Comics

Comics

CHAPTER 1

"MULTIMEDIA ETHNOGRAPHY VIA COMICS," ERIN KATHLEEN BAHL

 

EXERCISE: INSTRUCTIONS

In this exercise, you will create a four-panel comic based on autoethnographic data. This can be a reflective exercise, or adapted to a broader ethnographic dataset, and is intended as an initial proof-of-concept, whether for individual practice or pedagogical contexts.

STEP 1: COLLECT DATA

  • Longer Version:
    • Choose a facet of your lived experience you’re especially interested in exploring in more depth (Something that excites you? Something that bothers you? Something that connects to timely conversations or broader issues? Something you want to talk more about but don’t get the chance? Something you’ve never shared before but would like to communicate?)
    • Choose a period of time to gather data (One hour? One day? One week?)
    • Determine how you’ll record that data (Taking written notes? Taking pictures? Recording audio? Recording video?)—would recommend several different sources for triangulation/checks and balances
    • Record your data as planned and store it/back it up securely
  • Shorter Version:
    • Reflect back on a period of time (day, week, month, year, etc.) and choose four moments that stick out to you

EXAMPLE (SHORTER VERSION)

Lived experience from the past few years: reflecting on sensory overload and parenting through the lens of four senses: sound, touch, sight and [combined] one panel for each leading up to a synthesizing “punch line” OR focus in on one main sense and dive in more deeply?

STEP 2: DEVELOP THE STORY

  • Zoom in on your data to choose four “moments” that stick out to you as especially salient, connected, or otherwise reflective of broader phenomena
  • Draft a storyline that connects these four “moments” with a satisfactory narrative arc
  • Break it down into a script for a one-page, four-panel comic. (Unlike screenwriting, there’s no generally accepted, single standard comics scripting format, but see Comics Experience’s “Comic Book Script Archive” for one template and examples from industry professionals.)

EXAMPLE

[add image]

STEP 3: DEVELOP THE ART

  • Use whatever approach feels most natural to you (stick figures or basic shapes are fine!)—the main goal is to “think” on the page, not to create something “perfect”
  • Traditional comics production generally follows these steps (whether on paper or digitally, individually or collaboratively):
    • Thumbnails: Start with miniature, low-fi draft sketches of each panel to get a sense of layout, key objects or gestures, and how everything fits together as a whole
    • Pencils: Sketch out each scene in full, though still fairly loose and drafty
    • Inking: Go over each “final” line and erase or delete the drafting marks
    • Coloring: Fill in with color as needed
    • Lettering: Add text boxes and text over the finalized art

EXAMPLE

[add images]

 

STEP 4: ACCESSIBILITY

  • Make sure the finalized comic is accessible based on how you plan to circulate it:
    • Alt text: Describe each panel in rhetorically significant detail, including any text (such as dialogue or narration). Works well for uploading individual image files—most social media platforms or content management systems should include places to add alt text to your image’s code.
    • Script: Upload your script (including descriptions of each panel and narration or dialogue) directly to the publishing platform, or to a site like Google Drive or OneDrive and include the link. This works well as a supplement to alt text, especially to facilitate and streamline screenreader navigation (and especially if the platform allows for file hosting and/or linking).
    • Audio Description: Record yourself reading your alt text and/or script aloud and add the audio file to the publication platform as a direct upload and/or link. Works well especially to personalize the read-aloud narration. 

EXAMPLE

TITLE: Sensory Survival Guide: Parenting Edition

Overview: A wordless four-panel comic with simple vector cartoon illustrations, presented in three configurations. Configuration 1: Four separate panels in sequential order. Configuration 2: Three panels organized circularly around a central fourth panel. Configuration 3: Four panels organized linearly in a square.

Panel 1: Two small figures run around shouting gleefully. A woman (white, curly brown hair, glasses, dressed casually) crouches on the ground covering her ears.

Panel 2: The woman pushes a stroller, the two small figures barely visible inside. The sun beams down on her in sharp points, and she shields her eyes with one arm.

Panel 3: The two small figures cluster around the woman, standing on her feet and reaching their arms up to grab her, while she covers her face with her hands.

Panel 4: The woman sits on the floor, smiling, holding both small figures close in her lap. She is equipped with earplugs, sunglasses, and a koosh fidget, which are highlighted in small magnifying circles. 

 

STEP 5: REFLECT AND CONNECT

  • Because this is an autoethnographic project, not solely a mini-graphic memoir or personal narrative, take some time to explicitly reflect on the layers of meaning in the brief comic you’ve just generated (whether in words or another medium). Consider the following questions:
    • What did you learn from the process of making this comic? What surprised you? How is it similar to and/or different from the way you usually process your research data and/or lived experiences?
    • What decisions informed the way you visually rendered the experiential data you collected?
    • How does this comic reflect your personal experience? What does it include and/or leave out?
    • How does this comic reflect or otherwise connect to a broader cultural phenomenon? How have other people shared their stories about similar experiences, whether via comics or another medium?
    • What next steps or other action does this comic invite? 

