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This article will attempt to answer the question 'Why aren't we talking about the Beano?' by first of all explaining what The Beano is, who 'we' are, and why there is a popular perception, in the UK at least, that the latter should be discussing the former. It will then provide empirical evidence that we are not talking about The Beano and offer a number of explanations for why this might be before finally demonstrating why any of it matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Barbara Brandon-Croft is the first African American woman to have a nationally syndicated mainstream newspaper comic strip. Her comic Where I'm Coming From was first published in the Detroit Free Press in 1989. Two years later it was nationally distributed when it was picked up by Universal Press Syndicate. This interview is a compilation of edited excerpts from two recorded interview sessions conducted with Barbara Brandon-Croft during the summer of 2022, and follow-up sessions that occurred in the fall of 2023. The conversation focuses on how Barbara's experiences during her formative and adult years inspire the world depicted in Where I'm Coming From. We discuss her experiences while growing up in the predominantly Black neighbourhood of New Cassel, Long Island; her father Brumsic Brandon, Jr.'s influences on her career path; her undergraduate years at Syracuse University; and the inspirations behind the content in some of her strips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines two recent Israeli webcomics and explores how each has introduced new modes of graphic communication in Israeli comics. Both are rooted in the Israeli cultural milieu but they reject the forms and substance traditionally associated with Israeli comics and graphic novels. In particular, I analyse Barlev's use of anthropomorphism and Nachmany's use of superhero parody in order to offer novel critiques of Israeli society while also expanding the range and scope of the Israeli comic book and graphic narrative marketplace. I conclude the article by offering a tentative assessment of what it is about webcomics that has facilitated both of these works and how Nachmany's and Barlev's popularity can lead to future novel expressions in Israeli comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Comic Style Markers (CSM) is a questionnaire that allows a fine-grained description of how people differ in the way they display humor in their daily lives. It includes 48 statements capturing eight interrelated, yet distinct comic styles: fun, irony, wit, sarcasm, benevolent humor, satire, nonsense humor, and cynicism. Despite the independent conceptual roots of these humorous domains, the analysis of the CSM scales' latent structure shows that their empirical distinction needs to be improved. Using the information derived from a competitive latent approach, including confirmatory factor analysis, bifactor analysis, and exploratory structural equation modeling, we proposed and validated a shorter 24-item version of the CSM in a large sample of 925 Spanish individuals (SP-CSM-24). This scale-refinement improved the psychometric differentiation of the eight comic styles without undermining the good internal consistency and the temporal stability of the CSM scores. Strong invariance was held for gender and age groups, and partial scalar invariance for countries also emerged using a sample of 318 U.S. American adults. Structural equation modeling also corroborated a convincing test-criterion validity for the SP-CSM-24, with dispositional expressions of benevolent humor (positively) and cynicism (negatively) outperforming other comic styles in accounting for individuals' well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learner-generated comics are powerful communication tools that allow students to convey complex thoughts and emotions through both verbal and visual modes. In this study, comics were used to explore students' experiences with and perceptions of distance learning (DL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Female university students were chosen as a purposive sample to discover deep sociocultural meanings in society that could be invisible to men. This study analyzed thirty-two comics created by students using a suggested new analytical framework that draws on systemic functional linguistics theory. The findings were categorized into three dimensions: ideational (who, where, and what), interpersonal (relationships and emotions), and textual (main themes of the comics' stories). Quantitative content analysis was applied to analyze ideational and interpersonal dimensions (frequency), and qualitative analysis was applied to analyze textual dimensions (themes). Thematic analyses were categorized into three themes: challenges, advantages, and disadvantages. The findings were interpreted through a cultural lens in a style that presents the chief subjects that should be carefully considered in future scenarios of digital education. Several implications and future studies are suggested, especially about cultural issues in education, the quality of DL, and addressing the challenges and disadvantages associated with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing further from a slightly Marxist perspective of the conflict-fuelled era of competing ideologies between the ruling and working classes during the Counterculture era of the 1960s and 70s in the United States, this article positions establishment institutions such as the government, media, and family units under Louis Althusser's idea of the State Apparatus with the Underground Comix movement and R. Crumb's early work squarely against it. This article argues the presence of Dissensus, as put forth by Ranciere, in the form of social, racial, and political anti-ideological motifs within Robert Crumb's Zap Comics. These motifs entered the cultural infrastructure through the medium of comics, stirring up passions and encouraging a necessary discord among classes and groups. Moreover, it discusses the assimilation of many of these anti-ideological motifs into modern mass culture, through a case study of the 2019 TV show The Boys and its opposition to today's State Apparatus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often argued that 1954 was a very important year for comics in the United States because of the