Introduction: Comics Framing and the Construction of Facts

Abstract

The introductory chapter explains the concept of frames and framing and defines documentary comics as a distinct form of graphic nonfiction in the tradition of social documentary. With a brief history of comics as a documentary form and an overview of the addressed primary works, the fundamental idea of conscientious authentication and the book’s multilevel framing approach is established. Moreover, the corpus is introduced, which consists of Safe Area Goražde (2000), The Fixer (2004) and Footnotes in Gaza (2009) by pioneering author Joe Sacco; A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge (2009) by Josh Neufeld; Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City (2011) by Guy Delisle; as well as Sarah Glidden’s Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq (2016). The chapter then explores the status of documentary comics as a counterapproach to contemporary media culture, especially with regard to digitalization and post-truth politics.