Mind in the Gutter: Illiterature
On alternating Fridays, Leah Schnelbach waxes rhapsodic about comics, education, religion, and postmodernity. David Foster Wallace would be proud.
“Graphica in Education: Bringing Graphic Novels Out from Under the Desk,” a conference on the use of comics in education, was hosted by Fordham University on January 31st. It was a mixed bag, in a good way. It looks like the organizers were happy to let many different topics come to light, and didn’t worry too much about promoting any agenda other than the idea that comics work well with education. So, we got panels about the body in comics, the semiotics of gender, using comics as texts for varying grade levels (including a side note on their effectiveness in the education of autistic children) and a great presentation on the definition of graphic novel for a college-age audience.
The day was kicked off by the always-high-energy John Shableski, followed by morning keynoter James Bucky Carter, who told a very heartfelt account of the impact of comics on his poor childhood at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains. Not only did he literally learn to read from the X-Men and Spider-Man comics his mother bought for him, he also learned of a larger world beyond his town. The discrimination faced by the X-Men helped him see racism in his own community, and Nightcrawler’s spiritual struggles helped him work through his own discomfort with the Southern Baptist church he was raised in. He used these personal anecdotes as a platform to talk about his own work as a teacher, when he was assigned a class who had all failed an 8th grade-level reading comprehension test. His kids were all high-school-aged, but no one in the school really expected them to pass the test at the end of the year. So, drawing on his own past, Dr. Carter used comics to explore topics of diversity and cultural awareness, all while strengthening his students’ literacy and vocabulary. He used one particular issue of X-Men to guide the audience through the richness and depth that comics are capable of as a sort of teaching demo. Now, I’ve never been one to tear up at academic conferences (except perhaps out of despair), but, when he ended his speech by telling us that his kids scored nine points higher than the next-best class on that end-of-year literacy test… well, some like inspirational sports stories, some inspirational math stories, and some people like Michelle Pfeiffer, but anytime you show me Wolverine helping some poor kid dream of a better future, well, you’ve got me, bubbe.
After furiously wiping my eyes, I was presented with the one problem inherent in this conference: it was waaayyy overloaded with interesting panels. They packed so many topics, grade levels, and great speakers into a single day, that no matter which one you chose, you knew you were missing something. My one suggestion to the “Graphica” people would actually be to pare down the programming for the next one. I finally chose to go to a presentation called “Making the Case for Comics in the Classroom” presented by Chris Wilson and Michael Schofield. Chris Wilson runs The Graphic Classroom. There were a lot of great ideas and resources thrown around, though like many academic comics panels it did turn into a bit of a geek-out session at certain points. However, it seemed very helpful to the audience – mostly librarians – and as with many comics-themed events I’ve attended, the enthusiasm and knowledge shown by the presenters was so far beyond most academic conferences that it can only leave you feeling inspired.
Next was a discussion of “Teaching the Graphic Novel at the Undergraduate Level” with Kent Worcester, a professor at Marymount College, and Bill Kartalopoulos, a professor at The New School. They essentially took us through their syllabi, showing us how they teach undergrads about comics as a unique medium. Worcester used Richard McGuire’s “Here” and Kartalopoulos took us through a summation of his class in slide show format. I thought both of these were very effective, because one of the issues I think with talking comics is that you have to see them. (I’m somewhat with the Doctor about the fact that it really helps if you can HOLD the comics and smell the ink. Call me a Luddite, I don’t mind.) Actually seeing the way “Here” can tell a story that would literally be impossible to tell in straight prose, and would lose much of the depth if presented as stand alone visual art without text, really drove home the fact that comics are just different. Better, maybe, than other media. But then, I drink my Kool-Aid out of a glass I bought in Newark at the Masters of American Comics exhibition, so I’m a little biased….
The whole group reconvened for a panel called “The Power of Graphica” featuring the aforementioned, still high-energy Mr. Shableski, Michael Bitz, founder of the Comic Book Project, and Jimmy Gownley, author of Amelia Rules!. They talked a bit about the age-old issue with comics studies – none of the names really work. “Comics” implies that the work is supposed to be funny. “Graphic novel” makes it sound like something you should be sneaking off the shelf in your parents’ closet that they think you don’t know about. “Graphica” just sounds…well…pretentious as shit, actually, but it may be the best option…although Gownley suggested “illiterature” (short for “illustrated literature”) which I think is going to be my nomenclature of choice from now on.
The day ended with a hilarious speech by John Sciezska (which rhymes, as his site helpfully reminds you, with “Fresca”), author of The Stinky Cheese Man
Is the Esteemed Ambassador a graphic novelist?
A children’s author?
A picture book writer?
Where are the lines? How is this medium ever going to be taken seriously if no one can define it?
Well, thoughts for another time, my fellow illiterates…
Leah Schnelbach is the Interim Director of the New York Center for Independent Publishing and Director of Publications for the Sequential Art Collective. In what passes for her free time these days, she chips away at her first novel and daydreams about hitting the flea market with Andy Warhol.
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