consequences of Fredric Wertham's major work appearance. However, long before that, there was already a multitude of academic publications about comics, children and education. Apart from sensationalist and apocalyptic publications, there are several academic references previous to 1954 focusing on topics related to education, language and comics as an object of learning. Most of these references develop very important empirical work in terms of the size of the samples studied, while others incorporate innovative methodologies for the time, such as factor analysis or qualitative interviews. In part, these advances can be explained by the conjunction of two factors: firstly, the dynamics of the social sciences in the United States, where quantitative fieldwork became commonplace from the 1930s onwards. Secondly, the popularisation of comics with the arrival of comic books, first, and the appearance of Superman, later. This article attempts to develop a systematic review of academic publications published before 1954 in the United States. 35 empirical publications are identified and analysed attending to the author's gender, sample size and number of citations, among other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this interview, Teresa Wong discusses her artistic practice and creative process with particular reference to her graphic narrative Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression. This interview aims to create a dialogue by exploring the facets of creation and consumption of Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression. She talks about the process of turning her life experience into a story, her choice of the medium, the art of visual storytelling, visual strategies employed, artistic influences, the magic of combining words and images, the significance of graphic works by women of colour and her ongoing projects among others. The interview is divided into three sections: in the first section, entitled Before the text: Genesis, the author responds to questions related to the author's artistic vision and the creation of Dear Scarlet: The Story of My Postpartum Depression; in the second section entitled The text: form and theme, the author responds to questions pertaining to the formal aspects and themes of the graphic novel and in the concluding section of the interview titled After the text: reception and pedagogy the author responds to inquiries about the social and pedagogical impacts of her work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals' interests, motivations, and knowledge about the environment can affect their behavior toward the environment. This mixed-methods sequential explanatory research study examined the effect of argumentation-supported educational comics used in science lessons on the environmental interest, motivation, and academic achievement of 5th-grade students (N = 290) and explored their experiences. Quantitative data collected in a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design using validated survey scales indicated that from pretest to posttest, the scores of three variables of experimental groups 1 and 2 were higher than those of the control group. Qualitative findings from semi-structured interviews (N = 36) indicated that students stated that argumentation-supported educational comics attracted their attention and increased their motivation. Also, according to them, comics are very useful in expanding their environmental knowledge. Taken together, this research suggests that designing argumentation via educational comics can boost positive learning processes and outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upon her introduction as the new Ms. Marvel in 2013, the Pakistani-American superhero Kamala Khan was celebrated, by audiences and critics alike, as a welcome addition to the world of superhero comics. Familiar superhero tropes and ethical dilemmas were given an added twist for Marvel's first Muslim protagonist as the teenage girl strives to reconcile her newfound powers with the moral authorities of her family and her faith. Many comics scholars reserved special praise for the nuanced and unobtrusive way in which the new Ms. Marvel introduces American readers to Muslim culture by following its eminently 'relatable' heroine on her search for moral guidance, whereas others were more sceptical of the extent to which the comic's representation of Muslims can be considered progress. This article probes this ambivalence by analysing the cultural authorities invoked in the first eleven issues of the series. Instead of resolving the critical disagreement, a close reading of Kamala Khan's implicit and explicit appeals to authority allows for a more complicated and richer understanding of the comic's, as well as its eponymous intersectional superheroine's, ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long ago a child left a dentist office with a comic book on the proper way to brush their teeth. Over time, so many have read comics telling tales of their favorite Marvel hero or what is next for Snoopy and his colleagues or the political scene depicted in a Doonesbury comic strip. Today comics and graphic novels with pictures that look like us center on health topics to get us through a pandemic, being a caring caregiver, eating properly and learning about climate change. It is cliché, but pictures can represent a thousand words, especially when the topics may be complicated, but the images are comfortable for the reader. This Health Literacy column will define graphic medicine with its comics and graphic pathograhics, the elements needed for these tools to create a meaningful health related resource and illustrate it with examples. After an assessment of the services and populations served, health science librarians can use these suggestions and examples for collection development in their medical libraries and/or consumer health collections. The Librarian may even be involved in creating a comic or graphic pathographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of comics as an integrated tool for introducing socioscientific issues (SSI) in elementary school classrooms. To illustrate this, we provide implementation examples from two teachers who facilitated introducing SSI to students using comics. These case studies depict how teachers integrated comics into their classroom settings and combined