Comics come of age

Good morning bookies!

Your friendly neighborhood bookseller is a fan of The University of Memphis Tigers. This would usually have no bearing on a blog devoted to books, however, it's relevant because today's blog praises the University Press of Mississippi, the publishing arm of The University of Mississippi at Oxford. Ole Miss.

Memphis Tiger fans don't like Ole Miss. Thus, my conflict.

And yet one has to give credit where it's due. Memphis State University once had a flourishing press and if Mississippi still does, and if it makes a valuable contribution to the study of comics, a field that yours truly once found obsessive, well, I have to give them a shout-out.

So today's link takes you to a nice article about UPM's contribution to the study of comics, a scholarly study. And yes, comics deserve a scholarly study or three. As one who grew up having his reading habits questioned by authority figures, and who is still traumatized by his history teacher confiscating the X-Men issue he was reading during class, I recognize just how important comics can be in developing the reading skills of the young person.

Comics in the classroom, on purpose