A second reason that we recall comic books is that the pictures are perfectly woven into the story as our eyes dart from picture to picture. In fact, the icons are the story. In journals there are figures and pictures, but they are separate and adjunct to the story. This is extremely important as the famous English cognitive psychologist from the 1930s, Professor Bartlett argued. The creation of the schemata is very powerful as one ignores information that does not fit, and adds to the construction of the schemata in our minds.
Humans have a very limited information processing capacity, and thus have to be selective.
Comic books have the best of all worlds in that the iconic learning is maximized and integrated into the construction of the schemata. There is little wonder, that recall of information from comic books can be made over 30 years, whereas medical information from journals cannot be recalled over 30 days. One may think that it is rather absurd to consider publishing journals in a comic book format. As seen in the pages of the comic book, obviously, there is much less information than a scientific journal. This is just right for children who have little verbal repertoire but inadequate for mature information processors as we adults.