them with various teaching activities. In this paper, we also emphasize the format of the comics we designed, which starts with an introduction to everyday stories and scientific concepts before delving into SSI scenarios within the comics. Additionally, we have incorporated a conclusion part in the comics to serve as a closing segment. Furthermore, we emphasize the role of SSI scenarios within the comics in establishing meaningful connections between students' personal experiences and real-life SSI scenarios. The discussions predominantly involve private discourse, enabling students to construct their reasoning and perspectives. This approach promotes the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, aligning with the ultimate objective of linking the science classroom with societal issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, situated at the intersection of urban studies and comics studies, seeks to interrogate the nature of urban migration and the lives of construction workers in Simon Lamouret's The Alcazar (2022), a comic based on and in the city of Bangalore. The article begins with a paratextual analysis of the comic, followed by a Lefebvrian analysis of the construction site, to argue that cities like Bangalore are evolving fast "beyond the plan" (Benjamin,2015) to meet the accelerating market pressure, resulting in failed urban planning, infrastructure, and urban crisis. It will further explore what Lamouret's comic does specifically to intervene in the discourse of neoliberal urbanism and challenge that discourse. The article will also analyze the formal specificities of the comics form and the multiple visual tropes Lamouret employed to "visibilize" the migrant workers and to advance their legitimate rights to urban life in the cityscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the acceptance and perception of Israeli-Jewish culture in China through Chinese translation of 'The Realist'. It points that most topics Chinese readers could interpret are those shared as general common sense or used in common terminology in all semiotic modes. However, the Israeli-Jewish tradition, literacy and specific practices remained unrecognised for the most part. It argues that the translator's mediation of comic texts is grounded in processes of multimodal analysis that facilitates comprehension of whether and how a message is understood in a certain context. The translator has the task of making up the target readers' contextual deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this theoretical and provocative paper our aim is to problematize universal ideals, and the closely related belief in educationalization, that frame education today. Inspired by the ethico-political work of Agamben ([2007]. Profanations. New York: Zone Books), and his focus on profane acts of play, and Zupančič’s ([2008]. The odd one in: One comedy. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press) psychoanalytical adaptation of Hegel’s ‘concrete universal’, we illustrate how universal ideals and beliefs often ‘fail’ in comic absurd ways when they are performed in concrete practices. By analyzing different examples, which stem from the research literature, we describe how such ‘failure’ looks. We argue that it is important to engage with the comic absurd as doing so can reveal how educators, politicians, and policymakers contribute to the (re)production of failures within the socio-symbolic (educational) order. However, such an engagement may enable us to ‘fail better’ in education if we also allow ourselves to question, challenge, and perhaps change this order by means of profane acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of Tibetan refugees retains a unique matrix in world history. Though many Tibetans have fled from their motherland and settled in various parts of the world, they still believe themselves to be Tibetan citizens. Aaniya Asrani, through her three-part graphic non-fiction series Portraits of Exile, looks at the lives of Tibetans in exile residing in Bylakuppe. It is a geoGraphic novel that combines the spatial qualities of comics with geographical methods and is the first graphic narrative produced in India concerning the Tibetan experience. Asrani uses landscapes as fabrics for expressing the truth of refugeehood, and cultural trauma recalled through individual experiences. The paper attempts to look at Asrani's mapping project from the perspective of Geohumanities; her use of maps, structuring of landscapes, and assertion of identities is looked upon using the lens of narrative cartography, cultural geography, and place identity, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at three graphic memoirs and considers the specific ways in which the comic medium allows for the representation of complex and non-verbal interactions between the members of a family. The selected texts show how the sequencing of panels in a comic can depict the unspoken affects that circulate within a family unit. The comic medium seems to be apt for representing the distributed consciousness of a family, and also for splintering a character temporally so that older and younger versions of the character can be put into dialogue with each other in a family context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the susceptibility of the youths against political-religious polarisations as presented in the Indian (Hindi) superhero comic books. The focus will be on the character, Doga (Raj comics) as he appears in the comics from 1996 to 2019. This analysis will be carried out within the framework of deconstruction applied via political discourse analysis. The paper will read these titles - Doga Hindu Hai (Doga is Hindu) series, Doga ko Gado (Bury Doga) etc. These texts deal with political issues that are coloured with religious tones portraying situations in which youths usually go astray. However, the response of the protagonist to these challenges, channelises these discontents sometimes through his own example and sometimes through appeal and yet sometimes through use of force, into positive outcomes. These artistic responses offer both the wish fulfilment to mitigate the atmosphere of peril and incites alternate reactions to the quotidian (and generally political) answers. The paper is divided into the following sections – No country for the young, Comics and crisis, People and