Authorship in Comics Journalism

Book excerpt: 'What is Comics Journalism,' and 'Why is the author not dead at all?' Because literature and journalism deal differently with "authorship" and "author," this work renegotiates these concepts. It analyzes the author's importance in comics journalism, especially concerning the verification and authentication of the production process. This study gives a broad and extensive overview of the various forms of contemporary comics journalism, and argues that authorship in comics journalism can only be adequately understood by considering the author both on the textual and extratextual level. By combining comics analyses with cultural, sociological, and literary studies approaches, this study introduces the 'comics journalistic pact,' which is an invisible agreement between author and reader, addressing issues of narration ('voice'), testimony ('face'), and journalistic engagement ('hands'). It categorizes comics journalism as a borderline genre between literature, culture, art, and journalism due to its interdisciplinary nature.