Promoting reading through comic books!

On October 8-10th, the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, hosted the 2010 New York Comic Con. This was co-hosted alongside the New York Anime Festival. As you can see in the picture to the left, the event drew a large crowd of comic book, film, video game and anime entusiasts. I was one in the attendance of over 100.000 people!

While the convention is a great place to celebrate fandom in all of its glory, I got a few unexpected suprises.

First, I was able to snag a signed copy of the graphic novel edition of Rick Riordan's, "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief". Let me tell you that the artists did a phenominal job of bringing Percy and his friends to life on everyone of the beautifully colored pages. I also browsed by the booths where several well known comic book and graphic novel artists sat, including David Petesen, the creator of one of my favorite juvenile series, "Mouse Guard".

When escaping the crowds of fans often dressed as their favorite superhero or cartoon character, I found myself attending panels with various artists and writers. At the end of each panel the speakers allowed fans to comment or ask questions.

Within the Q&A section of the panels I was stunned to hear how many people thanked the artists and writers for helping them learn to read through their works. Several originally non-english speaking attendees even explained that through some of the comic books and related animated series, they were not only able to learn to read and write english, but also to speak it.

Supplementing these nods of thanks were several panels which stressed the importance of graphic novels in libraries.

I cannot think of any better proof than the testimonials mentioned above.

-Posted by Miss Jessikah