If you want to read them online, here are some legal sources:
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/
http://www.gocomics.com/
http://comics.com/

Kurt

Kurt, have you checked the specific references in _The Power of Reading_? (Second edition, not the first one.) I thought there were some specific studies cited, in addition to anecdotal evidence. You might also check the introductory sections of _Going Graphic_, by Stephen Cary.

I’m not at home right now, so I don’t have these books available. A quick search of scholar.google.com brings up several potentially interesting papers of varying relevance, including some of Krashen’s actual research studies:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=20&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&cluster=16563090010189650526
http://sdkrashen.com/articles/comicbook/comicbook.pdf
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tesol/tq/2004/00000038/00000002/art00002
http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=215454680&ETOC=RN&from=searchengine
http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/rt/v61/i4/abstracts/RT-61-4_Ranker.html
http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED141797&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED141797
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?num=20&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&client=firefox-a&cluster=1698822951350127953
etc., etc. You can probably find more.

Most of the research that has been done focuses on native speakers of English who are reluctant readers, and/or on children living in the US. Sometimes we have to extrapolate based on other studies of “light reading” (another useful search phrase), or work backwards from the connection between reading comic books and being a good reader.

I’d love to do some research on teaching adult English learners (in ESL or EFL situations), but I don’t have that kind of access right now.

Thanks.

Kurt

Thanks for posting this very practical suggestion for the encouragement of pleasure reading. I too am a big fan of the graphic novel–I’ll be the first to admit that comic book reading–at least, in my case–lead to reading bigger, more important canonical works of literature. I was curious to fill in the “backstory” details for things only alluded to in comic book narratives. I also read comic books in other languages when I was overseas to practice reading the language. It was simply, more fun than reading the newspaper when I was trying to learn.

If it’s okay with you, I’d like to plug this article for you on my own web log. I think others in the field might benefit from this.

Keep up the good work!

Lee
http://www.english-blog.com