PORTRAYALS OF FAMILY RESILIENCE IN WEBCOMICS DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

Families and couples were challenged with stresses unlike any other as individuals faced adversities from lockdowns, as well as fears derived from the coronavirus. During the pandemic, trends of webcomics became more popular, particularly comics that depicted characters in romantic relationships dealing with “the new normal.” In this project, I suggest that social media webcomics incorporated topics of coping. The purpose of this study was to examine webcomics that documented daily life situations during lockdowns and stress-buffering skills found in couples’ interactions when dealing with concerns. Utilizing Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis, 585 romantic relationship webcomics posted from March 2020 to December 2021 were analyzed through Walsh’s (2003) theoretical framework of family resilience. Walsh’s (2003) nine themes used for coding included: 1) make meaning of adversity, 2) positive outlook, 3) transcendence and spirituality, 4) flexibility, 5) connectedness, 6) social and economic resources, 7) clarity, 8) open emotional expression, 9) collaborative problem-solving. Additionally, three sub-themes emerged during coding: (1) Caregiving, (2) Differences in Opinion, (3) Physical Touch. Results indicated that the theme of “connectedness” appeared most frequently (Gr=450). The findings provide unique insights into how popular trends of webcomics distributed through social media are beneficial to learning patterns of couples’ coping strategies. I conclude the emphasis of webcomics used more frequently as resources for families to learn resilient approaches

Comics in Special Collections: Purposeful Collection Development for Promoting Inclusive History

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Manifesting Stories: The Progression of Comics from Print to Web to Print

Publishing comics via the Internet is a growing practice among creative individuals who desire artistic and personal autonomy, and also wish to share a diverse range of stories. These webcomics have expanded the creative boundaries of storytelling with the digital medium. Additionally, publishing on the Internet offers the possibility to engage with markets that print comic books have ignored (particularly stories about minorities, stories which contain explicit or crude content, and stories with character designs deemed \u27unattractive\u27 and therefore unmarketable). Despite these opportunities the Internet presents, webcomics have returned to print culture as webcomic creators seek to print their webcomics. Though these printed webcomics may be expensive, and the same content is available online for free, fans choose to help them print these comics through a practice called crowdfunding. Webcomics were initially considered a spinoff from traditional comic books, but I argue that webcomics’ return to the print medium has provided a new perspective on the sale of printed comics as well as the interaction between comics creators and their fans

Digital Graphic Communities: Webcomics and E-Graphic Medicine in Combating Mental Diseases

With the onset of the millennial lifestyle and the technological revolution gaining pace-feeling of inadequacy, a constant need to be seen, poor body image, nuclear family structure, social anxiety, and, as Gen Z labels it, FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) has added significantly to the upsurge in mental illness. Contemporarily, with the lived experience of ‘quarantine’ gaining momentum during the pandemic and post-pandemic era, isolation has almost become life’s Suo moto mantra. Pandemic-necessitated isolation has greatly affected human interaction by limiting it mostly to a virtual interface. This turn of events has further complicated an already complex scenario of mental disorders – like depression, addiction, bipolar disorder, OCD, etc., stemming from an extreme sense of loneliness, insecurity and apocalyptic anxiety. This article enquiries into the ways in which Webcomics or Digital Graphic medicine narratives can help create a virtual literary community where the phenomenology of mental illness finds an empathic representation and serves as a platform for self and collective healing. Artists and illustrators like Debbie Tung, Christopher Grady, Allie Brosh, and Clay Jonathan have now taken to social media handles like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, or other Webcomics platforms like Go Comics, StudyGroup Comics and Claycomix, etc., to share their stigmatised personal journey of mental illness with their readers and followers. Unlike the print media, digital readers get to respond to these comic strips and interact with the artist as well as one another by sharing their experience of viewing an artist’s rendition of their mental health trajectories. Amy Mazowita, while discussing the concept of a graphic care network, states that it is essential to offer a unique communicative opportunity for people and masses across various socioeconomic, political, and hegemonic entities: these networks offer users the comfort of anonymity besides offering a digital platform for legitimising their shared experiences of both collective and individual mental health realities (Mazowita)

Blasphemy: A Romantic Comic about the Devil Himself

The tendency for societies to organize themselves around contours of sameness and difference leads naturally to social constructions of us versus them. Individuals are primed to identify with the groups to which they belong, and thus intellectually classify those unlike themselves as the other. Our social inclination toward othering is intractable and ubiquitous across cultures. It breeds conditions of chronic inequality and marginality, reinforcing the ethos of xenophobia that perpetuates and undergirds human atrocities such as war, slavery, and genocide. Through a creative project — a webcomic entitled Blasphemy — I address and illustrate how othering behavior can manifest in the world. Armed with the knowledge that powerful lessons can be gleaned from the arts, the goal is to raise awareness of othering and its deleterious impacts on individuals, and the wider society. Blasphemy co-mingles narrative and visual image in a long-form, serialized webcomic leveraging my study of art and psychology and engaging my own yearning to lessen the suffering of those who find themselves marginalized or targets of discrimination. As is common practice in webcomic production, each update will advance the story until the full story arc reaches its satisfying conclusion. Given the length and nature of Blasphemy as a complete narrative published in series, the full execution of the project logically spans beyond the time scope of this thesis

Superhero comics and the digital communications circuit: a case study of <i>Strong Female Protagonist</i>

This article examines the ongoing superhero webcomic Strong Female Protagonist (2012-present), by Brannon Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag and employs it as a case study to analyse the new communications circuit created by the digital production and delivery of comics. It adopts a perspective drawn from Book History to frame the communication model of print comics and to evaluate how webcomics such as Strong Female Protagonist redefine the role of readers, authors and publishers

Building Social Change Through Interactive Webcomics

Comic books are a popular form of creative storytelling. Through sequential juxtaposed panels, comics have the unique ability to interact with the reader through time and space. The context within comics is the constrained amount of panels a typical comic book page allows, and the space that exists between the panels encourages the reader to manipulate meaning. Through this unique process of interaction between the narrative and the reader, comics have proven to be a creative medium to promote meanings of social change. Throughout history, comics have utilized their entertaining guise to mask underlying themes of social injustices and political upheavals. More so, through the use of the technological advances and the Internet, Webcomics now have the ability to provide an interactive experience that encourages reader engagement within the narrative, while expanding widespread communication. This project seeks to understand how interactive Webcomics can promote social change. This research project consists of a self-created interactive Webcomic involving a fictional narrative that depicts the dangers of hydraulic fracking; the comic is intended to promote social change and awareness on the issues of fracking. A focus group has been conducted in order to better understand the effects the comic has on participants knowledge, awareness and advocacy on the dangers of hydraulic fracking. The concluding results show that Webcomics do have the potential to promote social change