Comic twist: new collab calling for artists and ideas

Kapow! Zap! Splat! Comics have a way of getting your attention.

And many of us still remember the Covid cartoons by Toby Morris, done with microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles, and how effectively they got their public health message across.

Now Neal Curtis, a comics expert and professor of media and screen studies at the University of Auckland, has launched Comics CoLab, a pet project he’s had in mind for a few years.

The project hopes to connect people who have something to say and a bit of budget, with a stable of comics experts and artists who can plan out and animate their message in an engaging way; be that in health or any other area.

Understanding your audience, how best to reach them and in what way your communication needs to reflect their own experiences and cultural context is the main thing, says Curtis.

“Science communication never had a communication problem, it had a relationship problem. If you know Māori culture, for example, you understand that relationships (whanaungatanga) are the basis of everything.

“And it's quite funny to think how far ahead we could have been in our science communication if we'd listened to what our Māori colleagues were telling us. So we need to work out not only what needs to be said, but how, and in what style.”

What you don’t want to do as a communicator is “just dump information on people,” he says.

“You need to make it into a story; that's an important part of the process. And comics, with their unique ability to use text, images and layout to make complex information clear and connect with people emotionally, are a perfect way to do that.”

Alongside Curtis, Comics CoLab involves a group of artists, including New Zealanders Toby Morris and Janina Gaudin (‘Miss Diabetes’), as well as those based internationally, and an advisory board of artists, academics, researchers and clinicians.

And the search for funding threw up a great collaboration, says Curtis.

“I ended up connecting with Graphic Medicine Italia, so they’re on board, and they’re great people."

Graphic medicine, as a genre, uses visual storytelling and comics to explore health, illness and medical care.

By coincidence, the next international graphic medicine conference is in Bologna, says Curtis, which he hopes to attend. He’s also been invited to join the advisory board of Graphic Medicine Europe, a new organisation based in the Netherlands.

He had the vision for this project as, ahem, comic relief from his other area of study, political philosophy, and in this instance, a book on the rise of the far right; examining fake news, conspiracy theories and the era of ‘post truth’.

It was devised and written during the first Trump presidency, and was starting to become depressing, he says, even if the second Trump term has sadly borne out everything he predicted.

"I thought, why don't I use my knowledge of comics to actually produce health and science material to push back against this attack on facts and expert knowledge, and to defend science and truth?”

As an expert in the medium, his interest has particularly been in Marvel’s superheroes like Captain America and Spider-Man, and DC Comics’ characters like Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman.

But he saw the potential in applying this knowledge of how comics work, on what levels and for which audiences, to areas like graphic medicine and graphic science.

Projects already finished or in train include one explaining what graphic medicine is, and another about the evolution of science communication.

Others include a visual explanation of community engagement with Auckland Council, comics about end-of-life care in collaboration with a DHB, and using comics to share findings from research on homelessness in Auckland.

“The next step is to just to open it up and say, ‘Who else wants to approach us with an idea?’” says Curtis.

The format can range from a short comic to a longer work, depending on the goal and budget. A five-or six-page, full-colour, open-access comic may cost between $5,000 to $6,000.

All work will be made available under a Creative Commons licence so it can be used by organisations beyond the original project; featured on their websites and social media, reproduced in pamphlets or distributed in any way that seems appropriate for their audience.

And in a world of generative AI that can reproduce artistic styles using images collected without the artists’ permission, Comics CoLab has the overarching aim of supporting artists by creating opportunities for paid work as well as protecting their intellectual copyright as much as possible, says Curtis.

“I saw an image recently that heavily resembled the work of a comic artist I know and admire, but it wasn’t her original work. So not only does AI steal work without compensation, it has also virtually put the original creators of that art out of work, because it can do it so much faster and cheaper.”

A next step for Comics CoLab is to develop a directory of artists interested in working on science, health and public-interest projects and a shout out to anyone wanting to discuss such a project.

“So if you’re an artist or a person with an idea we could develop, we’d love to hear from you.”

Contact: n.curtis@auckland.ac.nz for more information.