[ATTW-L] CFP: Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication

[Erin Kathleen Bahl]

Dear colleagues,

We invite submissions for a special issue of *Technical Communication
Quarterly* on "Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication."
The deadline for 500-word proposals is June 21st, 2019, emailed to Rich
Shivener (rshivener at gmail.com). Additional information is available below
and on the CFP website
<https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/technical-communication-quarterly-comics-and-graphic-storytelling/>.
We welcome any questions via email at rshivener at gmail.com.

Best wishes for the summer,

Erin Bahl

[image: tcqcfp.png]
*[Image: A comics-form CFP announcement. Illustrated editor headshots
surround text organized into panels. Comics and Graphic Storytelling in
Technical Communication: A Special Issue of Technical Communication
Quarterly. Submit 500-word proposals by June 21st, 2019, to
rshivener at gmail.com <rshivener at gmail.com>. TCQ Editor: Rebecca Walton.
Guest Editors: Sergio Figueiredo, Rich Shivener, and Erin Kathleen Bahl.]*

*Special Issue Themes and Questions*

The guest editors invite contributors to explore histories, audiences,
methods, and industries at the intersections of comics and technical
communication. There is a long history of overlap between the two areas of
comics and technical communication: from Rudolphe Töpffer’s 19th-century
physiognomy diagrams (Töpffer & Figueiredo, 2017), to Will Eisner’s (1969)
“M16A1 Operation and Preventative Maintenance” manual for the US Army, to
Scott McCloud’s (2008) comic on the inner workings of Google Chrome, and to
the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s comic, “Preparedness 101:
Zombie Pandemic” (2012).

Comics address multiple audiences, from readers of instruction manuals to
fans who then perform uptake of work in various technical environments.
Comics represent complex data in engaging ways but also raise new ethical
questions on visual representation and accessibility. These questions have
led to a series of recent experiments in the design, purpose, and
production of graphic storytelling, such as Andre Berg’s 3D app- based
interactive comic, Protanopia; Ozge Samanci and Anuj Tewari’s 2010
place-based mobile comic, GPS Comics; Phillip Meyer’s braille-based tactile
comic for people who are blind, Life; and Guy Hasson’s Comics Empower, an
online store offering audio comics for visually impaired audiences.
Moreover, comics industries and production processes provide rich data
sources for expanding technical communication research and practice (see
Woo, 2018).

In particular, this special issue investigates the following questions
grounded in the following four themes. We specify “comics” for the sake of
brevity but extend the inquiry to include other forms of graphic
storytelling. We invite submissions that address how comics and technical
communication can foreground marginalized voices and perspectives. Graphic
approaches to any of the following are encouraged:

*Histories, Theories, and Contexts*

   - What are the historical relationships between comics and technical
   communication?
   - What theoretical approaches help us understand relationships between
   comics and technical communication?
   - What are the contexts in which comics and technical communication
   overlap?


*Audiences, Users, and Perspectives*

   - How do technical communicators use comics to engage with audiences?
   - How do users engage comics in navigating their information
   environments?
   - In what ways do comics and technical communication foreground
   marginalized voices and perspectives? In what ways have they failed to do
   so?


*Data, Methods, and Ethics*

   - How do comics effectively or ineffectively represent complex data in a
   variety of contexts?
   - How can technical communicators think through issues of human data
   representation in comics form?
   - How do comics increase information access and/or raise new
   accessibility challenges?


*Industries, Applications, and Production*

   - Where does technical communication take place in the comics industries?
   - What is the role of technical communication in comics production?
   - What technologies do readers use to engage digital comics?


*Possible topics include (but are not limited to):*

   - Visual data and accessibility
   - Visual storytelling and narrative methods
   - Technical communication practices in the comics industries
   - Histories of comics in technical communication
   - Comics’ potential to facilitate inclusion, legitimate marginalized
   knowledge, and support social justice in technical communication
   - The role of comics in facilitating user experience
   - Audience engagement with technical comics
   - Affordances and constraints of comics as information design tools
   - Ethics of visual representation
   - Digital technologies and experimental narrative


Proposal Length: 500 words


-- 
*Erin Kathleen Bahl, *PhD
Assistant Professor, Applied and Professional Writing
Kennesaw State University, English Department
ebahl at kennesaw.edu
*Online portfolio:* erinkathleenbahl.com
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