READING COMICS: HOW GRAPHIC NOVELS WORK AND WHAT THEY MEAN

By Ellen Ma
Staff Writer

STORY REVIEW

READING COMICS is another great source to turn to in regards to both instructors and students who aren’t as familiar with graphic novels. Not only does Douglas Wolk discuss the theory and history of comics, but he also has a number of essays discussing different comic book writers and artists: Will Eisner, Frank Miller, and Alan Moore, just to name a few. I found these essays to be the most interesting and noteworthy aspect of this book, since the essays can work well as an in-to activity for both instructors and students not familiar with looking at the analytical aspects within a graphic novel. Since Wolk has provided specific analysis within the essays, taking a page or two from the actual graphic novel, he explains what the writer/artist is trying to convey. Overall, the essays are great models that can serve as helpful thinking and writing tools within the classroom.

ART REVIEW

The book does provide frames from different comics here and there to supplement certain points that are being made.

AGE RECOMMENDATION

My Rating: Middle school to college

IN THE CLASSROOM

The first part of this book (Theory and History) is definitely something to be considered, particularly with the beginning section: What Comics Are and What They Aren’t. Wolk’s sub-section “Explaining Myself to a Straw Man” let’s the reader understand the purpose of the book and he further discusses how he defines comics.

As mentioned earlier, the individual essays can also be used as other readings to go along with a graphic novel. Though keep in mind that these essays might probably work better if the graphic novel was of the same writer/artist.

OTHER INFORMATION

Author: Douglas Wolk Publisher: Da Capo Press
Pages: 405 ISBN-10: 0-306-81509-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-36-81509-6

MY RECOMMENDATION

Recommended