Graphica - Telling Stories from the Gutter

My latest read arrived yesterday.

ADVENTURES IN GRAPHICA: Using Comics and Graphic Novels to Teach Comprehension, 2-6
by: Terry Thompson

I found out about the book during a conversation with my favourite Principal and one of his amazing teachers. I learned more about the power of "Graphica" - reading and writing comics, in our 15 minute discussion than I had learned in the past year. Here's the gist:

I listened to how a particular group of boys, one in particular, had really not "cottoned on" to writing non-fiction until they began reading comics and creating panels for their own comics. As a part of a three week block, two teachers in our district have enthusiastically orchestrated an amazing non-fiction writing, content driven unit of study.

From an analysis of the components of comics which include layout, panels, speech bubbles, narrative boxes, lettering, directionality, importance of pictures and the gutter, students are creating their own comic stories. [Pages 28, 29 and 30]

The gutter?

Yes, I didn't know what gutters were either [in comics] until I had it explained to me. A gutter is the space "in between" comic panels where things happen "out of site" of the reader. One has to infer what is happening. The example from Graphica is when Spiderman is heading home one day after a day of crime-fighting. In one panel he is in full costume then he tumbles into a bush and by the next panel, he has transformed into Peter Parker. No changeroom, no phonebooth, just wham, he is now Peter Parker. Students and readers must figure out for themselves what is happening along the way. They do this in many ways, by visual clues, background knowledge, re-reading previous panels, etc.

I had a boy approach me yesterday and ask if I would look at "read" his panels for his comic. There was no text yet. He was able to describe to me what was happening. Background knowledge and gutter inference was needed by me to follow the story. Amazing!

Oh, my part in all of this was to conduct a train-the-trainer model to scan the original art work for the comics into Photoshop so the students could pop their story panels into Comic Life software. A mundane task really, compared to the lessons the students [and me] learned on how to create an amazing story - - from the gutter!

So, next time a teacher says to me, "I'm teaching about gutters", I'll know what she is talking about!