 

Artist Statement/Research Reflection

Along with taking up and adapting traditional folktales and fairy tales, my digital comics tend to practice autoethnography in some form. My own process in creating comics is entirely digital; I create vector art comics using layered shapes in Affinity Designer and circulate them via social media and/or my website. 

  • “A Field Guide to Neurodiversity”: autoethnography of my experiences in negotiating complicated diagnostic rhetorics around neurodivergence 
  • “The Seven Sisters and the Web of Threads”: original fairy tale and essay based on a small friend group/community of fairy-tale-inspired creators, and how they support one another in sharing their work on social media
  • Little Yellow Bird: a quasi-daily diary comic highlighting my experiences from dissertation through first tenure-track academic job and early parenthood, narrated through anthropomorphic birds

In the example piece for this chapter, I chose four general “moments” that summarize many of the sensory struggles I’ve come to recognize as part of (or even embedded in) my experiences of parenting two small kiddos as a neurodivergent mother [recently tenured and working through post-pandemic, post-tenure burnout]. Generally, parenting exacerbates my stressors while removing most or all of my options for self-regulation and sensory management, at least as I’ve established them to date. As I experience more sensory strain, I’ve learned to find subtle ways to manage it (such as earplugs/headphones, sunglasses, and stim toys like koosh balls) that are easy to blend into daily life and routine as well as with my own aesthetic preferences, to help me stay present with my family. 

These initial points of autoethnographic reflection are but a small facet of communities and communication about neurodivergent lived experiences shared on various social media platforms, particularly as recognition increases for how these conditions tend to present outside populations around which normative diagnostic mechanisms were developed. In particular, I would want to highlight experiences from other neurodivergent mothers who have shared their perspectives publicly, such as Danielle (@zelue) and Taylor Heaton (@MomOnTheSpectrum), as well as connect with and invite perspectives from participants who would like to share their stories but otherwise remain anonymous. I would also want to explore experiences of sensory overload and coping strategies in parenting more broadly (parenting in general is just hard!)

In developing this piece further from short comic to broader graphic ethnography, I would want to connect to these other accounts and experiences, and dive into a much more in-depth ethnographic study with more robust qualitative data, to highlight how others have experienced these phenomena (particularly those who are multiply marginalized); identify their strategies for negotiating these challenges; and suggest further routes for awareness, advocacy, acceptance, and support. The knowledge produced might take several forms: a graphic submission for a peer-reviewed venue, whether article-weight or book-weight; a traditional work of scholarship with some embedded images; a webcomic for online circulation; a print zine for local circulation; [something connect to graphic medicine circulation outlets]; etc. The main determining factors would be how best to represent this ethnographic research and the stories shared in ways that enact collaborative advocacy, and in ways that put representational and narrative decisions firmly in the hands of those participating; have a genuine material impact in support of the community’s needs; and that address significant gaps in disciplinary knowledge. 

@zelue (Instagram)

@MomontheSpectrum, “How Do I Actually REST?” (YouTube)

 

STEP 6 (OPTIONAL): PUBLISH

  • Whether you actually publish it or not, write through the steps of how you’d share your comic—what venue would be best (creative, scholarly, public advocacy, community connection, etc.)
  • If you want to submit your comic to a particular publication venue, revise per guidelines and send it out!
  • Otherwise, consider posting to social media or printing and handing out copies. 

EXAMPLE

To leave options open for how and where this short example might be published, I’ve set it up as four panels with fairly flexible modular organization. These could work as a single page on a printed zine, for example, or as four separate images on a social media post, or stacked for vertical scrolling on a website or webcomic app. 

 

STEP 7 (ONGOING): BUILD COMMUNITY

  • Find like-minded people, places, and courses to help you develop your craft and support your work.
  • See the Vermont Folklife Center’s Nonfiction Comics Fest as one venue that promotes this work and offers opportunities for creators to connect.
  • The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont and SAW Comics Workshop in Florida are also useful resources.

 

RESOURCES FOR MAKING COMICS

 

 

ALT TEXT EXPLANATION

This online resource includes expanded alt text for all sample comics images. Due to production constraints from the publisher, alt text accompanying print images was limited to 100 words; however, the verbal-visual information contained in a single comics page is often far more complex than a few sentences can capture. To work toward greater accessibility, all sample comics are accompanied by a descriptive transcript that summarizes words and images for each panel, as well as a general sense of panel layout for each page. 

