How comic books can help you learn - Gene Luen Yang

When I was in the fifth grade, I bought an issue of DC Comics Presents number 57 off of a spinner rack at my local bookstore.

And that comic book changed my life. I immediately fell in love with the medium of comics.

But I never brought them to school. Instinctively, I knew that comic books didn’t belong in the classroom.

Eventually, I became a published cartoonist, writing and drawing comic books for a living.

I also became a high school teacher. This is where I taught: Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California.

I remember telling my students on the first day of every class that I was also a cartoonist.

I was hoping comics would make them think that I was cool.

I was wrong. They thought I was kind of a dork.

They would use comic books as a way of distracting me.