Garfield’s carping on and on about Odie again: his slobbery mouth, yucky chewing, and worst of all his joyful attitude. He is reassured that he does, in fact, rule the household, obviously reigning above his purgatory brother and his owner who lives only to serve Garfield himself. 

Scenes and stories like these are what most people relate graphic novels to: Entertaining yet senseless, something to read when you’re young but inevitably grow out of. Graphic novels’ value typically declines to the average person as they get older. Graphic novels become too easy, people become too smart. 

At a point, it seems as though this form of literature loses its credibility as a book at all, instead regarded as a cheat code for those who don’t want to read a novel in their AP language arts class. 

While comic books like Garfield don’t yield much academic importance, people mustn’t discredit graphic novels as a whole because graphic novels are not simply cartoons. Graphic novels carry deeply significant messages.

Consider Persepolis, a graphic novel embedded into Wilsonville Highschool’s sophomore year language arts curriculum, that embodies Satrapi’s childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Persepolis dives head first into significant and difficult topics, crafting a rich literary piece that allows and persuades readers to experience a complex world otherwise left untouched by modern day society. 

The pictures in graphic novels don’t take away from the richness of a novel, instead add to it, working as yet another inlet to the author’s mind, giving readers access to a more full idea of the author’s intent. 

Readers get to interact with the images, deciding whether or not what the author intended matches up with their comprehension of the words – does the face of the character match the way I understood the words spoken? No? Why?

There is power in being able to visualize what you’re reading in a novel: visualization furthers comprehension. So, when a reader is able to analyze written words, visualize their own comprehension of those words, and compare that visualization with what the author visualized while writing the words, there is a whole new level of comprehension accessible to the reader. 

Language arts teacher Ms. Heaton, who teaches and has studied the academic importance of graphic novels, states,

“Whether the graphic novel is Persepolis, talking about the Iranian cultural revolution, or is March, talking about the civil rights movement here in the United States, they have a chance to teach us history, teach us deeply how to consider other people’s lives. 
And I think that to just assume that a graphic novel is just easy reading is actually a disservice to the graphic novels that are out there. Because there are so many nuances and so many important lessons in graphic novels.” 

Closed-minded novel readers must open their eyes to the unique academic opportunities found in exposure to graphic novels. Whether that be a more complete look into a historical novel, visual literacy, or as junior Andrea Ormsby says, “a deeper understanding of a book’s theme and purpose,” I can promise you that reading graphic novels serves academic importance.

So go grow your brain, go read graphic novels!