         

Digital resource additional image list—request process initiated and next steps for obtaining permissions outlined:

  • Erika Hoffman-Dilloway: Images of Language in Graphic Anthropology
    • Next Steps: Write to journal (Cultural Anthropology) to request permissions and copy Erika to see what they suggest
  • Bernard Perley: Going Native… In Other Words
    • Next Steps: Email w/request and copy Sean Mallin, director of publishing for AAA
  • Nic Hartmann: Derecho Days
    • Next Steps: No idea re: paperwork—I can reach out to JFE editors
  • Sandra Mizumoto Posey: Comics For a Better World/Applied Feminist Folkloristics [or sample comic from Cricket in JAF SI proposal]
    • Next Steps: Send contributor copies/discount—has additional materials to pass along for review; need to confirm permissions; shoutout to featured student

 

BENNETT FIGURE 1 ALT TEXT

A one-page, hand-drawn comic divided into roughly twelve square panels (with squares ten and eleven combined into a single rectangular panel).

Panel 1

Image: A starry sky and bright, almost-full moon over a desert landscape.

Text: (Narration, Jose): Almost 12 hours later,

Around 1 or 2am,

 

Panel 2

Image: A group of migrant travelers (illustrated with minimalist features and stick limbs) follows a frowning leader with a large hat and walking stick.

Text: (Dialogue, Leader): We’ll rest here… but be CAREFUL!

 

Panel 3

Image: A figure in a black baseball cap (the narrator, Jose) watches a woman slump down in exhaustion against a nearby tree.

Text: (Dialogue, Woman): So tired…

 

Panel 4 

Image: The woman looks down in shock, pain, and horror at sudden splotches of blood on her side; a rattlesnake tail slithers off-panel. 

Text: (Dialogue, Woman): Oh! OW! OH!

 

Panel 5

Image: The woman’s traveling companions gather around her, stunned, watching the snake slither away.

Text: (Dialogue, Migrant 1): A rattlesnake!

Text: (Dialogue, Woman): OH! OW! OHNO! NO! 

 

Panel 6

Image: The others lay the woman down and put their hands on her helplessly as she writhes in pain. 

Text: (Dialogue, Migrant 1): What do we do now?

Text: (Dialogue, Migrant 2): Somebody DO something!

Text: (Sound effect, Woman): AAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

Panel 7

Image: The migrant travelers look up, aghast, at the frowning leader, who speaks from the edge of the group, already poised to move on. 

Text: (Dialogue, Leader): She stays. 

 

Panel 8

Image: The migrant travelers look down silently and sorrowfully at the woman as she grits her teeth in pain. 

Text: (Sound effect, Woman): AGH! Ng! NNG! Huff

 

Panel 9

Image: Closeup of the woman writhing on the ground, gritting her teeth and sweating, clutching at the snakebite. 

Text: (Narration, Jose): I don’t even know her name. She was about 25 or 30 years old…

 

Panel 10-11 (combined squares)

Image: Lying on the ground, the woman reaches after the departing migrant travelers, calling for help. Jose hovers nearby uncertainly. 

Text: (Narration, Jose): I wanted to stay and help her,

I thought about my KIDS, my WIFE,

Text: (Sound effect, Woman): NG NG Please! Please no!

 

Panel 12

Image: Jose turns away and follows the rest of the migrant travelers disappearing in the distance, holding a hand to the side of his head.

Text: (Narration, Jose): but there wasn’t much I could do.

Text: (Woman, off panel): Please no…

 

BENNETT FIGURE 2 ALT TEXT

A revised draft of the prior comic, this time into eight panels with more fleshed-out cartoon figures. The page is divided into four equal panels on the top half, and one tall panel flanked vertically by three smaller panels on the bottom half. 

Panel 1

Image: Migrant travelers’ boots crossing the desert; in the background, the sun goes down behind the hills. 

Text: (Narration, Jose): We walk another 12 hours or so…

 

Panel 2

Image: A figure in a black baseball cap with chin-length hair (the narrator, Jose), carrying a heavily laden backpack and sweating with exhaustion against a starry night sky.

Text: (Narration, Jose): Each of us carries:

  • 4 gallons of water
  • 2 bags of bread
  • 4 cans of tuna
  • 2 packs of cookies

 

Panel 3 

Image: Traveling under a starry sky with a bright full moon, the migrants converse as they walk.

Text: (Dialogue, Migrant 1): Good to meet somebody else from GUATEMALA…

Text: (Dialogue, Jose): Yeah… It helps just to talk about HOME.

 

Panel 4

Image: Closeup of a person’s face, clenched and screaming in pain.

