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The popularity of comics with children and teens in the United States has been extensively documented, both in terms of market sales and circulation in libraries. What is not as well chronicled are readers' experiences with comics reading in their childhood and teenage years, the insights from which might prove useful for school librarians who are interested in helping create positive and meaningful reading experiences for their students. The purpose of this study is to examine the comics reading histories of emerging adults who read comics as children or teens to understand how this format fit into their broader development as a reader. Using both survey and semi-structured interview data, the comics reading histories of 34 emerging adult participants from the Southeastern United States were analyzed. Results of this study suggest that school librarians and literacy educators need to take steps to make comics reading more accessible and considered educationally legitimate for their students and to consider the emotional development of students as readers.
Introduction
It's difficult to deny the popularity of today's comics for youth. The sale of comics (including graphic novels and comic books) in the United States has steadily risen in the past decade "led by the ultrahot 'juvenile fiction' comics, which now accounts for 37% of all graphic novels sold through bookstores, followed by manga at 31%" (Salkowitz, 2020). Indeed, Abate and Tarbox (2017) suggested that one of the most significant transformations that took place at the end of the Twentieth Century and the beginning of the new millennium in literature for children and young adults, was the "resurgence of comics geared toward a youth readership" (p. 3). Comics aren't just moving quickly on the market either - research on school library circulation has also reported that comics are amongst the most circulated item in most library collections polled (Becnel & Moeller, 2020; Gavigan, 2014; Moeller & Becnel, 2020).
Despite this bright outlook for youth comics, some school librarians have still shown resistance to comics reading as a worthwhile reading experience. Researchers (Lo, et al., 2019; Moeller & Becnel, 2021; Moodie & Calvert, 2018) from various countries found school librarians and other educators have labeled comics reading as a fun, frivolous activity rather than the complex reading experience that it...