Comics-making as Possibility-making: Resisting the Inequitable Distribution of Imagined Futures

Abstract

In this writing I investigate three mechanisms of comics that can support expanded possibilities for students in art classes: the combination of words and images, gaps (or spaces between images where meaning is formed in comics), and the technique of masking (or representing reality through fantasy). Respectively, these qualities may facilitate possibility by offering unique modes of communication with self and others; providing agency through choices of emphasis and omissions; and escaping the confines of rationality into a boundary-pushing narrative flow. These possibilities are particularly supportive of outsider students, defined as being unrecognized by normative culture, pressured to change their usual behaviour, and dissuaded from perceiving their own value. This writing is supported by personal stories, excerpts of my own comics art, and scholarship in the fields of art education, critical disabilities, and comics studies.

Keywords: art education, comics, accessibility, Thirdspace, gutter, masking