publication, Origins, Politics and youth delinquency, Poverty and delinquency, Catch 'em Young, Colours of riot, Dalit and Doga and conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly one of the most significant bio-socio-economic crisis of the early 21st century. Amid the fear, anger, hope, anxiety, disorientation, and uncertainty of the times, Graphic Mundi published COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology (2021), and Distant Connections published a comic series titled The Lockdown Lowdown. COVID Chronicles, edited by Kendra Boileau and Rich Johnson, includes 64 mini-comics from 70 contributors and offers an insight into the various lived experiences of the pandemic. Similarly, The Lockdown Lowdown series comprising of two zines and a special issue (on women and COVID-19), features artists from diverse backgrounds and geographical locations (such as Europe, the USA, and China), exploring the challenges and possibilities within the new normal. Taking these cues, Kendra Boileau and Michael Green share their experience of anthologising COVID comics through an email interview. The interview is divided into two parts. In Part A, titled 'Suddenly our world changed completely,' Boileau and Green answer questions common to both of them, and in Part B, titled 'When can we give grandad a hug?' they answer questions specific to the anthologies in discussion while also giving the reader a peek into their creative/editorial processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interchangeable relationship between three author figures in the nineteenth individual instalment of Neil Gaiman's popular Sandman comic book, titled 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', arguing that just as this metafictional story blurs the boundaries between theatrical/comic book fiction and reality, it also portrays an abstraction of authorship between Shakespeare, Morpheus, and Gaiman, as each figure blends into one another while influencing the shape of the narrative; as a result, each of these authors demonstrates the tangible and transformative power of a singular storyteller. Drawing from Gaiman's history of portraying Shakespeare in Sandman – and his goal throughout the series of enshrining single impactful authorship through his fictionalised take on Shakespeare – I will propose that in actuality, all three authors engage in a cyclical creative relationship with one another, which affects the perception of the comic book story's origin, with each author acting as inspiration for one another on both a diegetic and metatextual level. This culminates in the story's visual layout and meta-performance of Dream, in which their three authorial influences become momentarily indistinguishable, complicating Gaiman's ideal of single authorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropologists explore sequential art, particularly comics, as an accessible medium to co-produce knowledge about trauma and disability with research collaborators. However, practices of image description developed by blind scholars and artists need to be integrated into these projects to ensure visual studies are accessible. Collaborating with sighted service users of drop-in centers in Denmark, we reflect on the process of creating comics and image descriptions about their experiences with digital access, trauma, and disability. By analyzing insights from both drawing and describing images, we propose this method in medical anthropology as one way to build research collaborations that embrace disability expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adding to the extant literature literature, we propose to approach Mexican comics as literary objects within which sociopolitical, economic and cultural processes of Mexican society are expressed. Instead of focusing on Golden and Silver Age Historietas or contemporary artistic and/or politically aware creations, we address the popular eighties' erotic Sensacionales. Drawing on literary theory and interviews with cartoonists cartoonists, we argue that these comics enable us to understand how changes in gender, class and racial/ethnic relationships in Neoliberal Mexico are symbolically elaborated around female's body and desire, displacing them into arousing narratives about sexually insatiable women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at three graphic memoirs and considers the specific ways in which the comic medium allows for the representation of complex and non-verbal interactions between the members of a family. The selected texts show how the sequencing of panels in a comic can depict the unspoken affects that circulate within a family unit. The comic medium seems to be apt for representing the distributed consciousness of a family, and also for splintering a character temporally so that older and younger versions of the character can be put into dialogue with each other in a family context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the susceptibility of the youths against political-religious polarisations as presented in the Indian (Hindi) superhero comic books. The focus will be on the character, Doga (Raj comics) as he appears in the comics from 1996 to 2019. This analysis will be carried out within the framework of deconstruction applied via political discourse analysis. The paper will read these titles - Doga Hindu Hai (Doga is Hindu) series, Doga ko Gado (Bury Doga) etc. These texts deal with political issues that are coloured with religious tones portraying situations in which youths usually go astray. However, the response of the protagonist to these challenges, channelises these discontents sometimes through his own example and sometimes through appeal and yet sometimes through use of force, into positive outcomes. These artistic responses offer both the wish fulfilment to mitigate the atmosphere of peril and incites alternate reactions to the quotidian (and generally political) answers. The paper is divided into the following sections – No country for the young, Comics and crisis, People and publication, Origins, Politics and youth delinquency, Poverty and delinquency, Catch 'em Young, Colours of riot, Dalit and Doga and conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the interchangeable relationship between three author figures in the nineteenth individual instalment of Neil Gaiman's popular Sandman comic book, titled 