Cartoons and comics

Dave Roman’s I Was Reading That! follows a disagreement over a comic book. One character takes it from another, dismisses it, struggles to read it and insists that “real” books are superior. The other retrieves the book, describes learning to enjoy it through rereading, and returns to reading.

Read left to right across each of the three rows. The panel numbers used here are teaching labels, not part of the drawing. Start with the whole strip, then use the row views to check details. Follow analysis brings the relevant row beside the commentary. Selecting a view yourself turns that off, so you can keep the whole strip open while moving through the reading.

Before reading the commentary

What changes in who controls the book? What does not change in the dismissive character’s opinion? Try answering those questions before moving on.

The guiding question asks how written text and images create meaning. A useful starting point is the contrast between claiming to be a better reader and showing how reading develops. The comic’s six-panel story lets us judge those claims through behavior.

Roman’s own publication page identifies the comic as work for Reading With Pictures and the Nerdy Book Club. That context supports an interest in readers and reading, but the drawing does not establish an exact audience age. The characters’ names and relationship are not given. We can discuss the contrast between an older-looking, formally dressed figure and a smaller, casually dressed reader without deciding that they must be brothers or a parent and child.

In panel 1, the formally dressed figure holds the book away from the smaller reader, whose reaching hands accompany “HEY! I WAS READING THAT!” The motion lines and “SWIPE!” make the removal abrupt. Before either character argues about reading, the drawing establishes an unequal encounter: one can interrupt what the other is doing.

Panel 2 moves closer to the dismissive character. “THIS IS BABY STUFF!” appears above “ALL THESE LITTLE DRAWINGS!” His frown and wide gesture give the judgment force. The bow tie, glasses and formal clothing can suggest an attempt to appear mature or knowledgeable. They do not prove expertise; the following panels test that appearance.

The opening therefore gives the reader two kinds of evidence: a confident verbal judgment and an action that disregards another reader’s enjoyment. Sympathy for the interrupted character can arise from that combination, rather than simply from the fact that the figure is smaller.

Panel 3 centers the open book while the dismissive speaker asks whether to read the words first or look at the pictures. His complaint about “baby stuff” is now followed by an admission that the layouts are “TOO CONFUSING!” Something supposedly too simple for him is also something he cannot easily follow.

This contradiction weakens his earlier authority. It does not mean that finding a comic difficult makes someone unintelligent. The problem is his certainty that the form is inferior before he has learned how to read it.

The strip is also self-referential: it is a comic discussing how comics work. As we connect Roman’s balloons, gestures and panel sequence, we are doing the combined reading that the character finds puzzling. The open book drawn within panel 3 makes that issue visible. Words and images are not competing alternatives here; their relationship carries the disagreement.

Notice the change of focus across the first three panels: the encounter, the speaker’s judgment, then the object he cannot understand. That progression supplies evidence against his claim rather than asking us to accept a narrator’s verdict.

In panel 4, the characters pull at the book. “TUG,” motion lines and opposing grips turn their disagreement into a visible struggle. The red background and lines around the frame heighten the intensity of this particular exchange. Red does not always mean anger; here it works with strained expressions, movement and conflict over the object.

The dismissive character appeals to the comic strips he read “WHEN I WAS A KID!” Familiarity with an earlier form becomes his reason to reject this one. Meanwhile, the smaller reader admits, “I WAS CONFUSED BY SOME PARTS…” The underlined “SOME” limits the admission: difficulty affected parts of the reading, not necessarily the entire book.

Panel 5 completes that statement: “… BUT THEN I READ IT A FEW MORE TIMES.” The ellipsis connects the wording across the panel boundary. The book is now held against the reader’s chest, so we infer that it has been recovered between panels. Roman does not show every moment of the struggle ending.

The sequence offers a different response to difficulty. One character rejects the unfamiliar; the other rereads. Both have experienced confusion, so a claim that the comic simply divides a clever child from a foolish adult would miss an important similarity.

Panel 5 expands the reader’s delight into a tall image. Closed eyes, a smile, hearts and the embrace of the book accompany “NOW IT’S MY FAVORITE BOOK EVER!” The floating pose moves away from ordinary physical realism to make an emotional experience visible. It does not need to be read as literal flight.

The enlarged “EVER!” gives the final word particular emphasis. Most of the strip already uses capital letters, so capitalization alone cannot explain the change in intensity. Compare the word’s scale and position with the surrounding lettering.

The warm coloring of the delighted reader also complicates a simple equation between warm colors and anger. In panel 2, a reddish face accompanies dismissal; here it accompanies affection and pleasure. Expressions, gestures and wording determine how those colors function.

The panel gives this pleasure substantial space before the final exchange. Its size supports emphasis, but does not establish exactly how long the feeling lasts. In the argument about reading, enjoyment becomes a visible result of the effort described in the words.

In panel 6, the formally dressed character warns that the other will not be “AS SMART AS ME” without graduating to “REAL” books. “Graduate” presents comic reading as a stage to outgrow. The quotation marks around “REAL” draw attention to that contested category rather than establishing that comics are unreal books.

His raised finger, lifted gaze and surrounding stars make the claim of superiority look self-satisfied. The other character, however, is already seated with the book open, facing away. The panel separates one figure’s performance of authority from the other’s continuing activity.

“OKAY. I’LL KEEP THAT IN MIND.” could look like agreement in isolation. Beside the returned attention to the book, it can read as polite dismissal or a way to end an unproductive argument. We do not have access to the reader’s private thoughts, so it is stronger to explain this implication than to insist on an exact sarcastic tone.

The dismissive character gets the longer final speech, but his judgment has not stopped the reading. The ending leaves his opinion unchanged while showing that it need not control the other character’s choice. Roman defends the value of learning to read and enjoy comics without having to claim that every comic is superior to every prose book.

A possible thesis

Roman uses the struggle over a comic book to contrast confident dismissal with learning through rereading. As the book returns to its reader and the final warning goes largely unheeded, the words and images question who has earned the authority to judge another person’s reading.

A response might develop the contradiction in the dismissive character’s authority, then examine how the other reader’s actions provide an alternative. That lets details from different panels work together. A separate paragraph for every panel is unlikely to be the most useful plan.

Model paragraph

Roman makes the final claim of superiority less convincing by showing the other character return to reading. The warning to “graduate” to “REAL” books treats comics as something an intelligent reader should outgrow. Yet the speaker making this comparison has already admitted that the comic’s layouts are “TOO CONFUSING!” His raised finger and lifted gaze in the last panel therefore suggest confidence that his earlier difficulty does not justify. Beside him, the other character sits with the book open and replies, “OKAY. I’LL KEEP THAT IN MIND.” The words sound agreeable, but the drawing shows attention returning to the comic. This makes the reply seem like a way to end the argument while continuing to read. The ending challenges the speaker’s authority through the contrast between what he says and what the reader does.

This is one possible paragraph, not a complete response or a required interpretation. A reading focused on dismissive behavior, a generational disagreement or the value of rereading could also work if it explains the sequence and accounts for both characters’ initial difficulty.

Write a paragraph connecting the struggle in panel 4 with the delight in panel 5. Explain how the transition combines a change in possession with a change in attitude. Use a precise phrase and a visual detail from each panel.

Then return to your first reading of the ending. Does the drawing make you qualify what the final reply means? Record that complication before exporting your notes.

For another comic, follow an object, action or repeated phrase across the sequence. Ask where the image adds something the words leave unstated, and where a later panel changes your understanding of an earlier one. Do not assume every comic ends with a joke or a defeated opponent.