More public service contempt of parliament
14 hours ago
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Methinks sir, you assume too much.
I had a really interesting experience yesterday - one that was quite eye-opening. I distributed a few Astro City graphic novels during a study class, so that kids who weren't doing anything else could at least be reading something good. The prospect of getting to read comics was quite appealing to several of the students (aged 15 to 16ish).
After about 10 minutes, one girl put her hand up and said something like:
"I don't get it. How are you supposed to read this?"
My reply was, at first, not as helpful as it could have been:
"You look at the pictures, read the words, look at the pictures, read the words."
I thought she was complaining about the baffling content of the graphic novel - which would have been fair enough. It wasn't a 'gateway' or 'entry level' comic. She also has a habit of complaining about any reading at all, so I was not predisposed to view the enquiry/complaint as being particularly genuine.
Then I noticed her apparent frustration with my answer, and I realised what level her question was at.
"You start at the top left, and you read across the page. Like you would a book. Across from left to right, then down the page. Across then down."
"But, how do you know who's even talking?"
"See these speech bubbles? They have spiky bits coming off them to show what direction the words are coming from. See this one? It's coming from this guy here."
She didn't make it past page 4, but at least she now knows how to approach the task of reading a comic. I guess it's just one more skill that I don't remember having to learn, so was surprised when I had to teach it.
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4 comments:
I actually suspect that the comic audience is growing older, much like RPGs (though not to the same extent). You rarely see kids reading comics these days.
Next you could throw in some manga that reads the otherway and see what happens?
I disagree with Luke. Kids are reading Asterix, Tintin and Simpson's comics all the time. The thing is, it's mostly boys.
I actually have to explain how to read Graphic novels to Lee sometimes. They are surprisingly tricksy when you don't read them all the time.
Kudos to Matt for giving them Astro City though. Tis awesome. Have you got the one that Lee's movie "missing" is based on?
I'm sorry - but I have to say that I don't think comics are all that tricky to read. No one taught me how to read a comic for flip's sake ! Sure - I'm a 'boy' and all, but c'mon ! It's not freaking rocket science ! Hell - it's not even 'potatoe with toothpicks in glass of water' ! "Look at pictures - read the words" seems fully justifiable to me - though the addition of "Engage brain and think" might have been appropriate. But that's just my perspective !
Seraph: it's when the page breaks traditional format that it gets hard, like instead of nice rows of panels, you get one big one breaking things up and a couple of smaller ones scattered about the page. I think Astro City does this quite often? I can't remember, because it's been a while since I read them.
Trad comics like Asterix are easy because they never really break the pattern. Actual Graphic Novels like Sandman or Powers or whatever are harder.
Personally I never thought of it as an issue until I gave Lee something like Alias to read and he had to keep asking me which panel came first...
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