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 ours.

As part of its involvement in Comic Art Europe, the Festival published a report on findings gathered at Abraham Moss Community School in Manchester with Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, 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.