For my research paper I will take a look at the idea that comic books and graphic novels are the future and key to the continuation and preservation of literature. With some of the most popular movies of the last decade being based off comic books, their presence is in the limelight, and more and more kids are growing up with these characters and movies. The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true. The need for words to describe how someone looks at a certain point in time is no longer needed when someone can paint a picture that will give much more detail, unless the author wants a page and a half of nothing but facial descriptions. Multiple outlets have studied children’s fascination with comic books and their motivation to read them, showing why these so-called “lesser” forms of literature could be more beneficial. I aim to discuss the changes in how we consume entertainment and how we should take advantage of the amount of technology and resources we have at our disposal to revolutionize how literature is perceived and taught.

• Motivating Middle School Readers: The Graphic Novel Link

https://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=8826dfe4-b73b-48ce-ac59-9d30047487fc%40sessionmgr4008

Background: Buffy Edwards performs a survey on multiple groups of middle school students with varying degrees of access to literature. Different groups have different access to graphic novels and such. The students documented their reading and took questionnaires based on their reading. The graphic novels provided pictures, making them more interesting. This is what I need.

How I intend to use it: I want to show that people at younger ages are more attracted to books with colorful pictures rather than plain words. It’s hard to go from pictures and cool art and stories to words on a page that have hefty exposition and more difficult wording. It’s like a downgrade.

• Expanding Literacies through Graphic Novels

https://www.jstor.org/stable/30046629?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Background: Gretchen Schawrz expands her classroom horizons with graphic novels and tells of the advantages and dangers of doing so.

How I intend to use it: once again show that young people are more interested, resulting in the argument that we should just make it the norm, this time using older kids in high school.

• Business of Books 2016

Click to access white_paper_business_of_books_june_2016.pdf

Background: This overview details markets of books in different areas and things alike. Geographical regions are also discussed in terms of book sales.

How I intend to use it: showing dwindling book sales as a whole in support of the change in entertainment media favoritism.

• What’s up with Webcomics?

Click to access a3ab18d35fabb8a49192ec99b470fd0ad6eb.pdf

Background: This article discusses webcomics and the technological advancements of comic books.

How I intend to use it: I can use this to show readers that comics can be viewed for free online, giving the reader free reign to choose whatever they read.

• Graphic Novels: A Road Map to Academic Success

Click to access GuestEd_JanFeb2013.pdf

Background: Karen Gavigan discusses problems parents and educators have with comics books and the stigma they get, only to argue against it.

How I intend to use it: My use for this article is the same as the author who wrote it. I want to remove the stigma from comics to further support my argument.