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', arguing that just as this metafictional story blurs the boundaries between theatrical/comic book fiction and reality, it also portrays an abstraction of authorship between Shakespeare, Morpheus, and Gaiman, as each figure blends into one another while influencing the shape of the narrative; as a result, each of these authors demonstrates the tangible and transformative power of a singular storyteller. Drawing from Gaiman's history of portraying Shakespeare in Sandman – and his goal throughout the series of enshrining single impactful authorship through his fictionalised take on Shakespeare – I will propose that in actuality, all three authors engage in a cyclical creative relationship with one another, which affects the perception of the comic book story's origin, with each author acting as inspiration for one another on both a diegetic and metatextual level. This culminates in the story's visual layout and meta-performance of Dream, in which their three authorial influences become momentarily indistinguishable, complicating Gaiman's ideal of single authorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two exhibitions in Canada, "THIS IS SERIOUS" and "Comic Sans," which showcase the recognition and visibility of comics in Canadian Anglo-culture. The exhibitions feature a diverse range of Canadian comics and challenge traditional notions of art. The article provides insights into the curatorial decisions and includes essays that offer a snapshot of the perception of comics at the time of the exhibits. It suggests that group shows should be a core part of future museum and gallery projects to showcase the richness and diversity of Canadian comics. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides an overview of the research conducted on comics and graphic novels in Canada, with a focus on cultural transfers and the challenges faced by creators from diverse backgrounds. It explores the development of Canadian comics in both English and French, as well as the impact of global trends like the globalization of the medium and the popularity of manga. The article also delves into the historical and cultural context of comics in Canada, including the dominance of Caucasian creators and the recent diversification of the industry. The research presented in the article aims to move beyond a binary view of Canadian comics and examine the intersections of culture and transfer within the medium. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration and the exchange of ideas between different linguistic and cultural communities, and highlights the role of translation in facilitating these transfers. The article also discusses the influence of French-Belgian and Japanese comics on the Quebecois comic scene, and covers topics such as translation, distribution, appropriation of superheroes, and the representation of Indigenous and multicultural perspectives in comics. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides an overview of the research and study of comics and bande dessinée (comic strips) in Canada, with a focus on the development of Canadian comics and the influence of American syndicates. It also explores the cultural transfers and diversity within the Canadian comics industry, including the representation of Indigenous creators and the impact of manga. The article highlights the need to move beyond a binary view of Canadian comics and examine the cultural world and transfer within the industry. It concludes with an exploration of Indigenous resurgence in comics and features interviews with young comics artists from diverse backgrounds. [Extracted from the article]

Focusing on the two editions of Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas' A Tale of Two Shamans (2001, 2018) and how each incorporates "Indigenous methodologies, pedagogies, and epistemologies" (Pearce 319), this article explores the relational and situated knowledges that coalesce in the story and its telling. Using Haida and settler languages like English, Yahgulanaas' book is an early example of his Haida manga practice. Haida manga can be understood as a way of Indigenizing comics because the use of Haida framelines deconstructs the spatial grammar of panel and gutter in favor of interconnected imagery and design. Likewise, Haida manga linguistically critiques colonizing assumptions regarding territories and borders as land-bound, shifting the location of the cultural practice to a region defined by water, with its political possibilities and cultural connections. Yahgulanaas' books weave these actions and intentions into consumer objects, differently legible and knowable across diverse reading publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking an arguably minor character from Tezuka Osamu's oeuvre, Natsume Fusanosuke argues how the Pig Gourd's cameos even in the artist's most serious works demonstrate a bifurcated sense of play and high-brow artistry in his manga. Natsume employs an early version of his 'manga-expression theory' (manga hyōgen-ron) manga-analysis approach, which he began to develop in this, his first manga-studies monograph and seminal study of the 'god of manga' Tezuka Osamu. This translation of a chapter essay from Where Is Tezuka Osamu? (1992) demonstrates Natsume's versatility in isolating thematic patterns or formal experimentations in an artist's style, including character design and page layouts. Natsume's 'manga-expression theory' approach, which focuses on three basic elements of manga (words, pictures, and frames), can be seen in this essay on Tezuka's trademark Pig Gourd character, who will pop up or even decimate panel borders to show not only Tezuka's embarrassment at being unable to resist a sight gag but also his bold desire to play with panel possibilities. The larger picture that Natsume describes here is how this ubiquitous cameo character became a litmus test of readers' tastes as the manga master's target demographic became older and wise to his stylistic idiosyncrasies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper seeks to focus on one of the prominent aspects of South Asian comics; the nature of urbanity, through a study of Sarnath Banerjee's All Quiet in Vikaspuri, a narrative primarily set in Delhi. Banerjee's Delhi is the space of the capitalists, urban planners, and corrupt policies; in short a 'social