Comics Communicate Research
An Academic Writing Month Postscript
We communicate to share research at all stages, from discussion of initial ideas through explanations of findings. As noted in the previous post in the AcWriMo 2025 series, scholarly communication today goes beyond the written word. Want to try something new? How about comics, animations, or graphic books?
While managing the Sage Methodspace blog, I collaborated with Dr Lydia Wysocki to offer a three-part series. Take a look!
Admittedly, making comics can be daunting if you are not an artist. However, when you look at successful cartoonists it is usually the story or message that takes precedence over artistic ability. The small text-bubble space means we have to be succinct. The ability to have multiple characters means we can have dialogue about key points or show Q & A in a way that invites reader questions.
I created the illustrations in this post using one of my favorite tools, MakeBeliefComix. It is a free tool designed to use with kids, so it is not hard to learn - and it is a lot of fun to use. And yes, they are here on Substack!
Fun fact: in January I will offer a workshop and demonstrate ways to create illustrations for articles, blogs, and posts without AI!
What will you blog, draw, video, or tell as stories?
As we wind up Academic Writing Month, what new approaches will you try? If you missed any AcWriMo newsletters, the archives are open. Share your ideas, questions, or favorite resources and examples in the comment area.
November is Academic Writing Month: AcWriMo is a time to rethink your publication strategy and find your place as a scholar.
Blogs as Virtual Third Space: Informal scholarly writing to reach new readers and make a difference
Blogging to Reach a Scholarly Audience: Scholar-to-scholar blogs as virtual third space
Blogging to Reach Beyond Academia: Share research with practitioners and the public
Plus, see these newsletters from AcWriMo 2024:
Communicate Your Insights Be creative! Readers will appreciate your efforts.
Learn more! Multidisciplinary open-access journal articles about comics and graphics in research.
Abd el-Gawad, H., & Stevenson, A. (2021). Egypt’s dispersed heritage: Multi-directional storytelling through comic art. Journal of Social Archaeology, 21(1), 121–145. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605321992929
Abstract. This paper responds to a need to address the colonial history of collections of Egyptian archaeology and to find new ways in which Egyptian audiences can assume greater agency in such a process. The ‘Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage’ project presents a model of engagement whereby foreign museum collections become the inspiration for Egyptians to express their own feelings about the removal of their heritage abroad using idioms and traditional storytelling of cultural relevance to them. A series of online comics confronting contentious heritage issues, including the display of mummified human remains, eugenics, looting and destruction, is discussed. It is argued that this approach is not only more relatable for Egyptian communities, but moreover provides space for the development of grass-roots critique of heritage practices, both in the UK and in Egypt. Museums have a responsibility to take on board these critiques, curating not just objects but relationships forged amongst them in historical and contemporary society.
Aula, I., & Masoodian, M. (2024). Creative Co-Imagination in Transgenerational Comics Workshops. Sociological Research Online, 30(2), 469-486. https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241259733 (Original work published 2025)
Abstract. With the world population aging rapidly, it is crucial to include the imagination of older adults in envisioning a better future, and to promote transgenerational exchanges. To achieve this, novel interdisciplinary methods are needed to assist researchers with studying the process of transgenerational creative co-imagination involving older adults and younger people together. In this article, we present a workshop method that brings together methodological approaches from the fields of sensorial ethnography and visual narratives in a multi-professional setting to facilitate transgenerational creative co-imagining of future. To illustrate the use of this method, we present a case study of two workshops we have held recently with older adults and young people in which a sensory walk method has been combined with a grassroots comics method to co-create comic strips that present narratives of transgenerationally co-imagined future of natural environments. We also discuss the lessons learned from these two case-study workshops, with the aim of highlighting some of the shortcomings of our workshop method, so that, it can revised and expanded further to suit the specific needs of other studies.
Bartoszko, A. (2021). In Love With the Virus: Reducing Harms, Promoting Dignity, and Preventing Hepatitis C Through Graphic Narratives. Health Promotion Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399211041075
Abstract. This article describes a process of creating an ethnographic comic about injection drug use and hepatitis C, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Norway. The project and the graphic publication titled The Virus were a collaboration between a social anthropologist, a graphic artist, and individuals who inject illegal drugs and are aimed at reducing bodily, social, and narrative harms related to drug use. The article argues that structurally informed interventions, such as this project, which account for the social, economic, and epistemological inequalities, benefit from taking phenomenological perspectives seriously. In our case, that attitude meant including participants’ positive associations with their current or former heroin and injecting drug usage, their stigmatized desires, and their emotions—such as love—related to the disease. The article describes the narrative, conceptual, aesthetic, and practical choices encountered in making The Virus to confront the dominant, authorized narratives in the field of drug use and hepatitis C. We sought to make choices that ultimately would not contribute to the (re)production of the very object of the prevention—stigma related to hepatitis C—but instead would create a new narrative(s) that forged a sense of purpose, recognition, and humanity.
