Posts made in December, 2018

Writing For Comics

Posted by Theresa Lutge-Smith on Dec 11, 2018 in Blog | 0 comments

My childhood was enriched by the comic books I bought with my weekly allowance. These visual masterpieces awakened in me the love of reading that led to a career as a full-time writer and editor. Today people choose to rather watch television or listen to audio books instead of reading a book. Sure it’s a lot faster than reading, but this instant gratification is fleeting, and so is the value and memory of the story. Perhaps this preference is due to time constraints, but mostly it’s because the love of reading was not instilled in them as a child. Reading a good book is not only a leisurely activity that has the capability to trigger your imagination, it also furthers one’s knowledge in every topic under the sun. Imagine the stress a student encounters when tasked with reading a 400-page book and having to write a short summary based on their interpretation. Just to satisfy your curiosity, ask any mainstream school teacher whether the pupils who achieve good grades are avid readers or not. Teachers across the board agree that people who enjoy reading from a young age have a great advantage over non-readers. Many may disagree with me, but I am convinced reading comic books as a child not only helped improve my grammar and enjoyment of pictorial storytelling but also set the stage to learn more through other forms of literature. A valued birthday gift each passing year was books; now I just buy them myself to expand my library. I’m hugely selfish about my library; it is difficult to part with any of my books. It is a great pity that educators today fail to recognize just how important it is to expose children to picture books and graphic novels as an effective learning tool. Comic books are especially helpful to young readers who might initially believe books are boring and who are struggling to improve their reading skills. A child naturally fond of reading develops a powerful imagination that must be nurtured. The child might show an interest in writing; this raw talent must be encouraged by teaching the budding author to write short-short stories. The child may not yet have the vocabulary to write the tale, dictating to someone who can write down the child’s verbal account of their story. The combination of visual format and text in comic books is much more engaging than other literary media, including short stories comprising block text and a few illustrations. Our technology-driven world obliges us to keep abreast with developments and human competencies, which means children from the time they are born must be exposed to early childhood development exercises; effective training must be pursued by scholars to develop reading and comprehension skills. Here’s an interesting fact: people who read comic books process information differently. According to University of Windsor English professor Dale Jacobs (2007), comic books require readers to create meaning, using multiple modalities. In other words, readers of comic books simultaneously process three stand-alone components, namely the visual and spatial aspects of the pictures and textual. However, more research remains to be done regarding the neurological benefits of reading comic books, but it is evident that there is far more to this genre than simply “looking at pictures” as some critics of comic books believe. Reading is actually good for your brain function and can change the way we think. I’ve been thinking a lot about comic books lately, mainly to write a script and commission an artist to create the drawings. While some people believe comic books are for kids, it is clear...