The Magic of Graphic Novels

This article was first published in the Australian Library and Information Association's Incite Magazine, Volume 45 Issue 1, March 2024, as part of the Communicating Collections series. I publish it here now as an archive of my writing and to ensure it's freely available to everyone, members and non-members. 
As James Baker wrote in the introduction, the series looks "at why various library collections are important and, crucially, how to communicate that importance to the different stakeholders we deal with." I was honoured to be part of the series.

Talk to a comic book reader and you’ll soon understand why comics are so important to so many people. There is a special magic that comics have that is hard to describe: the mixture of words, images and symbols. The myriad of ways they can be combined or juxtaposed to communicate meaning is hard to fathom. Most importantly, people derive a very personal and special joy of reading comics, one that helps to associate reading with pleasure, and turns comics readers into lifelong readers. So why should libraries invest in graphic novel collections?

Providing free access to a wide range of resources for information and recreational purposes while serving a diverse group of patrons in the community is fundamental core business for libraries. Libraries need to adapt, respond and cater to the changing needs and interests of the community they serve. 

Graphic novels are enormously popular these days and often appear at the top of the best-selling charts. They are also increasingly garnering major literary awards and recognition. Three nominations to the Stella Awards, a CBCA Eve Pownall Award win in 2022 and a CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers win in 2023 are recent examples in Australia that things are changing.

Fostering literacy is also a priority for libraries. Comics are increasingly gaining favour with educators as the curriculum recognises the importance of multimodal texts and multiliteracies in 21st century literacy. Comics, as multimodal texts, foster and support the development of multiple literacies, which is a necessary and important part of the school curriculum.

Researchers are increasingly interested in the ways that comics stimulate a love of reading. Stephen Krashen long ago showed evidence that comic book readers read as many books as regular readers - often more, – and that there is a strong correlation between reading comics and life-long reading. Interviewing comic book readers and creators a lot of them speak about not having much of an interest in reading, or struggling to read when they were young, until they found comics. Comics turned them into life-long readers and, in many cases, storytellers and creators.

As some people speak of the magic of opera, ballet or films. There is no doubt that the power of comics and their multimodal nature has a profound effect on readers. In Japan and France comics have long been studied and recognised as literature and art. The Hiroshima City Manga Public Library, for example, serves readers manga and only manga. In France, comics have long been referred to as the ninth art. Their acceptance and their understanding that comics are simply another art, another story-telling medium, that appeals to all ages and encompasses all genres, has made them a ubiquitous form of reading across all age brackets.

Comics are also very well suited to discussing complex issues at a very raw and personal level. In fact, it is no surprise that non-fiction graphic novels are among the most popular and highly regarded categories of comics. The emergence and growth of graphic medicine as a category is a perfect example.

With the great wealth of graphic novels currently being published and the excellent quality of Australian graphic novels being produced these days, with incredibly interesting emerging creators surfacing across all of Australia, it is my hope that libraries invest in their graphic novel collections, for children, for young adults and for adults. In 1967, while visiting a bookstore in Paris, Salvador Dali said that comics would be the culture of 3794. He was wrong in only one aspect. We don't have to wait that long.