Bates, C., Moles, K., & Kroese, L. M. (2023). Animating sociology. The Sociological Review, 71(5), 976-991. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380261231156688
Abstract. This article outlines the collaborative process of making a watercolour animation drawn from research with women who swim wild in rivers, lakes and seas. Discussing graphic storytelling in sociology, anthropology and related disciplines, we share our experiences of creative collaboration, describing in detail the practical process of making a research-led animation to share with the wider swimming community and situating the project within a larger discussion of graphic and public ethnography, live methods and the possibilities of representation. The article contributes to the ways we can make methods lively and shows how we can both literally and metaphorically animate sociology.
Darnhofer, I. (2018). Using Comic-Style Posters for Engaging Participants and for Promoting Researcher Reflexivity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406918804716
Abstract. Visual methods, including drawn images such as comics, are receiving increasing attention in qualitative research. Indeed, comics are a highly accessible form of visual data, and through the intermingling of words and images they are well suited to convey the multidimensionality of real life. Drawing on a research project, I reflect on the potential of comic-style posters to engage participants in a workshop setting. The aim was to receive feedback on preliminary results, and the posters were very effective to fuel discussions, thus promoting social sense-making. Moreover, the process of designing the comic posters encouraged reflexivity within the research team. The work of visualizing results spurred discussions and surfaced implicit assumptions tied to methods for analyzing data and communicating results. These experiences indicate the creative potential of comic-style drawings for encouraging a more playful approach to discuss and share results of qualitative research with diverse audiences.
Davis, C., Matthews, A., Mihut, G., Mottershaw, S., Hawkins, J., Rivlin, P., & Matthews, B. (2024). Co-producing composite storytelling comics: (counter) narratives by academics of working-class heritage. Qualitative Research, 25(2), 350-373. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941241245954 (Original work published 2025)
Abstract. Composite storytelling as a social qualitative research method represents a growing spirit of creativity to explore themes of social injustice. This article discusses the potential methodological affordances and challenges of such approaches when used to collectively unsettle, interrogate and (re)imagine what it means to become an academic of working-class heritage. The participatory project discussed in this paper involved eight social science and humanities academics in UK-based elite higher education institutions. In a series of storytelling sessions, the participants created narrative encounters to foster moments of critique and analysis to explore the complex social realities of their routes into and through academia as people of working-class origins. Working alongside an illustrator, the participants used empirical insights to create composite stories in multimodal comic formats. Through this work, we seek to prompt further discussions about the generative possibilities of pursuing similar methods in the social sciences and beyond to challenge forms of social injustice.
Emmerson, P. (2016). Doing comic geographies. Cultural Geographies, 23(4), 721–725. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474474016630967
Abstract. This article reflects on how notions of ‘the comic’ may be of added value to geographers’ research. It is formed around the idea that there are aspects of space and society that are by nature incongruous and unsuitable to be understood through frameworks of scholarship that privilege ‘reason’ and objectivity above all else. The author thus reflects on how these notions of ‘the comic’ as a mode of thought can be applied to understanding different fields of research. Ultimately, the article draws out how using this comic mode also forms an ‘inward’ reflective process which can help to understand the often complicated positions that researchers hold. This article thus calls for an inclusion of the often otherwise ignored comic aspects of the world into scholarship so that we, as geographers, may provide fuller and more human critical analyses of space, culture and society.
Khanolainen, D., & Semenova, E. (2020). School Bullying Through Graphic Vignettes: Developing a New Arts-Based Method to Study a Sensitive Topic. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920922765
Abstract. The purpose of this study was to develop a new arts-based measure assessing school bullying and to test it within a pilot study involving 19 schoolchildren (mean age = 15.4; range = 1.00). The researchers designed the new methodological tool (referred to as graphic vignettes) as a set of incomplete comic strips, which participants were asked to complete in a creative way. Researchers then invited participants to engage in follow-up interviews using completed comic strips as individualized interview prompts. … The article aims to inspire further development of graphic vignettes.