product', as Henri Lefebvre had formulated. The paper will examine how Delhi, in Banerjee's comics, is symptomatic of various states of discriminatory infrastructural development, failure and violence endemic to the system, as in many other emerging South Asian cities. It will further investigate the dynamics of uneven development and urban inequality of Delhi to argue the emergence of new socio-spatial and economic trajectories in post-liberalisation India. The paper seeks to argue that through the multiple references to pulp fictions, mythic and hybrid spaces, Banerjee maps the nuanced changes in urban lifestyle and the more liberal shift towards exclusionary spatial practices such as 'short-termism', but also present alternative histories and regional resistance of the lived space that go against the planned space of the city. Finally, the paper will borrow insights from theorists such as Sanjay Srivastava, Ananya Roy, David Harvey, and others to argue how social and spatial justice can be achieved through urban comics that, according to Dominic Davies, helps to restructure 'more socially and spatially just cities'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of graphic narratives to ensure reader-participation creates a visual dialogue between the narrative and the readers and makes them hospitable to the story at hand. The readers become active participants, which brings in the question of ethics, as the passive gaze is converted into empathy and identification. Such a reading encourages a reassessment of the perceived differences between the 'I' and the 'other' and aims to reduce such a gap. This paper, therefore, discusses the idea of empathy and ethics vis-à-vis the strategies and techniques employed in the graphic narratives to encourage reader-participation and make them sensitive to the sufferings of the 'others'. The texts under analysis include Clément Baloup's Vietnamese Memories: Leaving Saigon and Vietnamese Memories: Little Saigon, representing the migrant stories. Such experiences require a hospitable audience and the graphic practices of the texts play a crucial role in making the readers empathic to the life narratives of the 'others'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the authorial projections of the comics artist in Kiko da Silva's El infierno del dibujante (2015) and argues that da Silva creates a work with conflicted authorship in which he actively engages with metafiction, not only including numerous paratexts in the form of fictional facsimile (images, documents, etc.) that highlight the materiality of comics but also expanding the work through online and public happenings. Da Silva's graphic novel appropriates various graphic styles and genres to pay tribute to and/or parody real cartoonists that influence the protagonist, a failed author whose life paradoxically becomes the comic he always wanted to write. In portraying a character who is supposedly plagiarised, El infierno del dibujante also provides a reflection on the notion of originality and copy in art, drawing attention to the comics industry and the production, reception and social recognition of comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the adaptation of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's graphic novel The Killing Joke. While the original graphic novel is heralded as a foundational text in the artform, audiences and critics alike were less enthusiastic about its adapted form as an animated film release in 2016. This study explores how shifts in medium can alter what rhetorical scholar Kenneth Burke terms frames of acceptance, or how audiences relate texts to their everyday lived experiences. I offer an analysis of both forms of The Killing Joke examining how the different mediums articulate specific frames for audiences to interpret. Ultimately, this article argues that certain mediums offer audiences more opportunity for self-reflection, which helps explain why some adaptations of graphic novels fail to satisfy audiences. This study offers scholars a new lens in which to research adaptations of graphic novels and comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that, while the creation and publishing of comics can be seen as activism per se, comics can also be utilised in more direct activist contexts. It relates comics, feminisms and masculinities to climate activism by analysing two prominent examples from Sweden: the comics album Jag vill inte göra slut. Serier för klimatet, [I don't want to break up. Comics for the climate] (2016), and the comics by Karolina Bång in Maskulinitet, genus och klimaträttvisa [Masculinity, gender and climate justice] (2021), produced by the organisation Jordens Vänner [Friends of the Earth Sweden]. The comics are analysed visually and verbally with regard to the specific masculinities they discuss – the industrial modernist who denies the crisis, the ecomodernist, who suggests unproductive, short-term solutions, and the ecological masculinity, including care for nature and for each other, working for equity, eradicating negative gender norms, reducing unfair consumption and taking action for climate justice. The comics frequently use humour, irony, and satire – and are linked to climate activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The responses in audience letters and in the press to the BBC's 1954 television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four relate it to horror comics and ideas of sadism. This thread can be followed to connect this response to wider concerns with horror comics not just in the United Kingdom but across Europe in the post-World War II period. These concerns related to the fears of American soft power in the post-war world, and the potential effects that soft power would have on national identities. Comics in general, and horror comics in particular, were a useful focus for expressing these fears because of their American origins and because they were considered as products for children, and so as particularly important in forming the future of the culture. The Nineteen Eighty-Four adaptation connected to these fears, and so to the idea of 'horror comics', through its depiction of a depleted United Kingdom serving as a staging post for the forces of a larger power, an image of what some feared was the UK's real post-war status in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers