The super-genre of what we can collectively call "comics" represents a cultural phenomenon that has exploded over the last fifty years to the public. scene. Evolving from newspaper comic strips to superhero stories in paperback periodicals, the world of comics has increasingly expanded in public appeal. But with the publication of Art Spiegelman's Maus, comics opened the door to a world of possibilities. After Maus received great acclaim, despite its academic taboo as a medium, many other historical commentary graphic novels found their way to the public: Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, Keiji's Barefoot Gen Nakazawa and a legion of others. Taken together, this new subgenre of the supergenre offers personal insight into many historically tragic, enlightening, or revolutionary events. These historical and autobiographical stories can effectively introduce history to people, whether students in a classroom or a curious independent reader seeking the truth, due to the format, popularity of the events histories they encompass, relevant personal perspective and innovation. the approval that attracts the attention they enjoy. Although graphic novels such as Maus, Persepolis, Fun Home, and Barefoot Gen may differ greatly in content, the format of conveying a story of novel-length complexity through sequential art consolidates all these titles in a single subtitle. gender. These graphic novels would effectively represent history in a classroom (besides personal and individual enjoyment) due to the changing demographics of high school and college students in the United States (if not the entire world). With the advent of the Internet and the popularity of television and video...... middle of paper ...... set in significant historical periods and presenting a personal and relevant point of view, historical and autobiographical novels represent history effectively. events. The next step toward gaining academic respect requires proving their effectiveness to scholars of history and literature. Once these works gain an educational audience similar to that of public fans, perhaps history classes and interdisciplinary venues could begin to incorporate the graphic novel into their reading lists. In the meantime, the usefulness of Maus or Barefoot Gen as commentaries on World War II, of Fun Home on homosexuality and the sexual revolution, and of Persepolis on the Iranian revolution must be appreciated only from an individual point of view. ". Time 4 Learning. Time 4 Learning, Web. October 6 2009. .