The Secret Powers of Comics

A sense of belonging is a powerful teaching tool. For Faith Roncoroni ’10 ’11G, it strongly impacted her approach as an educator at Phillipsburg High School in New Jersey, earning her the 2021-22 Warren County Teacher of the Year award. Her unconventional approach to teaching English literature provides a welcoming space for her students with a common love of comic books. 

Literary awakening
Roncoroni grew up in a family that was passionate about comic books; her mother used them to teach her children to read. When Roncoroni arrived at Lehigh, her English I class was taught by a professor of English, Seth Moglan, who introduced her to a revolutionary concept: comics as a valuable piece of literature. It changed the way she looked at something that was previously only a hobby she shared with her family. She began to see the power it offered in teaching how stories are told and how art further facilitates effective storytelling.

In that same English I class, Roncoroni met the man who later became her husband, Jake Cutrufello ’11. The pair shared their love of comics and continued to build relationships with others on campus that had common interests in comic book creators. Through their time at Lehigh, they traded favorite titles with Edward Whitley, professor of English. Roncoroni continued to study other topics through comics during her time at Lehigh: racial representation with Marilisa Jiménez García, associate professor of English and Latin American and Latino studies; queer theory with Mary Foltz, associate professor of English; and medical humanities with Lorenzo Servitje, associate professor of English and health, medicine, and society.

When Beth Dolan, dean of the College of Health (then professor of English and health, medicine, and society) offered a course that explored illness in literature, it provided Roncoroni a coping strategy when her grandmother was battling Alzheimer’s. It inspired Roncoroni and Cutrufello to work with Dolan on an independent study exploring how illness is represented in comics. Dementia wasn’t largely represented, so Roncoroni and Cutrufello created a cathartic script to process the experience of her grandmother’s illness.

Comic book catalyst
Roncoroni credits Lehigh with transforming her approach to teaching and nurturing her love of comics. “I don’t think I would have taken teaching to this level without Lehigh […] I can’t speak highly enough about the English professors.”

When she became a teacher at Phillipsburg High School, she created a unique course offering for her students. She says comic book titles address real-world issues that her students can relate to. Her students love diverse characters like themselves that aren’t clearly good or bad. They favor flawed heroes and gray topics that more closely mimic real life. To parents who worry that reading comics will inhibit their child’s ability to digest traditional text, Roncoroni argues that comics are more advanced than a standard novel. 

“You are consuming more — the dialogue, the images, the narration, placement of the character, the lighting. There is so much more to analyze.” In the classroom, she observes that her students sometimes struggle more while first learning to study comics because many of them have never analyzed literature in such a way. 

She currently teaches two comic book electives. Next year, she plans to expose the kids to the full process of comic book publishing. She envisions them writing their own comics, editing the copy, printing their creation, and promoting it at conventions. The work they do in her classroom is building a solid portfolio of work to help them pursue future writing or graphic design careers. 

Whether they favor writing or art, Roncoroni grants her students the autonomy to set new goals for themselves, inviting them to develop a confidence and mastery of their craft in a field that consistently energizes them, producing more self-determined young adults.

Connecting fans to creators
When Roncoroni started a comic book club at the high school, her students wanted to meet the people who created their favorite characters. She started reaching out and was overwhelmed by the response. With these new relationships, she helped her students launch the Phillipsburg Comic-Con in 2015, a local charity event that helps give the kids access to the books and people that inspire them. 

The creators she has engaged with while planning the event are always eager to help and spend time with the young fans. She describes them as generous, down-to-earth, and humble, often bringing hundreds of free books for the kids and making themselves available for live and virtual conversations with fans upon request. These artists offer themselves free of charge purely for the benefit of the kids. Still on the students’ dream list are Saladin Ahmed (“Miles Morales: Spider-Man”), Sean Gordon Murphy (“Batman: Beyond the White Knight”), and Tom King (“Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow”).

A lasting impact
Roncoroni’s favorite character is Barbara from “I Kill Giants” by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura. She also loves the storylines and culturally relevant context of the Miles Morales (by Saladin Ahmed) and Ms. Marvel (G. Willow Wilson) titles. But what she loves most about comics is that they remain a strong connection to her family and her husband, who has been a strong supporter of the mission she has taken on for her students and the larger Phillipsburg community. 

Her students have been inspired to follow her lead and make a larger impact beyond the classroom. Through the momentum and interest gained via their comic-con event, they have collected food to restock the local food pantry, made impressive donations to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) and Domestic Abuse & Sexual Assault Crisis Center (DASACC), and provided free food to all attendees at their 2023 event in April thanks to over 60 sponsors, including Nicolosi's Pizza, Joe's Steak Shop, Jimmy's Doggie Stand, and ShopRite.

The next generation
For parents who have children interested in comics, she advises that they ask for just one comic book to be introduced into the curriculum or help their school start a comic book club. Visit your local comic book shop, as many offer opportunities to connect with creators. Her own father often took her to their local comic book shop and the library.

And so, as new fans are born, the next chapter begins…