# Comics/Graphic Novels that Should Be Taught in High School **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-books-manga\ **Created:** [September 7, 2025, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813 "2025-09-07T10:19:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/41 "2025-09-08T14:41:40Z")
I’m not real familiar with graphic novels; I tend to prefer the written word myself, and a lot of what I have read were my brother’s (Dark Knight Returns, some _Punisher_ one that was adapted into the 2004 movie, and “A Study in Emerald”). I have always wondered why they don’t try teaching with the graphic novel versions of the classic texts. I’ve always felt like getting in the weeds about a writer’s use of words and sentence structure is a bit much for high school students, especially ones who aren’t big readers already. If the point’s to expose them to the stories and have them analyze the characters, symbology, etc.. then a graphic novel can do the same thing in large part. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/42 "2025-09-08T14:43:15Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Where Superman would never even think about conquering or abandoning the misbegotten people of Earth. Actually, there were a few instances of Superman making himself “king of Earth” pre-Moore. Two of them made the cover. But they were “imaginary stories”, of course. Not part of the canonical continuum. > **[Action Comics Vol 1 311](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Action_Comics_Vol_1_311)** > > "Superman, King of Earth!": Red Kryptonite splits Superman and Clark Kent into two separate beings: a tyrannical Superman who forces the United Nations to declare him king of the world, and a non-super Clark Kent who leads an underground movement... > **[Action Comics Vol 1 381](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Action_Comics_Vol_1_381)** > > "Superman: "The Dictator of Earth"": Superman monitors the news as it reports that he has become a menace to society. At one point Superman considers exposing himself to Gold Kryptonite to permanently erase his powers but he hastily decides against... ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/43 "2025-09-08T14:46:59Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I have always wondered why they don’t try teaching with the graphic novel versions of the classic texts. I loved _Classics Illustrated_. They helped me bluff my way through more than one required reading assignment. > **[Classics Illustrated Collection : Aeonic Library : Free Download, Borrow, and...](https://archive.org/details/classics-illustrated-collection/Classics%20Illustrated%20001%20-%20The%20Three%20Musketeers/)** > > Classics Illustrated Collection ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/44 "2025-09-08T15:09:57Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Besides, the real-life characters of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger sort of pin this down in time. Yes, but I think that is a strength, not a weakness. It’s an opportunity for the student reader to learn about recent American history. We don’t discard Huck Finn or A Separate Peace from the curriculum because it is set in a historical era unfamiliar to the reader. That is one of the reason those books are chosen. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/45 "2025-09-08T15:28:09Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > If I’m remembering correctly, there is a page or two of legit comic book pornography in Volume 2. Is that the bit in the French girls’ school? In terms of “taught”, I think **Maus** and **Persepolis** are the frontrunners because of the way they tell a personal story of significant historical events in a way that makes incredibly effective use of the medium. As such, they cut across art, writing and history as subjects. If we’re talking about volumes that could grace a high school library, then many of the ones above would fit the bill (although probably not **From Hell** which personally I rank as one of Moore’s lesser efforts anyway). I’d also add the **Heartstopper** series by Alice Oseman, maybe **The Sculptor** by Scott McCloud (he of “Zot!” fame), and **Digger** by Ursula Vernon. I’m also partial to the **The Cartoon History of the Universe / The Cartoon History of the Modern World** series by Larry Gonick, which I found fascinating and enlightening. Another good one for a school library. Much as I’m a fan of **Love & Rockets** , there’s a lot of sex and nudity in it which probably disqualifies it from US high school shelves. Spectacular writing and art, though. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/46 "2025-09-08T15:28:30Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > I loved _Classics Illustrated_. They helped me bluff my way through more than one required reading assignment. I’ll also suggest the use of Classics Illustrated – but not the adaptations of novels or even of Fairy Tales (Classics Illustrated Jr.). I mean the Classics Illustrated Special Editions and Classis Illustrated THe World Around Us series. as a kid, I learned more about World War II and about the French Revolution from the Classics Illustrated special editions than ever learned from any of my classes. > **[The French Revolution - CCS Books](https://ccsbooks.co.uk/product/vintage-shop/classics-illustrated-vintage/classics-illustrated-world-around-us-us/vintage-21310-the-french-revolution/)** > **[World Around Us #14 1959- Illustrated Story of the French Revolution- VF |...](https://www.hipcomic.com/listing/world-around-us-14-1959-illustrated-story-of-the-french-revolution-vf/2306642)** > > \_questions?\_ call us first for the quickest response. > Monday - friday 9am-5pm est. > 813-968-1805  > > World Around US > Issue: 14 / YEAR: 1959 > > Click on the Image(s) Above to View Full-Size. > > > Condition: VF > > Illustrated ... > **[Classics Illustrated Special 166A World War II Issue Gilberton Silver Age 1962...](https://www.ebay.com/itm/276839302791)** > > Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Classics Illustrated Special 166A World War II Issue Gilberton Silver Age 1962 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products! > **[World War II (Golden Comics Illustrated)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55230653-world-war-ii)** > > World War II (Classics Comics Illustrated) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/47 "2025-09-08T15:51:51Z")
[Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmer_j.fudd) > If I’m remembering correctly, there is a page or two of legit comic book pornography in Volume 2. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but how does that fly as High School required reading? I’m honestly out of touch with what flies in American high school lit any more, and that’s on me. But I recommended **LOVE & ROCKETS** with no objections from anybody, and it has more explicitly sexual scenes in it than anything in **LOEG.** Are you talking about Mina getting raped by the Invisible Man, Invisible Man getting raped to death by Mr. Hyde, or Mina and Allan frolicking in the forest near Doctor Moreau’s lab? It’s all within a defensible context, I think, and there is comparable content in non-comics material available in most high school libraries and curricula, including the **Book of Genesis.** (Hey, maybe I should include R. Crumb’s **Book of Genesis** to the list?) I just feel like Moore’s **LOEG** has more of what comics equate with “literary merit” than **Watchmen** or **Swamp Thing.** And I’m not citing any of this as “required reading,” my high school English experience was to let the students select a book within certain parameters, like literature of the 1920s or science fiction or horror or mystery in general. What do we think about **Gender Queer: A Memoir** by [Maia Kobabe](https://www.amazon.com/Maia-Kobabe/e/B07QDBXP5Z/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1)? I don’t think it’s great comics, but it is an important perspective, not well-covered by other works. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/48 "2025-09-08T16:42:36Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I’m surprised there’s not yet been a mention of _Watchmen_, the work that arguably created the graphic novel genre. No, that would be Will Eisner’s _A Contract with God_, about ten years before _Watchmen_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/49 "2025-09-08T17:19:03Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > No, that would be Will Eisner’s _A Contract with God_, about ten years before _Watchmen_. Don’t forget Paul Kirchner’s graphic adaptation of Willem van der Wettering’s _Murder by Remote Control_ in 1986 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/50 "2025-09-08T17:44:15Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I have always wondered why they don’t try teaching with the graphic novel versions of the classic texts. I’ve always felt like getting in the weeds about a writer’s use of words and sentence structure is a bit much for high school students, especially ones who aren’t big readers already. If the point’s to expose them to the stories and have them analyze the characters, symbology, etc.. then a graphic novel can do the same thing in large part. “Getting into the weeds” about sentence structure and word use is a bit much for _high school students_? I’d say that about _primary school_ students (1st through 4th grades) but if near-adult, near-college age students are such dullards that they can’t handle it then you are wasting your time trying to give them further higher education at all, better off to put them on an entirely vocational school path where they never have to worry about straining their thinky bits again. English classes are very much about exposing students to well written, well-crafted English. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/51 "2025-09-08T17:49:55Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I’m honestly out of touch with what flies in American high school lit any more, and that’s on me. But I recommended **LOVE & ROCKETS** with no objections from anybody, and it has more explicitly sexual scenes in it than anything in **LOEG.** I didn’t object personally, but I did note how ridiculously unlikely it would be if most Americans ever thought it appropriate for a public High School class. It would require a social revolution not seen in this country since the 1960s. > [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Seeing something like that on a US public high school curriculum would be as groundbreaking as universal health care. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/52 "2025-09-08T19:08:18Z")
