Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries

Abstract

Like many librarians (and would-be librarians!), I was skeptical of the value of comic books and graphic novels. My encounters with the genre were limited. I had once browsed through a friend’s collection of Calvin and Hobbes, and I had seen fierce, scantily-clad warriors on the covers of comics at newsstands. I knew Superman, Batman and Spider-man began as comic book heroes. I dismissed comic books along with the super-heroes as adolescent male fantasies to be, hopefully, out-grown. I never entertained the idea that comics or their cousins, graphic novels, could have meaningful messages or be aids in teaching literacy.