Graphic Novels as Teaching Tools

Did you know graphic novels aren't just for entertainment anymore? Many graphic novels (most, in fact!) have something else to offer... lessons, of all types, including social, life, and history lessons. One of the most well-known graphic novels, Art Spiegelman's Maus, first published in 1972, depicts one of the world's most infamous historical events: the Holocaust. The story is about Spiegelman's father, Vladek Spiegelman, who was a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. Using animals to represent races makes it easy to understand where the different groups of people stood hierarchically; mice were used to represent Jews, Poles were pigs, cats were Germans, and Americans were represented by dogs. The book has won many awards and has been and often still is studied in schools. A similar use of manga can be seen in Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen series, first published in a magazine in the early 19702.  This series is based on author Nakazawa's own experiences of the bombing and aftermath in Hiroshima in the 1940s. The story really makes a stand with Americans, as it comes from a Japanese point of view and makes the reader think in ways they may not have preiously.

Another example of graphic novels providing education can be found in Rick Geary's Treasury of Victorian Murder series. The series includes stories of various famous murder cases from history, and explains the case and provides details in a humorous way that makes the stories appealing to kids, teens, and even adults. Some of the books in the series include The Borden Tragedy, about Lizzie Borden, who supposedly killed members of her family in the late 19th century, and Jack the Ripper, about the very famous London serial killer/killings in late 19th century. These books are fun to read and have just enough information and details to let you draw your own conclusions. They have characters and illustrations and are formatted in the graphic novel/comic format, but also often include maps and re-created letters.

Yet another type of graphic novel that teaches us are biographical and cultural ones. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (which was made into a movie, see the trailer and an interview with Satrapi at the bottom of the page) tells of the author's childhood in Iran, where she lived during the Islamic revolution. The story uses illustrations not always in traditional graphic novel format to tell the story and deliver details of the lifestyle and culture. A Contract With God, and Other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner (who is considered one of the fathers of the graphic novel/cartooning/comic book format, and for whom the Eisner award is named) tells of tenement life in the Bronx during the 1930s. These graphic novels tell specific stories, and sometimes they're biographical but most importantly they give the reader a good idea of culture and life.

Have you ever read a graphic novel that taught you something about culture, an event in history (or a lot of events in history, as is the case with the Cartoon History of the Universe by Larry Gonick), or anything else? Do you think this is an effective way of teaching or getting a point across? Why or why not?