Kuttner, P. J., Weaver-Hightower, M. B., & Sousanis, N. (2021). Comics-based research: The affordances of comics for research across disciplines. Qualitative Research, 21(2), 195–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794120918845
Abstract. Comics have long been a focus of scholarly inquiry. In recent years, this interest has taken a methodological turn, with scholars integrating comics creation into the research process itself. In this article, the authors begin to define and document this emerging, interdisciplinary field of methodological practice. They lay out key affordances that comics offers researchers across the disciplines, arguing that certain characteristics—multimodality, blending of sequential and simultaneous communication, emphasis on creator voice—afford powerful tools for inquiry. The authors finish by offering some questions and challenges for the field as it matures.
MacGeorge, R. B. (2024). Illustrating Tomorrow: The Role of Comics in Engaging Research Participants in Disruptive Futures Research. World Futures Review, 16(1-2), 26-41. https://doi.org/10.1177/19467567241249710 (Original work published 2024)
Abstract. This study examines the application of comics in futures research to involve stakeholders in infrastructure strategy discussions for disruptive futures. It employs a graphic novel called “Vanishing Point! Our Built World,” which augments generative AI art with human storytelling to transport participants into a speculative 2150 with a solarpunk theme. The narrative applies the concept of future-self continuity and a temporal discontinuity framework to promote visions of sustainability for both humanity and the environment. The research emphasises the ability of comics to foster meaningful discussions on future infrastructure coordination by incorporating Social Construction Theory, Social Construction of Technology Theory, and Actor Network Theory. Comics being adapted into videos and used in workshops highlight their effectiveness in promoting engagement and facilitating semi-structured discussions. This demonstrates comics as a dynamic tool in futures research and participatory methodologies.
Rainford, J. (2021). Stripping back the novelty: A critical reflection on the dual use of a comic-based approach to engage participants and publics. Methodological Innovations. https://doi.org/10.1177/20597991211060681
Abstract. There has been increasing use of comic-based approaches within qualitative research as part of an increase in creative and visual methods more generally within social science research. However, whilst increasingly prevalent in dissemination, their use within data collection is less common. This paper examines the dual use of a comic-based approach embedded within a study that explored widening participation in higher education. Initially developed for the triangulation of emergent research findings with a wider group of participants, a comic panel was developed to be used as a focus of discussions within a workshop with 11 practitioners. This was then further developed for wider dissemination and to create a space for dialogue and to engage wider publics with the study’s recommendations. … This paper argues that with careful planning, comic-based approaches can add significant value and increase engagement with research. Finally, it offers suggestions for how this approach could be developed by future researchers.
Viljoen, J.-M., & Zolkos, M. (2021). Reimagining cultural memory of the arctic in the graphic narratives of Oqaluttuaq. Memory Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506980211037283
Abstract. The Greenlandic oral story-telling tradition, Oqaluttuaq, meaning “history,” “legend,” and “narrative,” is recognized as an important entry point into Arctic collective memory. The graphic artist Nuka K. Godtfredsen and his literary and scientific collaborators have used the term as the title of graphic narratives published from 2009 to 2018, and focused on four moments or ‘snippets’ from Greenland’s history (from the periods of Saqqaq, late Dorset, Norse settlement, and European colonization). … Informed by approaches in the field of cultural memory and in the study memorial objects, Marks’ haptic visuality and Keenan and Weizman’s forensic aesthetics, we analyze the graphic narratives of Oqaluttuaq in regard to their aesthetic dimensions, as well as investigate the role of material objects and artifacts, which work as narrative “props” for multiple stories of encounter and survival in the Arctic.
Doing Qualitative Research Online: Read and Discuss
Starting in January 2026, I’ll focus each month’s topics on sections or chapters of my book, Doing Qualitative Research Online. I’ll introduce the new and updated materials I’m developing for a new guide I’ll publish on Pressbooks. I’ll also offer practical workshops each quarter. Lots for free subscribers to read, and a chance for paid subscribers to join me for a deep dive. Learn more and find a discount code here.
This Creative Commons license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. In other words, you can use and share but you do NOT have my permission to upload the newsletter or art to AI.
Thanks to Beth Spencer for this badge, indicating that no AI tools were used to create this post!
Brilliant take on visual communication in academic spaces. The point about narrative taking precedence over artistic ability really opens this up beyond the usual "I cant draw" excuse. One thing that stands out is how the small text-bubbel space forces succinctness, kinda like what Twitter did for news writing btw but for research arguments instead.