a discourse analysis of the visuality of COVID-19 cartoons published in three media outlets in China: Satire and Humour, circulated in the domestic market, China Daily, targeting an international anglophone readership, and an alternative, critical voice in the social media. Methodologically, the paper employs three theoretical notions, two triadic approaches to visual discourse, Peirce's concept of hypoiconicity and O'Toole's adaptation of Hallidayan linguistics to visual discourse, as well as Foucault's concept of institutional, enunciative modality. Domestically, official Chinese cartooning is shown to celebrate full government control over the epidemic. Internationally, the emphasis is on the geopolitical tension between China and the USA. Owing to its ideologically committed aesthetics, in Chinese COVID-19, political concerns are found to override the issue of public health. In its findings, the paper exemplifies the tension that typically exists in political cartooning between humorous presentation and its serious political intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conversation with Elettra Stamboulis retraces the transnational context of the rise and development of comics journalism in Italy, illuminating its distinctive political and intellectual background. Stamboulis speaks about the concept of Reality based comics from its impact on the thriving Italian underground cultures of the 1980s and 1990s to the development into the Italian Fumetto di realtà at the turn of the 21st century. From her unique perspective as a comics author, curator, translator and activist, Stamboulis speaks about the encounter with Joe Sacco, which had a profound impact on a generation of Italian authors, and the curatorial and creative practices developed with Gianluca Costantini for the Komikazen International Festival of Reality Comics (2005–2015). Komikazen activated a vibrant and diverse scene of authors, activists and independent publishers from the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and its political and translational ethos would further expand into the magazines Inguine(Mah!)Gazine and G.I.U.D.A. Stamboulis' intellectual and creative trajectory testifies to a collective research process that has been pushing the boundaries of the comics medium and exploring the intersection of reality, subjectivity and memory while tracing new transnational geographies. In this interview she reflects on the ambitions, practices, and continuing developments of these experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates three comic books written and illustrated by Ciaj Rocchi and Matteo Demonte, namely Primavere e autunni [Springs and autumns] (2015), Chinamen. Un secolo di cinesi a Milano [Chinamen. A century of Chinese people in Milan] (2017), and La macchina zerø. Mario Tchou e il primo computer Olivetti [Machine zero. Mario Tchou and the first Olivetti computer] (2021). The three texts provide graphic accounts of the establishment of a Chinese community in Italy using biographic narrations. The article analyses the three comics and their paratextual apparatuses, focusing on the authors' documentarist approach, the ways in which personal biographies are embedded in the story of Italy's resident Chinese community and in the history of Italy, and finally on the comics' intergenerational and diasporic testimonial value. Drawing on Hirsch's articulation of postmemory, on Mickwitz's analysis of comics as documentaries and archives, and on Nabizadeh's emphasis on comics as alternate narratives and memories, the article argues that Rocchi and Demonte's comic books while narrating private stories provide a visual representation of the history of modern Italy as grounded in transnational connections and are inherently multicultural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the denunciation of gender-based violence has become widespread in Italy. Capitalising on the groundbreaking work of feminist movements of the 1970s and 1980s, a significant number of contemporary Italian collectives and networks have succeeded in bringing to the attention of mainstream media the issues of femicide, domestic abuse, rape and denied reproductive rights. Artivistic practices have played a crucial role in this process of mainstreaming. This article examines four comics-related artivistic experiences and it will do that by means of a hybrid methodology that brings together the social sciences method of the semi-structured interview with artists and activists and the Cultural Studies/Social Semiotics practice of textual/visual analysis. The adoption of these two approaches allows to gather insights both on the dynamics that regulate the ideation, realisation and promotion of the artivistic campaigns and on the results of the same artivistic practices, which is to say on the cultural products and their potential impact. These two areas are considered as interdependent, as demonstrated by the results of the study, which suggest that a deeper involvement of artivists with transnational intersectional feminist movements generally corresponds to a more inclusive, effective and participative artivistic product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1986 Tiziano Sclavi published Dylan Dog. This commercial series rapidly attracted a massive audience of young readers by engaging with key issues within the transnational sub-cultures of their generation: animal rights, antiracism, the inclusion of marginalised communities. These themes underline the first series of Dylan Dog (n. 1–100, 1986–1995) reflecting the wider production and the political engagement of its author. By incorporating literary, musical and cinematic references, Sclavi empowered a generation of Italians readers who would identify in the transnational aesthetic canon of Dylan Dog. The identification between text and readers couldn't be replicated in the subsequent two series (n. 101–324, 1995–2013; 2013-now) despite the continuing attempt to engage with cultural issues and to develop the visual style of the comic series by drawing from TV series. By examining the creative and commercial strategies developed by the authors of Dylan Dog over three decades, the article analyse how elements of the cultural memory of different generations may be represented in a comics series and which factors facilitated or impeded the identification between the different Dylan Dog series and its readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sara Austin's book, "Monstrous Youth: Transgressing the Boundaries of Childhood in the United States," explores the portrayal of monsters in mass media and their connection to cultural fears and the changing social boundaries of identity and citizenship. Austin discusses how monsters in popular culture are used by adults to educate or control young people, while young people themselves can embrace and identify with these monstrous figures. The book examines different time periods, including the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s, and analyzes various forms of media such as comic books, picture books, television shows, and movies. Austin's work provides a cultural lens through which to understand and analyze monstrous works of horror and their impact on children. [Extracted from the article]

