Studies in Comics - Current Issue

This introduction to Studies in Comics (STIC) 16.1 signposts the subjects and approaches of the issue’s articles, interview, reviews and comic. It reflects on the current state of comics studies as a discipline, highlighting the field’s diversity as exemplified in this issue’s contributors and contents. It summarizes how the first two articles concern comics as a means of grappling with extreme hardship and military conflict; in one case, the graphic productions of political activist Lelia Biocca during her detention by the 1970s–80s Argentine military dictatorship, and in the other, the effects of comics on students’ understanding of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The editorial then explains how the next two articles examine the formal properties of comics from distinct perspectives: firstly, a study of undergraduate students’ experiences of closure while reading comics, and secondly, a detailed examination of GB Tran’s visual style in Vietnamerica. The final paragraphs of the editorial summarize its remaining contents: an interview with Sino Spanish comics creator Quan Zho, book reviews of two monographs and one edited collection published in 2023 and a comic on the subject of environmental psychology. This piece concludes with an expression of appreciation for the global comics studies community in a time of change and uncertainty.

This article aims to analyse the graphic production of Lelia Bicocca, a political activist who was kidnapped and disappeared in 1977 during the last Argentine military dictatorship. The pages with cartoons produced by Bicocca during her imprisonment in the clandestine detention centre ESMA (Escuela Superior de Mecánica de la Armada ‘Higher School of Mechanics of the Navy’) survived and were recovered many years later. We argue that this graphic testimony – ‘Il Capuchino’ – is not only exceptional for its characteristics and context but also holds significant importance in the reconstruction of memory in Argentina. Using concepts from the fields of memory studies and comics studies, we propose to review the plot of the history of these drawings and what place these objects occupy in the reconstruction of memory in Argentina.

Quan Zhou talks about her work and role as an activist in this interview. She discusses the evolution of her work, from comedic autobiographical gags to more solemn and narrative-oriented stories. With autofiction being the category that best describes her stories she is asked about why it helps her tell stories and why she thinks that it is so prevalent in today’s contemporary narrative. Living in New York during the time of the interview, Zhou talks about her experience being the first racialized person to ever be selected for the King Juan Carlos I chair in Spanish culture and civilization at New York University (NYU). The interview also brings to the forefront topics such as the need for representation and empathy, tokenism in the cultural industry, the use of humour as opposed to serious narratives, the impact of her work in the Chinese community in Spain and how she sees herself in the Spanish contemporary landscape. She delves into the idea of self-representation and the problematic dilemma of what is expected artistically from a racialized creator. For Zhou, art is about emotions and being true to herself, but always with a political and activist framework that allows her to convey a message.

Review of: Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing, Ezra Mirze Santesso (2023)

Columbus, OH: The Ohio University Press, 218 pp.,

ISBN 978-0-8142-5884-2, p/bk, $34.95

This graphic essay explores the intersection between comics and environmental psychology. Reviewing previous scholarship, we first turn to the thematic and structural resonances between these two spheres. Among the former, sometimes called the ‘literal’ approach, is the insight that funny animals are an entrenched feature in many comics. The second or formal approach sees the comics medium itself as an ecosystem whose different parts (images and words) interdependently create a whole. We continue with three examples of how insights from environmental psychology resonate with the process of reading comics. The first example relates to the copresence of clashing voices in a comic, when text and image are in tension with each other, a situation akin to cognitive dissonance. The second aspect concerns sequence and its discontents. In comics, we take in different panels not just one after another but also simultaneously. This allows comics artists to complicate linear sequences, thereby mimicking the complex causality we see in environmental calamities and their solutions. Strategic gaps are the last example we discuss, again, a mechanism intrinsic to comics as an art form. Just like readers need to bridge the space between each panel and between each page, so do we have to bridge the gap between knowing and acting on environmental crises, between the now and the possible future. We close with a brief list of academic resources for interested readers.