The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is continuing to develop its strategy to champion comics part in promoting literacy, buoyed by its own research and others. As part of its involvement in Comic Art Europe, the Festival published a report on findings gathered at Abraham Moss Community School in Manchester, a project bringing together four European organisations to demonstrate the importance of comics in societies across Europe.
Posing the question “How Far Does Engagement with Comics positively affect children’s enjoyment of Reading and Wellbeing?”, its key findings indicate that engagement with comics led to children’s reading ages increasing at a faster rate and inspired an appreciation for reading more widely.
In addition, enjoyment of reading increased at home and in school and pupils encountered fewer difficulties when reading.
Thanks to reading comics, children developed an appreciation of books and interacted with books more willingly amongst their peers. Despite the challenge of rival media, also highlighted in research by the National Literacy Trust, reading became a favourite pastime for more pupils. Fewer pupils regarded it as their least favourite pursuit and more pupils identified themselves as readers
Children’s perceptions of their own creative abilities also improved and art, writing and attending school became more exciting. Children also took more pride in and felt happier with themselves.
In addition, the research revealed a willingness for and confidence in book talk – children engaged in more conversations at home about reading and felt more positive about reading in front of their classmates.
The report suggested the prioritisation of a number of positive actions for educators and parents looking to improve reading skills, and the Festival is actively working with various partners to promote the proposals.
• Schools should access and allocate additional funding for the acquisition of a diverse range of comics and comic books, for use in their libraries and primary and secondary classrooms
• University teacher training should incorporate academic study of comics, including the holistic and creative benefits of reading comics and their specific application to the curriculum
• Publishers and literacy organisations should signpost educators and parents to age-appropriate comics, compile free comics resources centrally online, commission more bilingual and translated comics and increase the proportion of comics incorporated into reading intervention schemes for all abilities.
• Strategic educational bodies, publishers and universities should commission further research into the potential of comics as vehicles for learning development with different constituencies in a range of contexts
The Festival has now completed a further two years research in Barrow-in-Furness and Kendal with primary and special schools, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, with some groundbreaking results. A report will be published in early 2025.
“Alongside our Little LICAF projects across Cumbria, our Make Mine Manga workshops and other initiatives, we have plenty of data to support our effort to encourage comic reading which, in turn, boosts interest in books,” says Festival Director Julie Tait.
“I’m sure many will be concerned by recent research from the National Literacy Trust, suggesting just one in three (34.6%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2024, and reading enjoyment levels have decreased by 8.8 percentage points over the past year alone.
“But we have gathered clear evidence that comics can be a gateway route to wider reading, and enjoyment of reading. This complements the findings of the National Literacy Trust reported earlier this year, that found two in five (40.7%) children told researchers us that they read comics or graphic novels in their free time at least once a month. Their research, like ours, highlights the potential for comics to improve comprehension and understanding in learners.
“We will continue our work with education partners, libraries, literary organisations, Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph, and publishers such as David Fickling Books, publishers of The Phoenix comic, to develop a wider ‘reading strategy’ to put comics reading firmly at the centre of the agenda to encourage literacy.”
• The full report, “How Far Does Engagement with Comics positively affect children’s enjoyment of Reading and Wellbeing?” can be downloaded here on the Lakes International Comic Art Festival web site, or here from the Comics Can Change the World web site
• The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is a year-round organisation promoting comics and comic creators, with its annual festival returning to Bowness-on-Windermere 26th – 28th September 2025 | Web: www.comicartfestival.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
• Sign up for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Newsletter
Further Reading: The Power of Comics
• National Literacy Trust: Children and young people’s engagement with comics in 2023
In 2023, only two in five (43.4%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 told us that they enjoyed reading in their free time. Despite this, two in five (40.7%) told NLT researchers that they read comics or graphic novels in their free time at least once a month. Comics are a diverse medium, growing steadily in popularity over recent years, and research highlights the potential for comics to improve comprehension and understanding in learners.
This report draws on data collected in early 2023 from 64,066 children and young people aged 8 to 18 from across the UK to explore the attitudes and beliefs of comic readers.
• The School Run: Using comics to improve your child’s literacy
Struggling to get your child to pick up a book? A comic might have more appeal, argues Lucy Dimbylow – and offer some surprising literacy-boosting benefits, especially for boys. There’s a host of reading suggestions here – including The Beano and The Phoenix Comic
• Literacy Now: Teaching Tips – The Power of Comics
This 2018 article by Jennifer Marshall, primarily aimed at American educators, reveals how one of the teacher’s own students convinced her reading comics was a means to persuade them into wider reading
• Knowledge Quest: Literacy Through Graphic Novels and Comic Books
In 2020, Karin Greenberg noted encouraging high school students to read for pleasure is not an easy task. “What I’ve found, however, is that sometimes when I present them with graphic novels and comics, I see more interest than if I give a book talk about a novel…”
• Edutopia: Using Comics to Encourage Literacy Development
A 2024 feature by Jason DeHart, who uses informational comics in his lessons. “Images carry their own possibilities for meaning,” he notes, “|and I’m all about helping my students get to analysis of the words based on their practice with the images.”
Comics Reading Recommendations
• Check out Bobby Joseph’s Library List on LICAF’s Comics Can Change the World site
Comics Laureate Bobby Joseph (2024 – 2025) has curated an incredible list of graphic novels by a diverse range of comic creators for children and general readers which is being promoted by Arts Council England, chief funder of the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, and distributed to libraries across the UK.
Bobby’s list includes works by authors such as Sabba Khan, Adam and Lisa Murphy, Bex Ollerton, Shanti Rai, David Shenton and Jamie Smart, and manga creators such as Eiichiro Oda and Hajime Isayama.
The books are, of course, also available from all good book and comic shops across the UK.
• Stephen L. Holland’s Recommended Reading Lists
Covering a wide range of genres from science fiction and fantasy to crime and horror our recommended reading list by Stephen L. Holland, the Comics Laureate 2021 – 2023, has something for everyone!
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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