An increasing number of graphic novels and comics that interpret the past have been created in the past decade. Some are aligned with scholarly histories and primary sources, while others are memoires or even skirt the line between history and historical fiction. Many may be useful tools for the history classroom. However, effective learning through these books requires more than just the introduction of comics into the classroom. Students need to be given the tools to engage issues of context, authorship, visual rhetoric. In this panel, we will look at critical and creative issues around the employment of comics in the history classroom, focusing on a few examples from both global and US history and taking a workshop approach to learning.