Print Resources Available from Comics in the Classroom:

Available to order on any order form

Scott McCloud books
Using the very graphic storytelling format he teaches about, McCloud helps readers understand the history of comics, how they work, how to read them, and how to make them. These books are extremely useful for teachers looking to teach graphic novels in their classroom and for students wanting to understand this unique art form.

Understanding Comics
In this volume, McCloud discusses panel transitions, imagery, text-image relationships and more to help readers identify the various tropes used by comic artists to tell a story. He also discusses the history of comics and how they have been perceived by the mass market as a misunderstood medium. This is indispensable to teachers wishing to teach about graphic novels.

Reinventing Comics
In this volume, McCloud discusses different revolutions in comics today as an update to 1993's Understanding Comics. He revisits the public perception of comics and delves into sexual and ethnic representations in comics. He also talks about the increasing use of digital technology in producing comics.

Making Comics
In this volume, McCloud delves deeper into how to tell a sequential story, providing information on effective panels, body language and facial expressions of characters, environment and character creation, and how to to choose words and pictures that communicate together. This is a great book for anyone wishing to become a cartoonist.



Will Eisner: Comics and Sequential Art; Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
Will Eisner is a pioneer of the graphic novel, in fact, he is widely recognized as the person who created the very first graphic novel. Eisner's books present the principles of telling a clear, coherent, and entertaining graphic story, addressing dialogue, anatomy, framing, and more. He fills each work with examples from other famous cartoonists, including R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman to reinforce his concepts.

On-Line Resources:

Resources for Graphic Novel Programming

Reading with Pictures - A new organization designed to help bring graphic novels into classrooms and libraries.

Comics in the Classroom.net - lots of lesson plans, and information about comics that can be used in the classroom

Read Write Think - a series of lesson plans and rubrics for using comics in the classroom at a variety of grade levels

"Eek! Comics in the Classroom!"

"Using Graphic Novels, Anime, and the Internet in an Urban High School"

A Librarian's List - one librarian's list of recommended graphic novels

The Dragon - the store from which the graphic novels come

Scott McCloud. Understanding Comics A 215-page comic book about comics that explains the inner workings of the medium and examines many aspects of visual communication along the way.