In visual narratives like comics, the most overt form of perspective-taking comes in panels that directly depict the viewpoints of characters in the scene. We therefore examined these subjective viewpoint panels (also known as point-of-view panels) in a corpus of over 300 annotated comics from Asia, Europe, and the United States. In line with predictions that Japanese manga use a more 'subjective' storytelling style than other comics, we found that more manga use subjective panels than other comics, with high proportions of subjective panels also found in Chinese, French, and American comics. In addition, panels with more 'focal' framing, i.e. micro panels showing close ups and/or amorphic panels showing views of the environment, had higher proportions of subjective panels than panels showing wider views of scenes. These findings further show that empirical corpus analyses provide evidence of cross-cultural variation and reveal relationships across structures in the visual languages of comics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chris Claremont, primary author of the X-Men from 1975 to 1991, introduced Judaism into the X-Men metaphor, in large part by making the series' primary antagonist, Magneto, a Holocaust survivor working to prevent mutants from suffering the same plight. In 2003, Grant Morrison pushed Magneto back towards the origins of the character as a charismatic terrorist (later overruled by Claremont and others). The 2008 work X-Men: Magneto Testament rooted the character's history in the Holocaust. Through a deep reading of these texts, we use an analogy related to Maus author Art Spiegelman depicting the 'tug of war' between the vulgar and the genteel in comics. Magneto embodies this struggle–the trauma of the Holocaust and the desire for reprisal by its victims. The interplay between the vulgar and the genteel, told through Magneto as a cultural icon, opens up a space for thinking through the Holocaust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work attempts to approach the image that museum institutions disseminate among their potential public through the resource of the comic. It also tries to show how this 21st-century image surpasses the characteristics granted to museums in postmodernity. The idea of a museum capable of creating a public or a transformative visiting experience is not as unidirectional as one might suppose. This work takes the nine concepts of museology suggested by Mara Jiménez Blanco, professor in the UCM, as theoretical categories. These concepts result from an original synthesis of the history of internationally renowned institutions. This study shows how all these concepts appear to a greater or lesser extent using mass media such as comics or comic strips. Different methodological approaches and techniques have been used for this purpose. The results obtained have implications both for museums and for their public. For the former, by encouraging reflection on their public image. For the latter, the presentation of the museum in a different language that combines imagination and history, two elements that are part of the co-creation of the tourist experience at cultural heritage sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This symposium article brings together distinguished scholars from the field of criminology, graphic arts, creative industries and social policy, and English to reflect on a suite of 'educational' or 'public information' comics created by the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS), based at the University of Dundee. There are now 20-plus titles available to the public for free download and distribution on a range of subject matters relating to healthcare, law and justice, science, forensic analysis, trauma and memory studies, as well as a diverse range of literary adaptations, creative responses to literary and cultural texts, and other subjects. Each of these works relies on a strong symbiotic relationship between their authors, experts, artists, editors, and other contributors to successfully convey every story at hand. Every comic is also meticulously reviewed for accuracy – both written and visual – at each stage of creation, leading up to publication. In this article, the contributors have focused on selected titles from our 'educational' comics series to generate incisive analyses that will be relevant to scholars working in a broad range of fields from law, psychology, the humanities and creative arts, to healthcare and the sciences, understood broadly. In order of appearance, the contributors are Paul Long, Christopher Pizzino, Angus Nurse, and Ian Horton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In both content and form, the comic 'Closure', written by Laura Findlay and illustrated by Zuzanna Dominiak, advances a notably complex view of the subject of trauma, and of the way comics can best portray this subject. Far from offering straightforward, easily summarized data on trauma, the creators enact a conflict between word and image, and between writer and illustrator, to explain how and why the topic of trauma resists easy summary, and to present comics as a powerful medium for expressing this complexity. Referencing the work of Art Spiegelman, especially his use of gag humour and satire, 'Closure' claims a place for comics, not as an easy way to absorb difficult information, but precisely as a way to capture and amplify its difficulty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]