**The Cartoon Guide to Physics** - by Larry Gonick That book was a life saver and trusted friend, truly. I had others in the series and I liked them all, but this was the only graphic novel I ever read that was necessary. **Maus** and **Persepolis** deserve mention, but the former should be read even earlier and the later could be missed without serious loss. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/53 "2025-09-08T19:31:17Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > English classes are very much about exposing students to well written, well-crafted English. I don’t think anyone’s advocating graphic novels be taught _instead_ of prose fiction - just including graphic novels of literary merit in the curriculum. Also, Moore in particular has a great command of English. A random excerpt from _Watchmen:_ > Thermodynamic miracles… events with odds against so astronomical they’re effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. > > And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter… Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold… that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermodynamic miracle. > > But…if me, my birth, if that’s a thermodynamic miracle… I mean, you could say that about anybody in the world!. > > Yes. Anybody in the world. ..But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget… I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from the another’s vantage point. As if new, it may still take our breath away. Come…dry your eyes. For you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg; the clay in which the forces that shape all things leave their fingerprints most clearly. Dry your eyes… and let’s go home. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/54 "2025-09-08T19:36:21Z")
What I’m getting at is that a lot of students don’t read at the level where that sort of thing is easily apparent. We did in my high school classes, but we were the advanced English class at an academically oriented college prep school. I’m not at all convinced that some guy whose ambition in life is to get a job doing some trade with his uncles is going to get a lot of benefit from seeing the difference in writing style and sentence composition between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > if near-adult, near-college age students are such dullards that they can’t handle it then you are wasting your time trying to give them further higher education at all, better off to put them on an entirely vocational school path where they never have to worry about straining their thinky bits again. No shit, Sherlock. That’s kind of my point. Most students aren’t there. Most students don’t go on to college and graduate; something like 70% either don’t go or drop out. They don’t need Faulkner and Hemingway, they need R134 vs. R22 vs. R410-A. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/55 "2025-09-08T19:38:29Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I don’t think anyone’s advocating graphic novels be taught _instead_ of prose fiction - just including graphic novels of literary merit in the curriculum. There _are_ people in the thread suggesting using Classics Illustrated instead of the original novels. (Which is a tangental issue to using “natively graphic” media.) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/56 "2025-09-08T19:42:56Z")
Ah, I seem to have missed that tangent. Ok. _I’m_ not advocating that we do away with prose fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/57 "2025-09-08T19:52:43Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m not at all convinced that some guy whose ambition in life is to get a job doing some trade with his uncles is going to get a lot of benefit from seeing the difference in writing style and sentence composition between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. And I don’t see how individuals or society benefit from dumbing down education even further. We are living the results of that now. If instead of > It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. replacing it with > Things were, like, kinda good, but kinda bad, too? Skibbity six-seven lol is a pefectly acceptable substitution in the English for Idiots class, then we probably deserve the idiocracy we get. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/58 "2025-09-08T20:00:58Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I’m not at all convinced that some guy whose ambition in life is to get a job doing some trade with his uncles is going to get a lot of benefit from seeing the difference in writing style and sentence composition between William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. I’m not sure which is more horrible: the idea that literature can’t offer something useful to people who work in blue collar trades, or that we should be determining what topics we teach children based on what sort of families they come from. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/59 "2025-09-08T20:22:03Z")
I think a good English education is critical, _especially_ for people who are unlikely to ever grace the door of a university, especially now. I think it would help if English teachers didn’t often choose such boring fucking books. I love reading, and I read broadly, but my AP English teacher’s choices still bored the crap out of me. You want to educate someone with blue collar sensibilities? Then think about the literature most relevant to their lives. Give them a reason to care. My biological father, I don’t have much good to say about him. He was an alcoholic, barely graduated high school, lost his driver’s license to DUI and never bothered to get it back. But he wasn’t stupid. He read. He read to me, he gave me things to read, he taught me how to use a dictionary, to play Scrabble and chess, and while I doubt he ever had much use for Hemingway, he had some kind of intellectual inner life, and I think we’d be doing kids a disservice to assume they didn’t or couldn’t be intellectual just because they were on a fast track to skilled labor. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2025, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813/60 "2025-09-08T22:12:30Z")
Didn’t somebody get a hand job in the bathtub? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/comics-graphic-novels-that-should-be-taught-in-high-school/1022813.md?page=4)