Our high school library has been increasing the number of graphic novels on its shelves and purchased Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns just in time for my King Lear unit. As with The Watchmen, I find a lot of appropriate parallels to Shakespeare’s masterpiece, not the least of which is an aging figurehead unable to accept retirement, a power-struggle for the kingdom, and a lot of gratuitous violence.
While my students are creating multi-media presentations for their assigned King Lear scene, it helps to show them example pages from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.
Alan Moore and Frank Miller have repeatedly proven to be ahead of their time; it seems incredible to me that their work was published in the mid-80s — the last great decade. The power and the fear, the hope and the despair, the tragedy and the comedy — it belongs in a Shakespeare unit, and it never disappoints the students.
I like the new format of your blog, and the way you feature your alternatives to the five paragraph essay right up front. Keep up the good work!
Bravo, sir! I, of course, am always glad to find more teachers using comics in the classroom. And really, you couldn’t be using a better book–though, admittedly, I’m a bit bias. Miller’s brilliant take on Batman is the reason I study comics today. I first read it in 8th grade, and while it didn’t spurn me to immediately start reading comics, it’s the reason why I took a Graphic Novel elective class as an undergrad–and that did spurn me
But your notion to compare it to King Lear is brilliant!