ABSTRACT
If the goal of teaching material rhetoric is to “lead student composers to consider how materiality works with message and audience” (Alexander n.p.), then comics are particularly effective at doing this. In comics, the impact of material rhetorical choices—e.g., typography and publication format—is more immediate and visible than in print texts. In particular, comics are effective for teaching material rhetoric in a transnational context because of their global scope and their variability across cultures. Most FYW students have experienced comics in some form, but comics formats and reading habits differ radically across cultures. American, European, and Asian students enter the classroom with radically different ideas of what “comics” look and feel like, and with different experiences with online comics reading. The cross-cultural material variability of comics makes them a useful tool for sensitizing those sensitive to the importance of material rhetoric.
