National Association of Comics Art Educators - Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom

Graphic novels are now regularly being reviewed in The New York Times Book Review. Museums are acquiring pages of comic art. Esquire and The New Yorker have run comic stories in their fiction issues. A MacArthur grant was awarded to a cartoonist. Book distributors are strategizing on how to promote this emerging literary genre. Whether one considers comics as art or comics as literature, it is becoming apparent that this medium, after a prolonged adolescence, is coming of age.

To help this process along, The National Association of Comics Art Educators has been established to promote comics acceptance within art and educational institutions. We wish to help preserve the medium's history and nurture young talent with publishing opportunities and grants.

The association counsels and assists schools in developing comic art programs that stress integrated learning. The association also offers curriculum support for teachers. It is the association's hope that schools, colleges and universities will play a crucial and dynamic part in this emerging medium's growth.

To establish a national forum to stimulate the understanding and acceptance of comics art in educational institutions in the United States.
To counsel and assist schools in developing comics art programs.
To nurture emerging talent by establishing grants, awards, and publications.
To foster the development of high-quality instruction that encourages varied and experimental approaches to the teaching of comics art.
To create service opportunities for cartoonists.
To help preserve the medium's history.
To establish and maintain ties with publishers and those in related fields to further the association's objectives.