Comics/Graphic Novels that Should Be Taught in High School

Cafe Society
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There’s another thread about “Books that should have been read in high school” elsewhere in Cafe Society. The thread went a little off the rails when someone suggested MAUS, and I’ve got mixed feelings about that one. (It’s undeniably great comics, maybe the best graphic novel to date. But using it as a resource for a history class about the Holocaust is almost as problematic as using Gone With the Wind for a lesson about the Civil War, its causes and its immediate aftermath. GWTW would be a great resource for a film class, and MAUS would be swell for a class on graphic narrative or comics criticism, but I don’t think that’s taught at the high school level anywhere in America.)

I am an English teacher in Korea, and my students tend to be from kindergarten to middle school. The school libraries I have seen here are heavy on Marvel and Disney books. I respect the comics medium more than I can credibly explain right now, but I honestly think these should be sidelined in favor of Maurice Sendak and Frog and Toad.

Which comic books/graphic novels unquestionably belong in a school library for American teenagers? Here are some I would recommend:

Palestine and Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco. Joe has gone back for many more comics journalism GNs since these two were done in the 90s, but these are the ones I am familiar with.

Love & Rockets by Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez. I’m really partial to the first fifty issues of this, which have been anthologized in many formats. I find a lot of the more recent stuff a little hard to follow, but this comic by two (sometimes three) Mexican-American brothers boils down to two ongoing storylines: “Heartbreak Soup” by Gilbert, about a mythical town called Palomar in Central America and its residents who could easily populate a Federico Fellini film. Also, “Mechanics,” about a pair of punk rock girls in 80s L.A. (They call it “Hoppers,” it’s apparently based on Oxnard). Both writers deal with issues of race, gender, and art with unflinching honesty. Early on, Gilbert was the better writer and Jaime was the better artist. I think Jaime surpassed his brother at both eventually.

Sandman and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and a murderer’s row of phenomenal artists. Sandman is about the King of Dreams and his family, a pantheon of gods functioning in the modern world. The Graveyard Book is an adaptation of Gaiman’s YA novel about a boy, hiding from killers and monsters, and being raised and protected by ghosts and other assorted unliving characters in a very old English graveyard. It is consciously drawing on The Jungle Book–what if Mowgli were being taught life’s lessons by thousands of years’ worth of ghosts instead of jungle beasts? Most of the art is by P. Craig Russell, doing some of the best work of his career.

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backdeerf. Okay, “friend” might be kinda strong, but this guy went to school with a kid who became the most notorious serial killer of the Grunge period and watched him slip through the cracks. In an early version of this, Backderf wrote (I’m paraphrasing) “My wife called me and told me one of my old classmates was arrested for being a serial killer. Dahmer wasn’t even my first guess.”

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. Iran’s revolution, through the eyes of a little girl living in it.

Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner. This was the source of the movie of the same name. A girl and her mom move to San Francisco in the 70s. The girl falls in with child prostitutes, drag queens, junkies, and her mom’s new boyfriend. While the movie didn’t judge anyone all that harshly, this book (like the Dahmer one) asks the uncomfortable question “Where the Hell are the adults? Why aren’t they doing anything?”

Who am I forgetting here? I’m avoiding superhero material, but you don’t have to.

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Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

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Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware. Just an amazing book.

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We had the Asterix and Tintin books at my school. I think they, and similar titles, still ought to be available.

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I agree with Maus and Persepolis.

A much more obscure comic that I learned a lot from was Portraits from Life by David Collier. It’s a set of personal reflections on people with a Saskatchewan connection, including:

Highly recommended.

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I second Perspepolis. I see Graveyard Book as a little younger; I know plenty of upper elementary and middle school students who read it. Blankets is another good choice for later high school.

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Charley’s War by Pat Mills. This ten volume collection of years of four page installments is an epic novelization of the experiences of a (too) young British soldier during World War One, on the battlefields and the homefront. All of the excitement but none of the glory of war is on display here. For my money, it’s the best work of anti-war literature since All Quiet on the Western Front

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Seeing something like that on a US public high school curriculum would be as groundbreaking as universal health care. I might actually consider going back to teaching or, I don’t know, start thinking there is some hope for this country.

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I learned to read on comic books and had greater vocabulary exposure there than in books aimed at age. Many of the graphic novels listed are serious works of art. Big fan.

But they should be understood and appreciated for the visual artistry as well as the words. That really is not the purview of an English class. Used supplementally as a movie may be? Maybe.

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Composition is, though. The concept of storyboarding could be quite useful to young writers in making sure their descriptions actually make visual sense.

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Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers. Wrenching. Of course, your school board would have to agree that 9/11 happened. Graphic novels are great for discussions about how mood and emotion are conveyed in that media, which can be used to talk about entirely linguistically-based ways to do so. Persepolis is fun because there’s also a film to compare it to, plus interviews with the author. I’d say Fun Home, but it has a couple of sexual panels plus, y’know, it’s about a lesbian, and no US adolescent has heard of lesbians.

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That’s not going to fly anymore. I hope.

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Maybe? I still strongly suspect that having any of these as assigned reading would result in lots of kids reading them, quickly, and completely ignoring how the artwork tells the story and sets the mood. Yes analysis of how the artwork does that could be part of the lesson plans and the assignment but it is more akin to film analysis, or a class about visual art, than a literature class.

I would see graphic novels more as an interdisciplinary elective class cross taught by the English and the Art Departments with a lecture or two by a teacher from the History department for some context for some of these books.

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In the subject like you say taught in high school, but in the body say this:

I submit that “having available in the library for individual recreational reading” and “used to teach from” are two very different propositions with very different levels of scrutiny. Not “scrutiny” as in moral content, but as in “does this rise to the level of being worth dedicating very limited class time to the exclusion of something else?”. I think the second situition requires a much higher level of scrutiny than the first.

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Fun Home is a book often in schools and often loudly banned from them. I read it once. I acknowledge it might be meaningful for LGBT students, but as for the writing and structure I found it pretty forgettable and indeed have mostly forgot it.

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Strong agree. My objections are to the being taught; being available is a different thing.

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In my experience, “English class” was a collection of reading, writing, general communications (including speech/debate) and went as far as showing movies and films. And not always just “We watched Romeo & Juliet after reading it” but we definitely saw films without any attached reading. Heck, we had a whole Film Studies senior elective for English credit. If I can get English credit for watching “Working Girl”, I sure should be able to for reading Maus. So I’m not resistant to the idea of spending a few weeks on a graphic novel. They read faster than an equivalent page count in books, teach storytelling and can help get students engaged. I say go for it.

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I’m surprised there’s not yet been a mention of Watchmen, the work that arguably created the graphic novel genre. It’s a work of great depth, but IMHO definitely accessible to a high school reader. Some aspects of the historical setting may need explanation for a young modern day reader though.

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None. There’s not even enough time for more important literature.

My senior year English teacher did have a copy of Maus that he lent out though and he’s the only reason I read it and have recommended it to others.

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The time we spent on A Separate Peace could have been spent instead on reading Garfield Vol 3 and been of more benefit :smiley: