People Just Get It

This past weekend’s Observer carried an interesting interview with Benjamin Dix, writer of a graphic novel about Sri Lanka’s civil war. The book, The Vanni, was a collaboration between Dix as writer, and artist Lindsay Pollock. The book follows the fortune of a fictional Tamil family, but is based on interviews with real survivors of the war.

The interview is of interest because it sheds some light on Dix’s creative process as a comics writer, and demonstrates just how much background research goes into such a project. But for those of us interested in applied comics, it’s also interesting because of the direction this book has taken Dix. He has since set up a non-profit company – PositiveNegatives – which has so far published almost a dozen similar works. The majority of the works are informational in nature – comics used by NGOs and charities as lobbying and awareness-raising media. The aim is to eventually create works which teach about human trafficking, migration, sexual violence and conflict.

Time and again, the interview makes use of arguments familiar to those of us who work with applied comics:

“… the visual narrative transcends cultural differences and literacy levels…”

“… it [the comic] is a very flexible format … it can look really high-tech and we can animate it… or it can be printed out in schools in Nigeria…”

Dix concludes the interview with this interesting observation on the value of the comic in an age of digital media:

“This [comic] is a very human-led way of telling a story. In this digital, Photoshopped age, there is something very organic about the fabric of the comic, the simplicity of pen on paper.”

Perhaps, despite the comic’s analogue origins, and despite the close links between comics and more technological media such as animation, there’s something unique about the comic as a medium for telling difficult stories and making hard-to-read information accessible. Perhaps, as Dix observes, when it comes to comics: “People just get it.”

Comics With Problems

I’ve recently been directed to Ethan Persoff’s fantastic archive of weird and off-the-wall informational comics, or Comics With Problems, as he puts it.

These are applied comics definitely from the weirder end of the spectrum: from government-sponsored oddities (Military Courtesy – a comic book all about how to salute properly), and classics (Will Eisner’s Treat Your Rifle Like a Lady), to well-known characters in public service publications (Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in anti-drug Buzzy’s Rebound) or slightly obscure educational comics (Learn Cherokee with Blondie and Dagwood); to curiosities like a 1987 AIDS awareness comic sponsored by Madonna (Who’s That Girl?) and unusual mascots such as Pip, the Magic Safety Elephant (The Perils of PIP – Preventing Poisoning); all the way to the outer fringes of weirdness (Capn Veedee-O and Ms.Wanda Lust in VD Claptrap,  or Daffy Qaddafi: A Dictator’s Nightmare in Wonderland, or Don’t Bruise that Pig), hysteria (America Under Socialism, and The Two Faces of Communism), and offensiveness (the pro-segregation comic George Wallace for the Big Job, or the bile-filled Homosexuality: Legitimate Alternative DEATHSTYLE).

Stranger danger, anti-fluoridation, temper tantrums, body odour, Mickey Mouse selling speed, family stress, Foreskin Man, heroin abuse, landmine awareness, the Phantom running for city council, group poop, dancing condoms – and Sam the Disaster Horse talking about terrorism awareness. Hats off to Ethan Persoff: this is a crazy archive of crazy comics. Explore at your leisure – and enjoy. If nothing else, perhaps learn some lessons about how not to make applied comics.

On Strike

I came across an unusual political comics project recently that posed some interesting questions about the role of experience in informational comics.

The project was called En Greve, and was to be a comic documenting the student protests in Quebec in 2012. The protests were sparked by a decision to raise tuition fees by 80%. Students went on strike, and academic and administrative staff at universities, as well as hundreds of thousands of ordinary Canadians took to the streets in support. The protests became known as the Maple Spring, and eventually resulted in the election of a nationalist government and a repeal of the tuition increases.

Possibly as a result of the successful repeal of the fees increase, the comic book project seems to have stalled. An Indiegogo campaign to fund it failed to reach its target, and I’m assuming that the two artists went on to other projects. A shame, as the comic work they completed was extremely interesting. Like a travelogue, the experience of the artists – both students during the protests – didn’t simply frame the information being communicated, the experience was the information.

In many ways, the boundary between experience and information is something which is constantly being negotiated in applied comics. As creators, to what extent is our treatment of the subject matter shaped by our proximity to it? Does this proximity determine what makes a “good” informational comic? A readable one?

More on En Greve at the project tumblr. More on artists Laura Ellen and Jane Dough.
But does anyone know what eventually became of this project?

Barscrawl

This comic is one for the “Why Didn’t I Think Of That?” file.

Bill Roundy has been writing review-comics of bars in Brooklyn for five years now. I think they’re fantastic – clear, succinct, and yet still funny and personal. There’s a real ring of truth to them as a result: comics drawn not solely for information, but to inform.

That’s the key. A review is a subjective piece of writing. You’re not just saying where the bar is, or what drinks are on the menu – a review is meant to give an informed opinion: subjectivity and objectivity mixed together. Bill uses both the art and the words to shape this mix. Like a good bartender, he uses a measure of architectural detail, a dash of caricature, a jigger of sarcasm, and a goodly slice of quick observation to create a delicious blend.

I suppose the proof of this blend is in the eating – or, in this case, drinking. Has anyone out there ever tested any of Bill’s reviews with a visit to one of the bars?

And if you’re into that sort of thing, also check out Bill’s D&D comics.
Or, for that matter, his gay romance ones.

The Dark Side of Applied Comics

One of the very earliest comic books I ever read as a kid was an educational comic full of information. Or, perhaps I should say it was “educational” and full of “information”.

It was a comic about “Energy Conservation” starring Mickey Mouse and Goofy, and sponsored by Exxon. Yes, that’s right: Exxon, that well-known corporate advocate of energy conservation. Just how “educational” was the “information” in that comic?

Applied Comics has something of a dark history to contend with. Comics have been used in the service of some pretty dodgy “information”, and been created as tools for some fairly dubious “education”. Just as applied comics as a serious field of study and practice might need to contend with public perceptions of comics as juvenile or dumbed-down, it also might need to contend with its legacy as blatant propaganda.

How do we ensure that informational comics can be used as a legitimate tool for presenting arguments, encouraging debate and changing opinions without allowing them to slip over into something darker?

Check out a snarky review of a comic in the same series over at paleofuture.com

Public Engagement and Comics event

We’ve just had an email from James McKay, comics artist and editor of Dreams of a Low Carbon Future, among other things. He’s organising a session on applied comics as part of an event run by the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement, on July 14th near Kings Cross in London. James will be running an interactive stall between 12:30 – 2:00pm, where he plans to do an open session, demonstrating how comics can be used to breathe life into public engagement projects. He plans to be doing live drawing, and is looking for other comics creators and cartoonists who might be interested in getting involved. This is a great opportunity for artists to promote their skills at turning ideas into comics. The National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement promotes science communication, and James’ Dreams of a Low Carbon Future project was a finalist for one of its awards last year. If you’re interested in taking part, or just want to know more about the event, then get in touch with James by email – J.McKay [at] leeds.ac.uk.

Event details: 

Meeting of NCCPE Public Engagement Ambassadors

Date: 14^th July

Time: 12.00-14.00

Venue: NCVO, 8 All Saints Street, London N1 9RL

Science Ruins Everything

Any talk about comics and information has to touch on xkcd at some point. There’s no doubting the comics’s information credentials. But what’s perhaps more interesting is the way in which that information manifests.

As an archaeologist, I’m not sure I qualify as a proper scientist in xkcd’s eyes, so perhaps it’s no surprise that I don’t get some of the comics. But even the ones I don’t get I still find interesting (I admit it: I’m one of those people whose next port of call after xkcd is often a Wikipedia article).

I feel as if I’m prompted to go find out about things I don’t know not because the comic has explained it, but precisely because it hasn’t. What’s interesting about the manifestation of information in xkcd is that it’s often presented without much in the way of explanation. It feels like an entirely counter-intuitive approach, but it clearly works. But how does that work? How can comics so full of facts, detail and information leave out the explanation?

Perhaps we shouldn’t always feel as if a comic has to be the whole answer to a given question – perhaps it’s okay for it to be part of the answer. A comic can’t always replace an academic journal, an user’s manual, a detailed prose explanation, or even a Wikipedia article – and perhaps they shouldn’t try. Perhaps a better use of their accessible and engaging qualities is to point the way.

Maybe, they shouldn’t be the answer that unravels the mystery, but a way to re-phrase the mystery in order to pique curiosity.

Info-Cute

I know I’m not the only one out there to have discovered Bird And Moon Comics. This is information at its cutest. But don’t let the soft images distract you – these are comics full of hard fact. One of the nicest thing about Bird and Moon is the way in which style is used in the service of some serious ecological PR. Just about every comic seems to carry a message and be aimed at a very specific target: the international pet trade, plastic spoons, road-construction, invasive species, etc. – these comics are scientific agit-prop. But at the same time, these are comics which can happily adorn your wall – these comics are art.

Bird and Moon illustrates perfectly the way in which applied comics can be not just good information, but good art. In fact, Bird and Moon illustrates perfectly something we talked about at our London meet-up: the way in which applied comics should aspire to be both good information and good art.

Thoughts From our London Meet-up – 3

We’re posting thoughts from our London meet-up. Next up is John Swogger.

