How comics clubs can develop reading and writing for pleasure

With graphic novels and comics one of the fastest growing categories of children’s and young adult literature today, they are the perfect medium to excite and engage young readers and writers.

Comics clubs have an amazing potential to get children reading, writing, and drawing for pleasure. For over five years, I’ve been lucky enough to run comics clubs at my local school.

Here, I share some recommendations on what you need to know to set up a club, and suggestions for ways to organise it.

In order to talk to children about comics, it’s useful to know a little bit about how they work. For a start, comics are an art form, not a genre. Comics tell stories or share information through words and images in sequence and can be fiction or non-fiction.

There are lots of different names for comics; for example, a graphic novel is the name given to a longer comic in book form, while a comic strip might be just a few panels long and found in a newspaper. These are just different formats of the comics medium.

When reading and making comics with children, I find it really useful to be able to talk to children about comics grammar, which is the name given to explain the different elements of comics. Here are some technical comics grammar terms you might come across:

• Panel: The frame which contains each individual moment in a comic strip. These can be all sorts of shapes and sizes.
• Gutter: The name given to the gap between the panels. This is where the reader of a comic has to make meaning between the gaps in the action from panel to panel.
• Speech or thought bubble: The little clouds drawn around direct speech or a character’s thoughts.
• Captions: These are boxes of additional text which usually work to narrate the action or add additional information.
• Emanata and movement lines: These are the little symbols and lines that can show what a character is feeling or how they are moving. For example, stars going around a character’s head symbolise being knocked out.

In addition, the different colours used in a comic or even the font used for the text can carry meaning. I highly recommend taking your time to explore the visual and textual elements when reading a comic to really unpick the magic of how they work!

Comics are a great way to build a community of children who read for pleasure. With the comics clubs I’ve run, I’ve seen a really positive impact of comics reading on children’s self-esteem and view of themselves as a reader.

My top recommendation for developing a comics collection in your classroom is to begin by reading comics yourself! I love laughing out loud to Bumble and Snug by Mark Bradley, feeling all the emotions with the amazing autobiographical work of Raina Telgemeier, and learning all about the world through A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You by Mike Barfield and Jess Bradley.

Once you develop your own knowledge of comics, you’ll be able to choose and recommend the right comics for children in your classroom or club. Another great idea is to get a subscription to a weekly comic, like The Beano or The Phoenix (which features comic strips by the hugely popular Jamie Smart and Neill Cameron, among many other amazing comic artists). These weekly comics contain short stories which encourage children to read the next instalment.

I’ve also found it really helpful to ask children and parents if they have any old copies of comics they are willing to give to the club – I’ve managed to collect lots of comics for free this way! Once you have built up a collection of comics, make time for the children to read together, to swap comics, and to generally chat about their comics loves and dislikes. Then the buzz should really get going!

One of the things that’s so special about children reading comics is how they often feel so inspired by what they have read that they begin to make their own comics!

This is why an important part of the comics club I run is making time for children to get creative. Some teachers have told me that they would love to teach comics or run a comics club but are worried about their drawing skills. But this is where comics come into their element!

One of the key things about creating comics is to keep the drawings simple, so that they can be repeated easily from frame to frame. If you look at most comics, you will see that the comics artist is not trying to draw things ​‘perfectly’ or ​‘real-to-life’, but instead they use stylised imagery.

For example, most facial emotions can be drawn with six or seven simple lines, using an up-turned line to represent a smile or down-turned eyebrows to show anger. Even minimal stick people work well in comics. So don’t be afraid, keep it simple, and give it a go!

There are lots of different ways to run a comics club, and I would let yourself be guided by the age of the children you’re working with.

With children aged five to seven, I would recommend doing a different activity each week; for example, it might be creating their own superhero or learning how to draw different types of speech bubble.

With older children in Key Stage 2, I often start my comics club sessions by playing a drawing game to develop skills. Comics Jam, for example, is a game where you create a comic by taking turns to draw a panel each – as well as learning about key comics elements and how to organise narrative, this activity leads to lots of funny and collaborative stories being created!

Alongside helping children to develop their skills and knowledge of how comics work, I also give them the time and space to create their own comics based on the stories they want to tell. This gives the children choice and agency over what they want to create and encourages them to make comics based on their own interests and passions. I give each child a sketchbook to create their comics in, meaning that they can take it home and work on their comics in their own time.

With the comics clubs I’ve run, a very important factor has been the culmination of all the children’s creative work in a celebratory comics fair. This is a fantastic opportunity for the children to share their work with the local community.

The comics fair gives the children an end goal to work towards and helps them to realise the importance of audience and working to a deadline.

I now feel like a pro comic-maker!

In the lead up to the event, the children work in small groups to create a collaborative comic, based on their own theme and ideas – the only rule is that the comics need to be suitable for an ​‘all ages’ audience. We create posters to advertise the event and invite family and friends. The comics are scanned and reproduced simply through photocopying (I highly recommend getting a long-armed stapler to bind the comics).

On the day of the fair itself, the children set up stalls in the playground and sell their comics. Although it can be daunting at first for the children to share their work with a wide audience, the children feel a strong sense of pride and achievement when their comics are snapped up by the attendees.

As one child recently said, ​“I now feel like a pro comic-maker!”.

As weekly comics are printed on thin paper, they can get damaged easily, although you can protect them with plastic covers. Be prepared: you may need to replace comics on a regular basis.

Asking parents and the local community to contribute collections of comics that are no longer wanted is a valuable way to restock. Free Comic Book Day is another fantastic way of getting comics for free!

Think about the resources you will need for making comics. I give each child a sketchbook and have a collection of fine line pens, felt-tips, and pencils. While resources can be expensive to buy, we use the money the students make from selling the comics to buy resources for the following year, making the club financially sustainable!

For reviews and ideas of how to use comics and graphic novels in the classroom, visit this excellent blog and padlet by Richard Ruddick.

Comics Club Blog is an amazing treasure trove of comics games and activities, including the Comics Jam mentioned above.

For great discussions and ideas about using comics in education, listen to the Comic Boom podcast by Lucy Starbuck Braidley.