Text: (Narration, Jose): Then, around 1 or 2AM:

Text: (Sound effect): AAAAAAAA

 

Panel 5 (tall panel):                  

Image: A woman lies on the ground upside down, curled around herself in pain and  grasping her leg. Fellow migrant travelers’ shoes and hands encircle her in the chaos, while a rattlesnake tail slithers off-panel. 

Text: (Quick, chaotic dialogue bursts, not clearly attributed):

RATTLESNAKE!

What the—

HELP her!

!

? Look out!

Where?

OH MY GOD

She just sat down for a second—

Didn’t look

She’s a GONER!

QUICK! … do SOMETHING!

Woman: OH NO OH NO oh no OW OW OW

 

Panel 6

Image: The leader, in hat and sunglasses with a walking stick, grits his teeth and shoulders his bag, ready to leave.

Text: (Dialogue, Leader): We GO. SHE stays.

 

Panel 7

Image: Jose looks stunned and horrified, and the other migrant travelers shout back in angry disbelief. 

Text: (Dialogue, Migrant 2): What?

Text: (Dialogue, Migrant 1): How can you—

 

Panel 8

Image: Closeup of the leader’s sunglass-hidden face as he yells.

Text: (Dialogue, Leader): NOW! GO!

 

PIRIE FIGURE 1 ALT TEXT

A hand-drawn comics page roughly divided into a top and bottom half. 

Top Half Image

Several whimsical figures (a rearing elephantine; a face with serious side-eye; a child with a heart; and a capybara) present interconnected speech/though bubbles. 

 

Top Half Text

AAAAAAAAAAAANYWAY—

CBR is a great fit for educational research in all its particularities. 

  • cultural narratives
  • thoughts and feelings
  • conversations
  • !!!

It is a good tool for depicting complex, nuanced phenomena and varied perspectives.

 

Bottom Half Image

The smiling capybara, exuding hearts, presents a speech bubble of a beaming short-haired figure, who appears in full in an adjacent panel on the right with multi-ringed and rayed halo, one stripe-tight-sheathed leg kicked back in a curve marked by a heart at the apex. Below, a red armchair rotates silently across the bottom of the page at continuous 90-degree angles.

 

Bottom Half Text 

It makes complicated and multifaceted things clear without “dumbing down” or oversimplifying layers of meaning.

 

PIRIE FIGURE 2 ALT TEXT

A hand-drawn comics page roughly divided into a top and bottom half. 

Top Half Image

Several talking heads with varying facial features engage in a conversation via symbols on speech balloons: spiraling arrow, zig-zagging arrow, straight diagonal arrow. A silhouetted figure hanging down from the top suggests a cow’s udder.

 

Top Half Text 

CBR also honors diverse ways of storytelling and reading with contiguous images and words, representing a different way of thinking. 

 

Bottom Half Image

Two Indigenous weavers work on traditional looms, surrounded by spiraling arrows and the partial silhouettes suggesting a whale and snail. Below, a red armchair rotates silently across the bottom of the page at continuous 90-degree angles.

 

Bottom Half Text

CBR affirms that there are lots of ways to make knowledge (Brown & Strega, 2005)

 

YOUNG FIGURE 1 ALT TEXT

A comics page divided roughly into two panels.

Top panel

Image

A masked, feminine young person of Asian descent grimaces as shadowy figures on either side point their fingers and yell aggressively. 

 

Text (Narration)

Anti-Asian hate is not a new phenomenon.

 

Bottom panel

Image

Three Chinese migrant workers with a wide, windowed building in the background. One balances buckets over their shoulders; one bends down to lay the next rail for a railroad track; and one walks away with a shovel over one shoulder. 

 

Text: (Narration)

The original Los Angeles Chinatown, now known as “Old Chinatown,” developed in the 1860s when Chinese migration to California expanded.

 

Text: (Narration)

Thousands were employed by the rail, fishing, and agricultural industries. Others left to work in the gold fields.

 

 

YOUNG FIGURE 2 ALT TEXT

A single panel-page featuring an interviewee (Charlotte Nguyễn, CCED member) next to text from her interview.

Image

A young woman of Vietnamese descent looks up and off panel with a radiant smile, hands curled around a plant shoot held in a cup of water. 

 

Text (Interview, Charlotte)

My parents were refugees of the Vietnam War, and, prior to that, I have a lot of really inspiring people in my lineage—spiritual activists who protested the Vietnam war.

When I came back to LA and saw how quickly gentrification moved, I immediately felt this sort of trigger in my body of horror and defeat. I felt an ancestral memory activated inside of me, of what my ancestors must’ve gone through.

I see it as a call to be active in my community, particularly in Chinatown, where I have so many memories of people who look like me.

  • Charlotte Nguyễn, CCED member