Presentation for my thesis defense regarding how the layout of children's comics affect their reading comprehension. A strong focus on literacy.

1. LAYOUT IN CHILDREN’S
COMICS
AND THE EFFECT ON READABILITY AND READING
COMPREHENSION IN YOUNGER AUDIENCES

2. INTRODUCTION
• Children‟s comics are not the same as children‟s
books.
• Children‟s comics serve a different purpose from
other types of comics.
• Require a different structure.
• Two types of children‟s comics in this thesis- “Early
Reader” and “Chapter Comic Books”

3. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHILDREN’S
BOOKS AND CHILDREN’S COMIC
BOOKS
• Confusion about difference between children‟s
books and children‟s comics
• Some overlap with titles such as Diary of a Wimpy
Kid; books that feature cartoony illustrations
• Children‟s comics feature 1+ panels per page and
text is in balloons or caption boxes.
• Children‟s books have one image per page and
dialogue in captions surrounding image

4. Children‟s chapter
books
Children‟s Chapter
Comic (Winx Club)

5. CHILDREN’S COMICS AND CHILDREN’S
LITERACY
• Comics can be used to encourage struggling
readers
• Image-text interdependency reinforces
vocabulary, gives struggling readers confidence to
make guesses.
• Children can take turns reading comics with
parents, friends, or teachers, encourages the social
aspect of reading
• Comics tend to be seen as being “fun”, not “work”
• Generally layout follows directionality conventional
to that country, reinforces literacy skills
• Teaches timing, helps children develop a sense of
direction

6. EARLY READER COMICS
• Focuses on children ages 3-5 (beginning readers)
• May have little to no dialogue
• Can be read by a child with no literacy skills
• Very simple comics with straightforward layouts
• Should be designed to accommodate the reader‟s
limitations, reinforce literacy skills.

7. EFFECTIVE LAYOUT
Silly Lilly, by Agnès Rosenstiehl

8. EXPLANATION
• Layout is simple and linear, it follows the reading
direction that children are taught in school.
• Panels are large and based on a grid, so they fit
together with no wasted space
• The pages in the example were originally facing
pages in the book, the artist has taken this into
consideration, neither page is more distracting than
the other.

9. Lucy Knisley, “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a
Shoe”,
Nursery Rhyme Comics

10. EXPLANATION
• Reading direction follows the left to right
directionality that is common literacy practice in
the Western Hemisphere
• Reading direction is very clear
• Space is utilized well
• Layout is not overly cluttered
• Although this is a more challenging layout than the
Silly Lilly example, children tend to be familiar with
the rhyme and can easily follow along.

11. NON-EFFECTIVE LAYOUT
Craig Thompson, “Owl and the Pussycat”, Nursery Rhyme Comics

12. EXPLANATION
• No concrete distinction between panels, they tend
to blend together and become confusing
• Reading direction is unclear
• Page is overly cluttered, very distracting
• Hard to follow even for a frequent comic reader

13. mo oh, “Hush, Little Baby” Nursery Rhyme Comics

14. EXPLANATION
• Reading direction is extremely unclear
• Pages have too many panels
• Objects outside of panels may cause reading
direction confusion or be distracting
• May require several attempts to understand the
flow

15. GENERAL PROBLEMS
• Creator is unfamiliar with children, doesn‟t
understand reading limitations.
• Creator does not want to “dumb down” the
product, resulting in a work that is more “All Ages”
than “Early Reader”
• Many conflicting definitions for what is appropriate
for the age range
• Definitions and standards of literacy are nebulous as
well

16. CHAPTER COMICS-
• Aimed at children 5-9
• Has chapters or is broken into segments.
• Longer and more complex than early reader
• Still fairly simple in design

17. EFFECTIVE LAYOUT
Winx Club, published by VIZ

18. EXPLANATION
• More complicated than „early reader‟, but not so
complicated that the reading direction is unclear.
• Introduces several interesting techniques including
bleed and overlap in an easily understood way
• Panels are still fairly large, so it is easy to see
everything in the panel

19. Fig. 1
Fig. 3
“Tomorrow‟s Heroes”,
Legion of Superheroes
in the 31st Century, Note: Pages are
Fig. 2
published by DC non-sequential.

20. EXPLANATION
Figure 1: Figure 2: Figure 3:
• Page layout is easy to • Panel breaks • Panel break is fun
read make for a and dynamic,
• Large panels display dynamic page Superman “pushes”
a great deal of without increasing the reader in the
background, making the reading reading direction
placement easier difficultly without seeming
substantially too obvious
• Occasionally a • Layout is fairly
more difficult simple and
page serves as a straightforward
“treat” for the • Large bottom
reader panel allows action
• Panel shape also to breathe.
makes for a
dynamic, “fun”
read.

21. NON-EFFECTIVE LAYOUT
Copper, by Kazu
Kibuishi

22. EXPLANATION
• Reading direction is unclear, reader could go left to
right, or go down from the first panel. Reading in
the wrong direction leads to confusion.
• This book utilizes pages that are full of tiny panels,
which become hard to read and can tire the
reader out quickly

23. Figure 1 Figure 2
“Tomorrow‟s Heroes”, Legion of Superheroes in the 31st Century, published by
DC
Note: Pages are non-sequential

24. WHY THIS DOESN’T WORK
Figure 1 Figure 2
• Poor utilization of • Panel 1 is poorly
space, a fair executed and
amount of the confusing
page is wasted • Panels 2 and 3
• Overlap of panels is merge
unnecessary and unnecessarily
confusing, does not • Borders of panels
add to dynamism of aren‟t thick enough
page to prevent visual
bleed

25. Teen Titans GO!, published by DC

26. WHY THIS DOESN’T WORK
• Inefficient use of space- lot of white space on the
page that could be used to show environment
• Distracting, unnecessary, oddly-shaped inset panel.
The page is working to accommodate one
particular, non-essential panel, instead of vice-versa

27. GENERAL PROBLEMS
• Pages are too busy, the work becomes difficult and
tiring to read
• Pages don‟t follow a linear format, require several
rereadings with little payoff for the reader.
• By introducing more complex comic vocabulary
that‟s poorly used, the creator is only making the
work more confusing
• Creator doesn‟t understand audience, work is
either overly childish or overly mature to be a
children‟s chapter comic.

28. SOLUTIONS
• Creators should keep the limited reading skills life
experience of their young readers in mind when
making children‟s comics.
• Children‟s comics should have shorter chapter
lengths and less complex scenarios than all ages
comics or adult comics. Layouts should also be
simplified for younger, less experienced readers .
• Reading direction should be clear, creators should
not need arrows to indicate reading flow.
• For early reader comics, reading flow should follow
directionality conventions in the comic, to enforce
early literacy practices.

29. CONCLUSION
• Children‟s comics offer different opportunities from
children‟s books
• A child can learn much from reading comics-timing,
direction
• Comics are more interactive than books, engaging
the reader.
• Offer more immediate interdependence between
text and illustrations, which is useful for word
association
• Creators and publishers need to better understand
their demographic in order to deliver a better
product.