I should start by admitting that I am a bit of a nerd when it comes to comics, and have been for a long time. I was not around in the 1950s - the heyday of British comics - when The Beano and The Dandy sold in their millions and more than 600,000 buyers thrilled to the adventures of Dan Dare (“Pilot of the Future”) in The Eagle. I started later, initially with the Marvel Comics reprints of superhero stories, such as Hulk and Spider-Man, before being completely seduced by the violent and anarchic 2000 AD in September 1980. I have not looked back since.

Sometimes I suffered ridicule. University friends thought I should engage in more intellectual pursuits and the security guard at my first place of work mocked me incessantly for having a Judge Dredd keyring.

However, many more of my friends were hooked after reading a few issues and, for several, their visits to my home entailed religiously reading the back issues I had accumulated since they last came.

Much of the historic reason for widespread antipathy towards comics came from research published by an American psychiatrist, Frederic Wertham, in his book, Seduction of the Innocent, in 1954.

Wertham, a complex character, who treated poor black patients at a time of heightened racism in the 1930s and later went on to campaign against censorship, declared a since-discredited link between reading comics and the corruption of young readers. His work led to the formation of the Comics Code Authority in the US. This voluntary code, signed up to by many major publishers, laid down a series of moralistic rules to abide by, including that “if crime is depicted, it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity”, and that “policemen, judges, government officials and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority”.

How teachers can use comics to get students engaged in reading

Interestingly, Wertham’s similar claims for television and its incitement of violence never gained the same kind of publicity and were, ultimately, buried and forgotten.

This is all very interesting cultural history, of course, but what, you may ask, does it have to do with education and schools? The answer, much to my delight, is that there is an increasing body of research being published - some of it more scientific than others - to show that reading comics has a positive effect on levels of literacy and may, from a young age, help to boost comprehension and brain development.

On the scientific side, we have a 2013 study from the University of Oklahoma, which looked at what is called the “pictorial superiority effect” and found that graphic novels (basically, comics collected into high-quality book-like editions) helped to boost memory and could actually be a more effective teaching tool than a textbook.

The research used a study where management concepts were presented to half a class as a textbook and half in graphic form; the students using the latter were more likely to remember what they had read.

There are other studies, some more rigorous than others, which look at the way in which the brain works when reading comics. Dale Jacobs, author of such papers as “More Than Words: Comics as a Means of Teaching Multiple Literacies” theorises that “[comics are] complex multimodal texts, comprised not only of linguistic elements but also some combination of visual, audio (as represented visually), gestural and spatial elements”.

Readers of comics have to interpret a multitude of different factors, including facial expressions, sound effects, words, images and body language, and this is a more active process than reading a book.

Similarly, Neil Cohn, at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, has analysed how the brains of comic book readers perceive the basic structure of the page. He found that this perception involves looking forward, looking backward and reversing the action shown in a panel to search for multiple meanings, and that, once again, comics would appear to increase memory.

Widespread benefits

As a self-confessed comics geek, it is gratifying to see that the science is beginning to catch up with what I, and my fellow readers, have suspected all along - that comics really can make you smarter.

Increasingly, this idea is being recognised by parents and mainstream educators. The suggested benefits that comic-book reading brings are widespread and can affect many groups of learners, including reluctant readers and those with learning difficulties.

If we go back to Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent, we can see why, for many years, comics were looked down upon. They were, he says, the death of reading, and, to quote from the book: “Reading troubles in children are on the increase. A very large proportion of children who cannot read well habitually read comic books. They are not really readers but gaze mostly at the pictures, picking up a word here and there.”

It may well be that some of the horror and gangster comics of the 1940s and 1950s fit this profile, but they are not comparable to the sophisticated plots and level of emotional intelligence required to engage with some of the superhero comics that emerged from Marvel in the 1960s, or to well-respected recent works, such as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and Watchmen by Alan Moore (another written by Moore, V for Vendetta, was in Tes’ 2015 list of 100 books that all secondary pupils should read before leaving school).

Indeed, if we want reluctant readers to engage with the written word, then several authorities believe we should turn to comics in the first instance.

No less a success than Ian Rankin has said that comics “are a gateway drug to novels and storytelling” and that, when he was young, they were “affordable literacy for kids”. Classic novels are often very difficult to read and some require background knowledge that children may lack, yet many people still believe that the challenge of reading such a book makes them superior.

However, at a time when young people, especially boys, are reading less and less, comic books provide a sense of fun, which encourages them to read more.

The Scholastic publishing company stresses that it is the enjoyment of comics that may make children more literate. Children read more if they have comics available to them and, in many cases, school librarians are turning to graphic novels as a way to get pupils started on reading: Spider-man first - War and Peace can come later.

As children start to read, and have some success at it, their self-esteem grows and this can lead to sharper reading skills that can be transferred to more complex texts.

They can also be better literacy-developing material for children with additional support needs. Many are autism-friendly, as they feature graphic displays of emotion rather than these having to be interpreted through text. Those living with dyslexia can also see their confidence grow and will feel less frustration than if they are reading from traditional books.

Children who spend their time skim reading are forced to slow down when reading comics as they have to take in both the picture and the printed word.

Comics can also inspire creativity. I have, for instance, worked in two schools where a Manga (a type of graphic novel originating in Japan) club, run by the art department, proved very attractive to the more shy and introverted pupil who excels at expressing themselves through comic-book storytelling.

There are, perhaps, some downsides. Wertham may well have had a point when complaining about the violent nature of some comic strips.

Drenched in blood

A recent full-page panel in 2000 AD, drenched in blood, saw the Celtic warrior Sláine decapitating seven Roman soldiers simultaneously with one sweep of his axe. Compared with the brutality evident in some modern video games, however, the protagonist does at least feel a little more removed from the end user.

Finally, there is the potential within comics to inspire political awakening and educate readers. The groundbreaking 2000 AD, from the start, had many stories that subtly commented on the prevailing political outlook of the day. Judge Dredd, the future lawman, inhabited a grotesque right-wing future, which was seen as more than possible if we continued on a path of zero-tolerance policing.

Many other storylines mirrored developments in our own society taken to extremes, and guest stars in the comic over the years - more often than not given over to ridicule - have included Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair and Donald Trump. Even Hitler was brought back from the dead to answer for his crimes against humanity in front of a 22nd-century court.

More recently, comics have been used to explore current news stories, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the spread of Covid-19.

Comics should be lauded for their escapism, their encouragement of reading, and their ability to explore and explain current world problems. From a teenage point of view, they can also be a powerful way to negotiate adolescence. Many deal with adult themes in a far more accessible format than the written word and address issues of identity, including sexual identity, in a way that helps young people come to terms with changes in their own lives.

Most of all, perhaps, they can provide role models and be a guide to morals and values in young, developing minds. After all, one of the greatest messages of all time - with as much relevance to our current political masters as it has to all of us - stems from when a teenage Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man, of course) realises that “with great power comes great responsibility”.

John Rutter is headteacher at Inverness High School

This article originally appeared in the 9 July 2021 issue under the headline “A Marvel-lous way to boost reading”