Serious Funny Papers: A Contextual Examination into the Making of an Acadomic

ABSTRACT

In this academic comic (or acadomic) I reflect on impacts to the creative process when reconceptualizing and recontextualizing a comics-based research (CBR) project as an acadomic for an edited book during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdowns intensified computer-mediated-communication (CMC) and I am compelled by two years of virtually exclusive engagement with digital technologies to explore the impact unrestrained online activities have on my creative comics practice, on my conceptions of research, and on my experiences as a teacher. Analysis of this process and its impacts is realized through a mixed research methodology that explores the impacts of conceptualizing and making an earlier acadomic, which in turn documents a comics-based research project between university students and a national charity as they successfully collaborate on the creation of a graphic novel.

I probe the boundaries of academic writing by visualizing and performing Baudrillard's theoretical violence to critique digital intensification through metaphor, semiotics, and comics. The work for this article was undertaken during the rolling pandemic lockdowns in the UK and around the world from 2020 to 2022. Academic theory and the medium of comics problematize the digital simulacrum as I action a utopian pedagogy that supports balance between traditional and digital techniques.

KEYWORDS:

• Comics
• artography
• theoretical violence
• COVID-19
• digital technology
• utopian pedagogy

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Nadya Bondoreff and Jade Doran for their assistance with this acadomic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

i King, 2020

ii Racevskis, 1979, 37

iii Kuttner et al., 2021

iv Brunetti, 2011

1 Borle (2020)

2 Carabantes (2021)

3 Van Beveren (2018)

4 Leggo (2008, 5)

5 Groensteen (2007, 146)

6 Lawrence (2022)

7 Heer and Worcester (2009), Ichikawa (2020), Kuttner et al. (2021), and LeBlanc and Irwin (2019)

8 LeBlanc and Irwin (2019, para. 1)

9 Irwin and Springgay (2008, xxiii)

10 Fei (2007)

11 McCloud (1994)

12 Thomas (2016)

13 Torok (2020) and Tourk (2016)

14 Schwab (2016, para. 2)

15 Ofcom (2020)

16 Giroux (2020, 33)

17 King (2020, 62)

18 Lawrence (2022)

19 Drucker and Bishop (2019, 323)

20 Nietzsche (2020, 159)

21 McLuhan (2005)

22 Drucker and Bishop (2019, 325)

23 Brunetti (2011, 22)

24 Lawrence (2017)

25 Belkhir (2018) and Brennan (2019)

26 Meng (2022)

27 Fisher, 2

28 Fisher (2011) and King (2020)

29 Racevskis (1979, 37)

30 Stivers (1999, 76)

31 Baudrillard (1994, 13)

32 King (2020, 74)

33 Webb, 551

34 Webb, 560

35 Webb, 561

36 Delzant (2007, 16)

37 Groensteen (2007, 144)

38 Brunetti (2011)

39 Brunetti (2011)

40 Witek (1990, 23)

41 Eglash

42 Askonas (2019), Gittens (2017), and Postman (1993)

43 Postman (1993)

44 Drucker and Bishop (2019, 329)

45 Lawrence (2022)

46 Bostridge (2015, xii)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julian Lawrence

Julian Lawrence is a Senior lecturer in Comics and Graphic Novels­­­ at Teesside University in Middlesbrough, UK. Julian's comics-based research explores freehand narrative drawing and its impact on representations of artist identity. These investigations combine theories of language acquisition, community art education, and authorship with semiotic analysis of comics.