6th Global Africas: Comics and the Art of Investigation

Comics, in their many forms, can be rich sites of multimodal meaning-making where image, text, visual style, color, and layout are but some of the key elements that work in concert to generate narratives and shape our understanding of them. Some short-form comics such as editorial cartoons, strips, and even instruction pamphlets mobilize a deft visual economy that often relies on abstraction and sometimes stereotypes, especially in the case of satire and caricature. Longer-form comics including ongoing series and stand-alone graphic novels can also employ abstraction and stereotypes while also simultaneously engaging with genre-specific conventions and experimenting with innovation. Indeed, in the face of comics’ plasticity, French scholar and comics expert Thierry Groensteen posits them as a system rather than a genre or medium. Additionally, the facile categorization of comics as a subset of children’s and popular literatures have long been overturned for decades, especially in the wake of work by Art Spiegelman, Marjane Satrapi, Chris Ware, and Joe Sacco, to name but a small number of significant and highly influential practitioners.

The 6th Global Africas event, “Comics and the Art of Investigation,” is a symposium dedicated to exploring the increasing use of comics as a site of inquiry featuring artists Gaspard Njock and Annick Kamgang. Though their visual styles and narrative approaches differ, these artists equally draw from both their own experiences and research to generate contemplative graphic novels that inform readers of complex sociohistorical realities through human interactions. Gaspard Njock, originally from Cameroon and based in France, often uses expressive brushwork and watercolors to explore the feeling of fluidity characteristic of migrants’ experiences (e.g., Un Voyage sans retour, 2018; Au-delà l’exil, 2024). Applying a similar visual style to others’ stories (e.g., Aldo Manuzio, 2015; Maria Callas: L’enfance d’une diva, 2020), Njock immerses his readers in the vibrant textures of characters’ quotidian lives in pursuit of deep personal connections, sometimes across time, space, and cultures. In contrast, Annick Kamgang, whose father was from Cameroon and whose mother was from the French Overseas Department of Guadeloupe, employs a highly-legible and clean visual style as an effective vehicle for comics journalism. Whether in black and white (Lucha: chronique d’une revolution sans armes au Congo, 2021) or strategically-applied color (“Cameroun 1960: Marthe Moumié raconte,” 2025; Les Enfants du pays, 2025). Kamgang’s compelling work walks the line between visually striking and informative.