There are some venerable veterans in the battle to place comics on library shelves, and most of them come from the public or school-library sector. One of the most venerable and best known is Katharine “Kat” Kan, who has been writing about comics in schools for over fifteen years, starting with the column “Graphically Speaking” in Voice of Youth Advocates.
Kan was the first librarian ever chosen to be a judge for the Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards, the National Book Awards of the comics industry, back in 2005. Academic library publisher H. W. Wilson looked to her to help create their collection development tool, Graphic Novels Core Collection, and, as a result, she was a natural choice to edit the latest title in Wilson’s The Reference Shelf series: Graphic Novels and Comic Books, a collection of articles from a wide variety of consumer, trade and academic publications that offer a lively overview of the medium. The collection includes a 2008 piece from Publishers Weekly, "Comics in the Classroom," written by Laura Hudson, editor-in-chief of the blogs at Comics Alliance and a PWCW writer at the time.
The book collects articles in five categories: “The Rise of Graphic Novels,” “Graphic Novels as Serious Literature,” “Using Graphic Novels to Improve Literacy,” “The Role of Librarians,” and, as a bonus treat, “Conversations with Artists.” PW Comics Week asked Kan to talk a bit about the project:
PW Comics Week: Tell me a little bit about your own background in comics and libraries, especially what inspired you to become such a strong advocate for comics in public and school libraries? And, related to that, what was Wilson's pitch to you to get you to do this book?
Kat Kan: I tell people I've been reading comics for 50 years—I started very young, in kindergarten, with newspaper comic strips and got into comic books in first grade. I never stopped reading comics, although I tended to read more science fiction and mysteries throughout my high school and college years. When I started working in public libraries, one of my first positions was as a temporary hire in the Young Adult Section of the Hawaii State Library. I kept hearing so much talk about how could we get teen boys back into libraries, and thought why can't we use comics? However, at that time (mid-1980s), the Hawaii State Public Library System wouldn't purchase comic books. That was the time that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Elfquest were being published in trade paperbacks, though, and we could get those.
I saw how the boys loved finding comics in the library; and when they found out that a lady old enough to be their mom liked comics, they realized librarians did care about what they liked. It all started from there, and I ended up becoming an "expert" by default, because hardly anyone else in the library system back then wanted to read the comics.
I've been working as Wilson's graphic novel consultant for several years, and my main job with the company is selecting all the titles for their Graphic Novels Core Collection. All Wilson had to do was ask if I'd be willing to do the book as an extra job. Since I've been seeking out articles about using graphic novels in schools and libraries for years, I immediately said yes.
PWCW: Did you survey what was out there and seek permission to include already-published work, or were some of the pieces commissioned by you? If the emphasis was on the former, how did you identify what you wanted to include? Did you have your categories first and look for material to fit into them, or did the categories evolve as you gathered material?
KK: Some of Wilson's editors and researchers worked with me to set up the chapter topics, so we knew that we wanted to find articles that would provide good information. Then we looked for articles that would work. I ended up with enough to fill a book at least twice as long as the allotted number of pages and then had to cut back. I had no problem finding material! In fact, I kept finding more, so the line-up of articles changed a couple of times. However, we kept the chapter topics all the way through the various stages of the book.
PWCW: How did you envision your audience for this title? Does Wilson target a specific demographic or was that up to you? So, for example, was there a specific intent to concentrate on school and public libraries?
KK: Wilson actually came up with the idea for the title to be part of its long-running Reference Shelf series, so the audience was already set to be school and public libraries. Everything I did had to fit in with the established format of the series. The other audience I envision, though, is not necessarily a librarian or a teacher, but someone who loves graphic novels as a literary form and wants information to defend his/her choice of reading.
What my editor, Paul McCaffrey, told me is that Wilson publishes six Reference Shelf titles every year (this is year 82!), and that each year, one volume covers the National Debate topics and the final volume collects Representative Speeches. From my reading of the sample volumes they sent me so I could see the format, the Reference Shelf titles are geared to high school and college students to aid in their research.
PWCW: Although your audience is school and public libraries and librarians, do you see the materials in the books as having applications at the higher levels? So, for example, your section on "Comics in the Classroom: Using Graphic Novels to Improve Literacy": can you talk about what you see as other possible classroom applications for comics, apart from as gateways to literacy? And, actually, do you see applications at the lower-grade levels that aren't specifically tied to literacy, but are more integrated into subject curricula? Did you find any articles that talked about such applications?
KK: I think comics should be used as more than literacy tools—they provide a wonderful springboard for creative writing, for art, for use in science and social studies, even math (I was not a great math student; a comic book textbook would have been cool). We focused on the literacy aspects because for now the great preponderance of articles available discuss that use.
I hadn't really sought out articles about other classroom applications for this book, but I know that Michele Gorman and others have given suggestions for how teachers can use graphic novels in all kinds of school classes in the books they've written. I listed those books in the bibliography and hope readers will seek them out.
I heard some great speakers at the Miami Book Fair International's School of Comics and Graphic Novels in November who talked about bringing diverse students together to create a graphic novel in a nine-week course, and about having students at all grade levels using the comic strip form to create a daily journal. I think we're going to see more teachers and professors using graphic novels and comics in different ways and writing about them. I'm seeing more teachers not just accepting comics, but even embracing the form for their classes. My own teen son's high school English and World History teachers are reading graphic novels by Gareth Hinds, for example, that I loan them. And the middle school language arts teacher at the private school where I work part time as a school librarian is asking me about graphic novels (she even bought a copy of my book).
PWCW: On a separate note, I want to thank you for including that article on Lynda Barry, which I hadn't seen before. I went to hear her talk at the 92 St Y, with Maira Kalman, a couple of weeks ago and then, two days later, saw a session with her and Charles Burns at the Brooklyn Comics and Graphic Festival. I'd never even seen her before, much less heard her talk. Here's a little taste:
KK: I've been a fan of Lynda Barry for many years, so when I found that article I knew I had to include it in the book. I've never had the opportunity to meet her or see her speak, so I'm jealous! By the way, her new books are marvelous for sparking those new kinds of applications you asked about, and some librarians and teachers are using them with teens to do some creative thinking and producing cool stuff!
Karen Green is Columbia University's Ancient/Medieval Studies Librarian and Graphic Novel selector.
