Recently, Shannon Hale wrote a blog entry on books with pictures. In that entry, and in its follow-up, she argues against the idea that young readers eventually need to be weened from books with pictures in them, that it’s not a mark of maturity to no longer need the images to enjoy the story (in fact, the idea of “needing” pictures is missing the point entirely, but more on that in a moment). She makes the case for graphic novels as legitimate and valuable sources of literature and literacy. She and her husband did write one, after all. I completely agree with her, and left a comment or two in her posts, but I wanted to expand a bit on those ideas here.
If you’ve recently wandered past the graphic novel section of your local bookstore or library, you may have noticed that it has grown. A lot. Sales of comics and other sequential art are climbing steadily, even in a book market trending downward. Those who see comics as juvenile may be dismayed by that growth, but I’m all for it. I enjoy reading graphic novels, and I’m fascinated by the potential and possibilities for storytelling in that medium.
And I think graphic novels are only going to get bigger (in popularity, not size).
Here’s why:
Graphic novels are gaining legitimacy as serious works of both art and literature. They have been for some time. I mean, Art Spiegelman’s Maus won the Pulitzer, for crying out loud. While there are still plenty of immature comics out there, there are a lot of sophisticated, artistic, and meaningful works on the shelves.
- I believe graphic novels compete better than “ye olde print” for readership in today’s media-saturated environment. Blame TV. Blame video games. Blame the internet. Blame all of it if you like, but the fact is, kids growing up right now experience multi-sensory media on a daily basis, a constant stream of text, image, and sound. And I think we can all agree that’s not changing any time soon, putting aside the question of whether or not it should. Unlike a prose novel, graphic novels offer the reader a powerful multi-sensory combination of text and image. (Yes, they both use vision, but they’re processed along different “channels” in the brain.)
- Librarians and educators are getting on board. From the linked article, I especially like the quote, “We’re a visual culture now, not a typographical culture… Comics teach visual literacy.” The salient word for me there is “teach.” We’re realizing we can use comics for instruction, and we’re realizing that sequential art narratives afford unique opportunities for learning, opportunities prose novels don’t offer. And when librarians and educators get behind something, the market will follow.
And finally, movies. With the sudden popularity of superheroes and villains, the audience for comics is growing. Now, I don’t know if seeing Batman, Spiderman, or Iron Man on the big screen will actually draw new readers to the comic book source material, but I would guess that to be the case. And having a movie as phenomenally successful as the Dark Knight only makes the potential audience that much broader.
In making these points, I’m not necessarily advocating for the ascendancy of the graphic novel. I’m merely suggesting a few reasons why I think their popularity and influence will only keep growing.
That being said, I am personally intrigued by the idea of writing one. I grew up reading comics, and in high school even tried my hand at writing and illustrating one. I think it’s a safe bet I’ll come back to that medium at some point in the future. There are things a writer can do in a graphic novel that they can’t do with prose alone.
Contrary to what seems like conventional wisdom, comics do not promote “lazy reading.” It’s just that graphic novels ask something different of the reader than prose novels do. Graphic novels ask the reader to mentally fill in the spaces between panels on the page, to supply their own connective imagery. They ask the reader to perceive the relationship between the text and the image. In the best comics, the text and illustration play off each other in ways dramatic, clever, humorous, and at times, profound. In the best comics, the text and art are inseparable.
That’s why this idea of whether a reader “needs” pictures to enjoy the book is missing the point. Sometimes, it’s the book that needs the pictures to tell the story it couldn’t without them.