Creating the comics

The idea for creating the interactive comics developed as we discussed ways to reach wider audiences within and outside of academia. We drew on comic-based academic work with different disciplinary foci: exploring graduate futures (Vigurs, Jones and Harris, 2016); climate emergencies and disasters (see Amrita's Journey in Sounding the Siren, 2021) and political schisms in 1970s Turkey (see White, 2021). Outside of academia, inspiration came from work by Nottingham-based creative and academic, James Walker, who with collaborators has addressed literacy issues, the experiences of refugees and everyday misogyny (see Dawn of the Unread, n.d.).

Throughout the comic creation process, we worked with Agnes, an experienced illustrator who did the drawing, colouring and tricky work of creating the digital content. In our separate groups, we designed the comics through a series of development meetings with Agnes. There was quite a bit of communication via Teams and email as we drafted the comics. We shared the final copies with the whole group to ensure they were happy with them.

Content for the comics comes in a range of formats including audio monologues and dialogues; and links to video content. We created the audio content within the group, mainly using software such as Audacity. There are also text-based components linked to aspects of the comics in the form of synopses of key concepts we worked with as well as mini-book reviews. Agnes pulled all the different components together using Twine, hosting the content in itch.io.