For me, our first Applied Comics Network meetup was a day marked by diversity. It very quickly became apparent – not just in the initial talks from the three of us, or in the round-the-room introductions, but through the comic-making, the five presentations, and continuing in the pub afterwards – that the term “Applied Comics” identifies a broad range of approaches, practices and end-uses. This struck me as both a source of potential strength and potential complication. As Lydia suggested at the pub – and I think we all agreed – the subject isn’t really in need of a manifesto as such, nor of strict definitions. Having said that, I think Ian’s first attempts at categorisation is something which is important – for me, I think, because this kind of grouping of approaches to narrative is not only useful as an analytical tool, but also as a teaching/workshopping one as well.

I was certainly very pleased to see such diversity reflected in the group who attended. It was great to see makers as well as users (educators, publishers, academics) there. I think this also reflects a source of both strength and complication for us. Strength in that we can use that diversity of interest to continue to “sell” the message of comics as a medium for communicating information, or as something with a specific intent; complication in that we will need to focus on ways of bringing makers and users closer together.

An aspect of this which came out in a number of different ways was the need to not just focus on applied comics as the outcome of approaches to “drawing” (or “image-creation” in its broadest sense), but as the outcome of approaches to “writing”. The need to make those who are interested in commissioning or using comics in an applied context realise that writing for comics – even informational or instructional comics – is different from writing for other media. To paraphrase one of Lydia’s examples, a writer cannot simply point to a PhD thesis and say: there’s the text, now make me a comic. Focusing on writing for informational comics might address one of the questions put to Selina Lock: how do you get comic artists to collaborate with academics when there’s very little money involved? Perhaps partly by involving the academic writer in learning how to write for comics effectively. I think Stephen Hodkinson’s experience is a very good example of the kind of “journey” that needs to be encouraged.

The Wikipedia comic activity addressed this brilliantly. It challenged the makers with its random-ness, but I also think it challenged the non-makers to see the process by which standard prose presentation of information becomes a comic. The activity raised some interesting specific points, for example the question of who narrates information, and why (the object of the information itself – Hannah Sackett: brilliant; a humorous interlocutor – Stephen Marchant; a predominantly visual, not textual narration – Corban Wilkin; James McKay), and what that does to an applied narrative, and how that affects the informational reading of the comic. The diversity of the group made the process of reflection on the activity really useful. Next event soon, please!

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John Swogger is an archaeological illustrator who creates archaeological comics for clients such as CADW, The Princes Regeneration Trust and the Museum of London. He has recently published an article in the journal Advances in Archaeological Practice on the use of comics in archaeology – as a comic. More on archaeology and comics at his blog.

Thoughts from our London Meet-up – 2

We’re continuing to gather thoughts from our meet-up in London. Next is Ian Horton:

The day started with our introduction to the topic of Applied Comics as organisers of the event. We had not conferred in advance and on these introductions an there were many similarities but also some key differences in emphasis. John started with an overview of the different combinations of sequential narrative, illustration and text in his own practice highlighting the relationship to traditional illustration and information design practices. Lydia told us that comics are awesume focused on the activity of making and process with a focus on participation as a key aspect of the field in terms of her own practice. She also noted the role of individual voices in the conveying of information. I tried to categorize some of the different sub-genres such as instructional, public relations and political/journalistic providing examples of each area.

This was followed by introductions by the attendees which show the great range of expertise in the room including undergraduate and postgraduate students, educators, facilitators, artists and writers all working in the field. There was then an applied comic making activity where the group selected a random Wikipedia entry (for Drake Ward in Plymouth) and individually made an info-comic based on the information. We then discussed the process and results in small groups and this raised many issues such as authorship and identity; audience engagement, the problem of selective histories, image versus text led solutions etc. etc.

We then had a series of talks by invited practitioners. Lizzie Boyle showed us her work with Disconnected Press and the newly released Cross about current political debates. Selina Lock gave an account of the role of applied comics in the PhD process both as research tool and form of presentation. Lydia presented her work with Applied Comics etc., the use of workshops and the importance of audience engagement. In these talks we learnt much about the forces driving the creators of these applied comics, whatever form they take or subject they tackle, and the discussions that followed allowed us to examine issues such as funding, self-publishing and the payment (hopefully) of artists for commissioned work. Ian William presented his latest work in the field of Graphic Medicine which included a more reflective section on the value of this work for the practitioners themselves and ideas of therapy. Steve Marchant from the Cartoon Museum showed us a wide range of projects he has worked on, mainly with children, and emphasised the role of humour within applied comics.

Overall many new connections were made and old ones reaffirmed. There is clearly scope for a network of this sort to share good practice, enable collaboration and to stimulate debate on the key themes emerging in this area. Future events are a priority as it the production of a newsletter to promote the network.

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Dr. Ian Horton is Coordinator for Contextual and Theoretical Studies at London College of Communication. His research interests include text-based public art, information design, and – of course – comics. He regularly presents at conferences on the history of British comics and British informational comics.