Graphic Novels

I ended up buying The Graphic Canon while I was buying my textbooks and I think that it was the best decision I’ve made while paying hundreds for textbooks I don’t use after the quarter. Before even reading some of the adaptions I realized how useful this collection will be in my future classroom. I remember being the student that didn’t really want to read the stories, as the now English major and literature lover I still don’t always want to read the stories. Graphic novels are a great way to introduce students to the classic without boring them by making them read the whole thing and muddle through the complexities that are often seen in classic literature. The graphic novel deception of the stories also allows students to see the story in ways they may have never imagined before.

 An example would be the adaption of The Great Gatsby that is showcased in the third volume of The Graphic Canon. The original is a short novel but the graphic adaption is only ten pages quickly summarizing the gist of the story. This allow students to have an introduction to the story before they begin reading the novel.

 I think that the graphic novels will also make a great teaching tool within the classrooms. Again, using The Great Gatsby for an example. After students have read the novel bringing out the shorter graphic novel version would be interesting in order to look at the symbols. Students would be able to look at the graphic version of the story in order to look at the symbols and how the artist of the graphic novel noticed, interpreted, and understood the novel.  After looking at one artist’s interpretation of the story students would be tasked to create their own graphic version of the novel, showing the symbols and using quotes to build the graphic novel.