Graphic Storytellers at Work: the comic

Background Graphic Storytellers at Work is a report commissioned by the Australia Council that explores what the skills of cartoonists, illustrators and comics-makers are & how they are being applied across industries. Sousanis (US) has argued for conducting and presenting visual research as comics (2015). The team has applied findings of its report to substantive creative research conducted in & through the comics medium. This large-format poster and web-format comic tests what the research team calls the graphic storyteller’s skillset, enacts the knowledge produced in comics-making & explores how it's used. Contribution This visual narrative research sits at the nexus of contemporary design practice which enacts visual knowledges as well as expressing them & contemporary creative writing practice which is playful collaborative & experimental. It enacts the aesthetics histories & values of its community of research participants from deep citation of comics iconicity to the materiality of hand-drawn style, & recursively enacts the findings of the graphic storyteller’s skillset based on 260 surveyed graphic storytellers and case studies with graphic storytellers & employers. Beyond craft skills this means abilities in synthesising & interpreting language & data; working with complexity; building a language of nested visual metaphors; conceiving hypothetical human experiences. Significance Commissioned & supported by Cat 3 contract $21200. Precursor to team’s Cat 1 ARC Linkage Project Australian Comics: A New History ($230,514), allowed us to engage community of practice & major funder. Within 2 days led to lengthy article in Sydney Morning Herald syndicated in the Age, Brisbane Times & WA Today; article in ArtsHub; on TV’s TickerNews; a major TV segment on ABC Evening News. Forthcoming indicators include a segment on ABC Radio National, a Sydney-based live event Read to Me, a panel appearance at Perth Comic Arts Festival.