Researchers are increasingly expected to creatively communicate their research, and comics have become one of the most popular ways to do so. However, guidance on translating research into comics is lacking. Drawing on my experience translating research on disasters into four comics, I provide a step-by-step guide for researchers wanting to take the leap into creating comics. The guide is designed to support researchers through each stage of the process by focusing on key issues, including, the language and conventions of comics, deciding which findings to communicate, writing the script, choosing and working with an illustrator, participatory scripting, and developing characters. The guide draws on disasters, comics, and creative methods literature to explain how and why certain steps and processes are taken. Comics present an opportunity to make research more participatory, to gather new and unexpected data, to create more ethical representations of participants and their contexts, and to release researchers’ creativity. The guide uses examples from disaster-focused research, but it is written to invite those researching various topics who are interested in creatively narrativizing their work.
Gemma Sou (Wed,) studied this question.