Introductory Chapter: Multimodal Storytelling Literacy with Comics and Graphic Novels

Abstract

Comic books and graphic novels are important components of popular culture and have international influence. They engage readers across all age groups and across fiction and non-fiction genres. They address many cultural and social ideas, histories, languages, and concepts with engaging stories and narrative. There are many international perspectives on the roles, effects, and potential of comic books and graphic novels in education and in society that inform literacy practices, curriculum theory, and cultural studies. Interdisciplinary perspectives are highlighted to discuss research, theory, and practices in the use of comic books and graphic novels across geographical and cultural contexts. Complexities across genres provide perspectives on comic books and graphic novels in the theory and practice of influencing change and continuity over time, their reflection of and influence on culture, their role in content area literacy instruction, and their history across local and international contexts.

1. Introduction

Part of the appeal of comics and graphic novels is in their storytelling. Effective storytelling includes engaging the reader in compelling characters, character development and story arcs that engage relatable emotions and emotional investment in the characters. They engage audiences in both personal and larger sociocultural contexts. When a comic book or graphic novel is a bildungsroman, it can be particularly effective at engaging readers in the story. This genre offers the coming-of-age narrative or the stories of personal development from childhood to adulthood. It features stories of how someone became who they are and where they are now going and has been a feature of computer gaming culture since the first-person format emerged [1, 2]. The engaging format of the bildungsroman can be seen in computer games structured on the first-person storytelling adventure model. Examples such as Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and its sequel Star Wars Jedi Survivor are examples of the bildungsroman genre through first-person narrative. Computer games such as these and others are also an adapted form of the graphic novel or comic book that situates the reader into an experiential narrative—making them an active observer or actor in the story [3].

2. Multimodality in storytelling

Comic books and graphic novels engage readers in multimedia ways to see the full richness of the story and characters. As such, this multimodality is a type of storytelling literacy. Computer games engage people in a way to experience the story as a player. This is an important advancement in the graphic novel format in that people become a part of the story to experience the characters’ perspectives and relationships. This is an example of experiencing the culture of the story in a personal way. The reader becomes a player, an actor in the story who has agency in the decisions and the relationships. It is in these virtual relationships that comic books and graphic novels—especially when in the interactive computer game format—provide a powerful literary framework unlike any other.

The format of the graphic novel has become increasingly immersive with advancements in computer gaming technology. Stories, storytelling, and narrative can be experiential with computer games in a way that elevates the richness of the graphic novel. Comic books and graphic novels as a format elevated storytelling in engaging ways even before computer game technology. With the increase in popularity of comic books and graphic novels during the twentieth century merged with advancements in computer technology, there have been some studies that study gaming culture as these communities are built upon comic books and graphic novels. Sometimes people approach this format in ways that seek to test ways of seeing themselves or test out identities within the ostensible safety of the virtual world [2, 3]. Comic books and graphic novels are written for various age groups, and it is in the bildungsroman genre that the most power in individual formation can be seen and engages all age groups because of its emphasis on stories of personal development, the coming-of-age narratives, and the emotions of adolescence and young adulthood. Such narratives are remembered years later in remembrance, reminiscing, and in how someone became who they are. The narrative of formation is featured in nearly every culture and has resonance across time and place [1].

Comics and graphic novels engage their audience through the combination of modalities of text and visual arts. Audio reading is often a third modality added to the text and visual arts as comics and graphic novels may also be audio books. Live action role-playing (LARP) has also been known to become a fourth modality as fans of comics and graphic novels become inspired by the stories [4]. There are various conventions that bring together various comics and graphic novel enthusiasts, such as Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. This multimodal aspect is an expansive example of the combination of esthetics and literacy that puts into practice the concept of audience-centered esthetic literacy.

Teaching literacy through comics and graphic novels can be done at every grade level. Graphic novels such as Algeria is Beautiful Like America and Puerto Rico Strong: A Comics Anthology Supporting Puerto Rico Disaster Relief and Recovery are examples that could be used in curriculum to provide ways to teach students about historical and contemporary events. Using graphic novels and comics can engage higher level thinking skills through text, visual imagery, and overall vivid storytelling from several perspectives. Graphic novels can provide ways to elucidate perspectives through engaging in individual narratives. They can also present multiple narratives in an intertwined and interactive way that engages the audience to enter the story with the writer and illustrator in an active, generative experience that promotes literacy skills and intercultural communication [5].

For example, if teaching a unit on the history of France or Algeria, a graphic novel such as Algeria is Beautiful Like America could be used for discussing a fascinating journey of a search for identity from the point of view of Olivia Burton who was born in France of a French settler family from Algeria [6]. Her family were known as Pieds-Noirs (“Black Feet”); this is the name for French settlers and those born to French settlers in Algeria. This engaging English translation of the original French story discusses several generations of Olivia’s family from 1898 to 1962 and their lives in Algeria. She explores her family’s roots in France and Algeria, their decision to leave Algeria for France, and the remarkable hospitality she received during her search of family identity in Algeria four decades after her grandparents and mother left Algeria for France. This engaging story prompts questions about identity and cultural place, belongingness, and intriguing intercultural comparisons between the frontier expanse of Algeria beyond the Mediterranean coastline with the frontier expanse of the inland American West during colonization.

Another example, if teaching about the history of Puerto Rico, is a graphic anthology such as Puerto Rico Strong that engages all levels of readers to interact with the stories of, for, and about Puerto Rico [7]. The illustrated short stories form a mosaic of myths, histories, and traditions of the various peoples of Puerto Rico. Various drawings, paintings, and other artworks are included with the stories to further highlight cultural context. This anthology is a way for students to discuss Puerto Rican history and establish context for discussing the effects of Hurricane Maria (2017). There are many examples of graphic novels that can be used in social studies and humanities courses to teach literacy skills and history.

