During a classroom-based study that explored the teaching and learning of visual elements of art and design, Grade 7 students had the opportunity to read four graphic novels. Theoretically, the research was informed by social semiotics, visual literacy, sociocultural theory, and Rosenblatt's transactional theory of reading. The instructional unit of the research involved the students participating in a variety of activities that focused on a selection of visual elements of art and design and graphic novel conventions. As well as reading, responding in writing, and discussing a selection of picturebooks, graphic novels and magazine issues, the students had two opportunities to apply their learning and compose their own multimodal texts. This article features the findings from the content analysis of the students' written responses to Sidekicks (Santat, 2011), one of the graphic novels featured in the study. Data analysis revealed the Grade 7 students' high level thinking about and aesthetic appreciation of the visual elements of art and design and graphic novel conventions that were under study. The analysis of the data also revealed how learning about the what, why and how of the mode of image and the medium of comics affected the students' responses to Sidekicks.