opportunity to really study an image and all that the details tell you.

This, I believe, is her reason for writing about this: "...in our increasingly visual world, we're constantly bombarded by images. She says that those of us with the skills to interpret those images can better make judgements concerning content" ie. learning to "see" what an advertisement is really saying. She believes that examining and discussing images and story through these comic book novels with our children will help to better "innoculate" them (and us) against the unspoken messages our culture sends." Interesting? I think what she's saying is that we can use these materials to help children "see" beyond the hype, beyond the obvious. Can we find the same level of visual story detail in classical artwork or other visual images? I don't know graphic novel illustration or art well enough to tell you, but I think learning to "see" or "hear" what the cultural images around us are saying and what they aren't saying is important.

I just saw this today so I haven't thought through all the implications but I'm guessing that Ms. Pfitsch's insights are culturally significant for upcoming generations, parents, and teachers. You may not want anything to do with comic books or graphic novels but you might find it interesting to look at detailed pictures together and look at different styles. Ask, "What is it saying?" "What is it not saying?" You might be surprised.

*I couldn't find a website.This is one of two ICL interviews with her about writing another link