3. Social esthetics of multimodal storytelling

John Dewey emphasized the participatory possibilities of esthetics as there are “multitudes of ways of participating in it … through imagination and the emotions they evoke, into other forms of relationship and participation than our own” ([8], p. 347). From a Deweyan perspective of esthetics, it could be argued that comics and graphic novels are an example of experiencing art, that LARPing at comic conventions and playing a computer game two-dimensionally or in three dimensions with a virtual reality headset are examples of art as experience. This is part of the power of multimodal literacy is that students or other audiences are learning through a type of immersive experience [1, 4]. This provides students or other audiences that use comics and graphic novels both for reading and for interactive games to shift psychological place, if only temporarily, to experience storytelling in substantially engaging ways.

There is a combination of the subliminal and the liminal as well as the whole self with its constituent parts of the psyche that influence a person’s approach to comics and graphic novels. The activation of multiple senses—the textual, the visual, and the aural—can activate people’s subconscious and conscious in ways that resonate emotionally with the story. The reader may think about their own life, the people they know, and the type of person they want to be while reading comics and graphic novels. This graphic novel and the comic book can evoke generative understanding and interest in the story, the characters, and their relationships [5].

The social context of comics and graphic novels is important for how audiences engage with the stories and situate themselves relative to those stories. Movies adapted from comic books, such as Black Panther, include social commentary embedded into the story and characters’ decisions which affect popular cultural perceptions of social and material culture that are reflective of the past and present [9]. They prompt discussion. Meaning-making is a shared process in this multimodal literacy in which engagement is dynamic. Memories are co-constructed within the frameworks of textual-visual media. When music and other audio is added, the comics and graphic novels become further amplified in their potential resonance with audiences. This is a form of social ecology in that individuals interact with comics and graphic novels within cultural contexts in which they participate in the meaning of the stories—that are in part through interpretations of memories—especially when these stories are part of literacy instruction or related literature or humanities classes [10]. These components of multimodal literacy that comics, graphic novels, and their digital equivalents feature can often be influential starting in early adolescence with long term implications into adulthood for how some students see themselves and engage in reflective practices of individuation [11].

Comics and graphic novels are part of social esthetics in that they use the visual arts and literary arts to engage audiences in historical, contemporary, and potential future concepts, cultural constructs, and characters. These can and have been adapted into audio versions, television series, and movies that have had broad implications in popular culture. When considered through the lens of archeophisomorphic theory [12], many of the stories in comic books and graphic novels allude to change and continuity over time of cultural values and to the social artifacts of the individual and collective psyche or zeitgeist. Values are frequently featured in the nuanced dramas of comic books and graphic novels that place protagonists in positions of having to make difficult decisions and whose choices may have complicated consequences that leave room for debate from the audience as to how the protagonist’s choices affected them. The comic book or graphic novel can prompt the reader to consider various points of view on challenging concepts in the changes and continuities across time affecting individuals and groups of people [13].

4. Combining esthetics in multimodal storytelling

Comics and graphic novels can be used for teaching various literacy skills in addition to cultural content knowledge and related social studies content [14]. As seen in Figure 1, this color pencil drawing—of a sunrise in the background and an oak tree and owl in the foreground—could be the start of a comic book on teaching elementary school students about literacy through a story format. This cartoon art genre suggests an inviting approach for students to engage with the story in achieving the learning objectives. The art style or genre suggests what the audience should or may expect. By adding a poem to Figure 1, a story emerges: Consilio the owl did say / hello to you this bright and sunny day! / I will be your guide by your side / navigating this path illuminated by the Sun / learning lots of new vocabulary will be fun! / let us start with verisimilitude / to understand this word we shall need to have a good attitude.

Figure 1.

“Oak forest sunrise with owl 1” (2012) by Adam I. Attwood.

That short poem invites the reader into the illustration. The text and the visual art together prompt a multimodal reinforcement of the new vocabulary terms that are being conveyed. This basic example introduces the concept of multimodal storytelling literacy in which the text and the visual art may accomplish more when combined than when they are separate [5]. The audience may be more likely to engage with the text because of the visual art and more likely to engage with the visual art because of the text. This foundational understanding of multimodal storytelling then, forms the basis for advanced storytelling in comic books and graphic novels in young adult literature and in adult nonfiction and fiction graphic novels.

Computer games are the next iteration of this multimodal storytelling in that the storytelling in computer games engages audiences as participants in the story. Such an immersive process can be reinforced by movies as the screenplays animate the stories. The participatory nature of computer games takes the graphic novel and the comic book to another level of psychological resonance both for the individual participant and for their community. The simulation aspect of the computerized comic book or graphic novel can, in part, reify the imagination of the participants. The implications are substantial in that participants may engage with story at a deeper psychological level [1, 4, 11].

5. Conclusion

Comics and graphic novels are a substantive way to communicate complex topics across international perspectives, educational settings, and cultures. Various perspectives on the roles of comic books and graphic novels provide opportunities for readers to engage with stories at multiple cognitive levels. These perspectives introduce the various ways that this multimodal storytelling genre affects cultures, promotes learning and intercultural exchange, and inspires people to explore their own identities, the identities of various cultures, and individual understandings of the power of storytelling. Fiction and non-fiction comics and graphic novels prompt creative ways to explore individual identity and communities from across human geographies.