Blog #8 Morgan Minor
1. Talk about the overall claims of these two scholars (Versaci and McCloud). What arguments are they making about comics and their uses? Use examples from their texts to support your summary.
Versaci’s article is overall claiming that comic books are a great tool to use in the classroom to teach students about “literature” and help them to see and define for themselves what it is. He argues that comics help to define “literary merit”. He also stresses at the end that comics, “When masterfully created, they reveal our lives to us, and in so doing they help us to gain some insight into the world around us in surprising ways” (Versaci 67).
This is similar to the claim of McCloud in his TED talk. He speaks about how comics help you to see the world from a different “window”, saying that comic books are that window. He says they help you to triangulate the world and see its shape. He also talks about how comics are important artistically. That is something that Versaci also mentions. They both also mention comic books in relation to real life and history. Versaci does so to show how they can be useful in an educational setting. He stresses how they are a tool often overlooked. On the other hand, McCloud does so to show that comics have been around for an extremely long time, and are somewhat natural to humans. For example, when he shows the petroglyphs on the walls or the other “backwards” pamphlets. He also shows how they have developed and when they eventually got word bubbles and such.
Overall, both scholars are making claims for the positive and useful side of comic books today. They are trying to break some of the negative stereotypes and educate people on how they can be very useful and important.
2. How did reading your text from the genre series compare to other reading we’ve done to date? How did it change how you read? How can you imagine using drama, comics or graphic novels in the classroom?
The reading of my genre series book, Anya’s Ghost was a lot different from my other experiences in this class. It was a fairly quick read because it was a lot of imagery and pictures. I read it in two sittings. It was hard for me to get the hang of reading a comic book or graphic novel at first because the order sometimes confused me. I would catch myself looking at the other page to continue (McCloud’s idea of a continuum would have come in handy here). I think it was merely because I wasn’t used to the format and am already an easily distracted person. That was a challenge for me. After I got the hang of it went pretty smoothly. I also liked how the characters and story was not only written out for you but shown. You didn’t have to imagine or make up your own characters because they were given. It was like a movie book to me.
I think it changed how I read in the fact that I now understand how to read graphic novels. I am already a pretty visual person while I read, meaning I come up with what is going on in the book in my head, so having it there was nice.
I could definitely use comics or graphic novels in the classroom. I think some students would find a lot of interest in them. I think I could incorporate Versaci’s idea of having history or education comics or GN to help better interest the students in reading and learning. For a lot of students, pictures or narratives really help to set in ideas. I could definitely use them as a resource in my classroom.