Our happy hour fact to amaze your drinking buddies with.

Comics are just as beneficial to helping children learn as other types of books.

Carol L. Tilley, a professor of library and information science at the University of Illinois, thinks educators are too quick to dismiss comics--and that much of the criticism leveled at comic books could apply to any book with pictures. She also suggests negative connotations attached to the word "comic" make it hard for people to accept their educational value.

In fact, Tilley believes that having to reconcile images and text actually helps students improve their reading comprehension, and points to evidence that comic books improve vocabulary and foster a love of reading.

While this is potentially great news for today's elementary school students, we'll really start lamenting being born in the wrong decade when academics start to argue that the Wii Fit's fitness tests are as valid as the dreaded rope climb that scarred us for life.