Comic Books found to be just as effective as books for children's learning.

It's good to know there is now research on this, but a shame it won't stop the same people from ignore it and still harp on about how Comics are leading the youth of today astray. Personally I go by Comic books should be read as part of a healthy literary diet.

The savage sword of conan . x men , micronauts , son of satan , empire , silver surfer , too many ....

I read Calvin and Hobbes as a kid. Now I'm taking AP English. Comics do not detract from one's ability to learn

why is this even a surprise? if anything, comics would be more effective in helping children learn to read, because if the reader doesn't understand whats happening in the text, they can look at the pictures and figure out with more specific context clues.

I just started getting comic books for my seven year old after i foun out that he watches all his movies with the closed captioning on, and reads along with the movie

I learned to read on Spiderman and X-Men. Its a great way to connect words with actions and symbols. Not to mention the riddling of great morality tales; loyalty, prejudice, dealing with death etc.

The Complete Persepolis is an awesome graphic novel by Satrapi that characterizes the life of a child growing up in a highly unstable 1980's Iran. Anyone interested in graphic novels should definitely check it out - very good read.

These days we are happy to see kids enthusiastic to read Anything!

DUUUUH!!!!

It's not the form but the content that educates. Although the illustrations along with the text do help to grasp the concepts more easily

I understand most people under the age of about 10 would never even attempt to read a book like the Odyssy or Hamlet ,but Most comic books I've seen(& I'm not saying all comic books are this way!) have very little to read at all! They might get kids in to reading though,but it seems iffy really!

Reading is reading, comic books, recipes, novels, whatever. The educational elite need only 'lower' themselves a bit to recognize the greatness inherent in X-Men (social dynamics), Batman (psychological illness resulting from intense trauma) or any of the multitude of others.

Many comic books trump mainstream novels quite easily...'Scott Pilgrim' saga is one of the better series I've read in a bit and I read a lot (A LOT).

Truly awesome.
I say to anyone check out The Maxx. A damn good read and visual amazing!

Reading or enjoying to read is the point here. From Spidey, Dr.Who to Twain , Poe and Homer (not Simpson) was a stepping ladder for me.
Similar to weed then coke then meth. Must start somewhere, and enjoy doing it.

In related news, Video Games stimulate more parts of the brain than watching TV or a movie. News sources everywhere scream in rage that things they deemed to be children's playthings pose more intelligent activity than an hour of Sean Hannity.

I had and still have a collection . You can learn philosophy , politics , morality , logic , the concepts of altruism and greed . Great art stretches the imagination in a healthy yoga way . It is in this arena I first considered "right makes might " over might makes right . Artists not only love beautiful visual concepts , but ideals as well . At least , the ones I know do .

Has anyone ever read the Silver Surfer? I was really into it when I was around 11.
He goes on these long existential soliloquies at least twice an issue. I feel like the vocabulary used in that comic were some of the first big words I learned.

not surprised. i read more comics (sonic the hedgehog) than books for quite a while. and yeah, i'll attribute my love of reading and ability to mentally envision what's happening to that.

Best article ever!

This is why they are called Graphic Novels (Big ones Anyway). And like the Great Stan Lee says " If I can get one kid to simply read .. Then I have done my job well."

I'd recommend the graphic novel Blankets by Craig Thompson to anybody looking for good lit.
It's the Anna Karenina of graphic novels(in terms quality, not plot-wise).

Comic books are illustrated action-novels, the kids are still reading and using their brains just a more imaginative and fun way

Comic books & reading? Yeah...Something tells me more research should be done before they make such a claim

See! Good things CAN come from funnies. I wouldn't suggest kids reading ONLY comic books, though. They should be used as gateway reading --- leading to better, longer, harder, more meaningful literature. But,... hooray for geek books!

love comics, they reach the limits of imagination.