Technolandy

Day 16 (of 2025/26) The joy of literacy callbacks… but bsc? A part of #toontuesday New Media Episode 3

Episode 3 – the underappreciated skills needed to read comic books: https://youtu.be/MG7tUwb978I?si=0esc7mpAwe0VX6HO

Allusions to classic literatures are delightful… King does it so well, but this summer I’m seeing (at least) two TV franchises making links to … unexpected bestselling literature… both Wednesday and Twisted Metal second seasons draw attention to the BCS – The Babysitters Club… if only the publishing companies knew so they could create #132 and #133 for more … mature audiences… can you imagine!?!

BSC went through a re-engagement with the audience with its graphic novel remix… which brought a new audience into their universe, but I was still surprised when 2025 Streaming Series made references to it… one of the book series that have had love/hate relationships with librarians and teachers – like DogMan in 2025, some hate it because there are ‘better reads’ out there… but reading for fun doesn’t have to be only selections from the literazzi selections – heck, even I have the newest Dan Brown book ready after one more ‘work book’… 

This links to cartoons in an odd-ish way: often comics have faced dismissal and ridicule when read – even being mocked as not even really reading… despite comics and graphic novels having more unique words than any other literature (even for adult readers). AND they provide ways for readers to connect descriptive language into what it can look like… especially for those who do not naturally generate pictures in their minds. 

Because comics have been dismissed as ‘books’, it means that the way to approach and explore them has likewise been overlooked… something I admittedly didn’t really pay enough attention to until I heard a descriptive audio of Kate Benton’s Ducks: https://lidsurvey.ca/samples <— as I have said to staff frequently in the past bunch of months, about 45 seconds in, I had my aha moment. I was listening and then they described the cliffs of Cape Breton in the background that I hadn’t noticed… despite staring at the cover many many times. It made me realize that with comics:

• don’t just read the words – pause and enjoy the artwork and consider why things are placed the way they are. 
• unlike prose, comics tell the story through a blend of words and visuals – pay attention to dialogue… caption… descriptions… sound effects interact with the artwork. What is being shown that the text doesn’t say – and what does the text tell you that the image dcesn’t show?
• Pro tip: a lot of subtext, symbolism, mood and tone can be understood through graphic novels
• Pay attention to layout and flow – panels aren’t random (and sometimes get broken!) size; shape; placement; etc all control pacing, tension, focus, and tone.
• Even the blank spaces (gutters – the spaces inbetween panels) can help show time.. pauses.. ???
• Colour palettes, lineworks, shadings, lettering (fonts and colours) all communicate tone and emotions. Characters can look very different depending on the team!
• SO many different conventions – I used to call comics a genre, but really it is a media style (thus it’s placement within New Media) that has every genre within it – and much like different authors have their voice, so do artists and storytellers (in Cartoonists Club I could tell when Raina’s part ended and Scott’s telling took over)
• They can be used as primary source materials – within their creation there are varied elements of historical, social and cultural contexts on display – my Dell Disneys have a lot of telegrams being delivered and a lot of pop series dilemmas could’ve been solved if only they had a cell phone…
• Comics deserve re-reading. I often raced through the latest issue of Transformers and then did a better re-read and still find things in the backgrounds of Groo because Sergio Aragonnes draws more drawings than Stephen King writes words…

We (guilty!) made the mistake of just leaving comics lying around the classroom/library/office for kids to discover them on their own – which is fine – but we did a disservice when we didn’t show value to this important part of a reading library. 

The “golden age” of comics tends to refer to the era when comics were a dime and there were many broad topics being explored… but I’m thinking that the true golden age is now when a lot of us who ‘subtly encouraged’ comic books get read are: 1) seeing more and more research support reading comics; 2) having comics validated as non-fiction and really, any genre you can think of…; 3) seeing comics winning bigger awards (CBC Reads); and 4) earning mindful placements on library shelves – not just in a bin, but shared and encouraged to be read.

Next: forget scholastic book fairs, I would love it for the comic distribution company (secret cartel like behaviour) would visit schools with both the classics; collections; novels; weeklies; etc and at the same time give the reminder:

NOT ALL COMICS ARE FOR ALL KIDS. There are very graphic graphic novels. And pictures tend to freak some people out more than their equivalent in descriptive language (just watch the banned lists and ask a librarian which spicy scened books are not being looked at because they are basically from a hero male point of view). And this is why we shoudn’t focus on banning books like the amazing GenderQueer, but instead hiring more librarians – a 1.0 (in addition to current FTE ratios that can continue to provide prep support et al) will move the needle on overall literacy rates – both in achievement and in joy AS WELL AS making sure the right books end up in the right readers hands (yeah, I’m adding “more librarians” to my “canada is the lone G7 nation without a food program” rant to be a two-trick pony!