students’ interest. Moreover, Clysdesdale 2007 states comics are combination of text and visual which give a total effect for linguistic and
cultural integration unpatrolled in ‘straight text’. Comics call for “visual liter
acy,” where students need to learn to recognize certain symbols and decode their meaning, much in the same way they do while reading texts
Derrick: 2008. In addition, Smith 2006: 06 explains that with combination of text and illustration, comics are powerful aids who excel at visual learning
or who have short attention spans. Based on all the experts’ opinion, comic strips can be regarded as a potential material in the teaching and learning
process to motivate students’ interest. In short, by using comic strips as media, a teaching and learning process will be more effective.
d. Comic Strips for Writing
Nowadays, it is not unusual activities that comic strips are used for an English classroom. Some experts state some advantages of using comic strips
especially in the prewriting stage. Edmunds 2006 states that comic strips enable students to identify the elements of a story through the presented
visual art and dialogues. They consist of enough words and expressions that can help students to construct sentences. They also provide contextual clues
to the meaning of written narrative. In line with that, Vukoja 2005 states that through the use of comic strips in the prewriting activity, students can
explore the structural devices of a story plotlines, character development, setting, and themes. Moreover Fay 2009 states that the reasons of using
comics in the classroom are their visual appeal, efficiency, and power of
message. According to Faulkner 2009 in Yunus, et al. 2010 comic strips can spur stude
nts’ interest to write English. It is much more engaging way to practice language and creative writing than simply writing them out as words
alone on a blank page. In addition Clysdesdale 2007 says comics put learners at ease with the material. Comics do not make learners feel alienated
and distant from the material by struggling with language. A reader’s effort at comprehension is greatly reduced.
B. Review of Related Studies
This research is about developing comic strips as English writing materials for students of junior high school Grade VIII. These are some
previous studies related to the research. However, the related studies are not completely the same as this study. Those studies support much for this
research. One of the studies was conducted by Kristi and Purwati 2013. The
researchers studied implementing comic strips as media for teaching writing narrative texts for Grade X of senior high school. From the research, they
found that comic strips could be used as media for teaching writing narrative texts. The implementation of comic strips as media in teaching writing
narrative texts to Grade X is effective and going well. The comic strips can stimulate the students to get ideas for writing their narrative texts and
motivate the students to become more active in the learning process. From the results of research, students’ composition abilities became better after the
