Learning English With Comics And Graphic Novels

Pictures can often help you understand what you are listening to or reading. One good way to improve your everyday English is to read stories with pictures, such as comic books and graphic novels. (Graphic novels are longer books, often for adults, which have pictures and words like a comic book.) Comic books and graphic novels are not just for children, and they are not “too easy” for many intermediate students. They can be excellent ways to pick up new vocabulary in
a fun and interesting way. Some can be very interesting and contain difficult vocabulary as well.

Comic books are often written at a low reading level, with simpler vocabulary. For beginning and intermediate students, comics such as Archie, Tom and Jerry, and Bugs Bunny are good places to start. They are written at a low reading level but still contain a lot of useful daily vocabulary. If you are more advanced, you may want to try comics such as Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman, all of which are written at a higher level but are still easy to understand because of the pictures and drawings. There are also many translated Japanese anime graphic novels in English that are written more for adults. Many of these have science
fiction themes that adults can enjoy.