Graphic novels (book-length works of fiction or non-fiction that use the conventions of a comic book to tell a story or convey information) can embed images within that primary flow. The text boxes and recurring images of the single graphic novel flow can incorporate maps, photographs, timelines, primary sources, and images within the panel structure of the page. Historical graphic novels (HGNs) HGNs can embed timelines, photographs, and political cartoons so that readers encounter them within the primary flow and with the voice of a text box to help them connect the map, timeline, or image with the rest of the primary flow. This technique, found in a majority of the corpus of HGNs examined in this study, is one example of a new and potentially valuable affordance for both geographic and temporal contextualization that is not available in a standard text approach. This study considers what opportunities and barriers, if any, HGNs offer high school history teachers to teach students to contextualize, source, and corroborate. In order to investigate that, we need to start with the HGNs themselves: (1) Do HGNs, as a close blending of images and words, allow students to read history in a way compatible with the goals of history instruction? and (2) How can HGNs support disciplinary literacy instruction in history?