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Mathematics in Disney Comics

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Imagine Math 7

Abstract

Comics and illustrated stories are a communicative means of great impact. They conjugate the immediacy of the image with the possibility to tell a story and explain things with words. It is without doubts a great medium for dissemination and popularization of mathematics, other than—in certain contexts—a possible strong teaching tool. Nevertheless, the use of comics in popularizing mathematics is present only in quite recent times, possibly for its aura of lesser (or popular, or even childish) art. It is totally sure that the mathematics popularizers should add this tool to their toolbox in order not only to spread ideas to a broader audience but also to avoid the only idea of mathematics that reaches comic book’s readers to be a stereotyped one of an incomprehensible or arid subject. The main mission of one who wants to popularize mathematics is to strongly oppose to this view of math.

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Acknowledgements

All images are Ⓒ Disney. I thank the editorial team of Topolino of Panini Comics for the support and for allowing me to use them, in this paper and at conferences and laboratories. Thanks are also due to the Facebook group Ventenni Paperoni for the help in finding some images.

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Correspondence to Alberto Saracco .

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Saracco, A. (2020). Mathematics in Disney Comics. In: Emmer, M., Abate, M. (eds) Imagine Math 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42653-8_12

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