Aubrey Gabel
The last twenty years have seen an explosion of nonfiction comics in France, the United States, and Canada, and especially, of comics journalism, or illustrated reporting on current events. Surpassing the political or editorial cartoon in both space and scope, la bande dessinée de reportage is rooted in long-form narrative, oral interviews, and embedded research—all communicated via the full arsenal of tools available in the comics medium. Unlike traditional journalists, comics reporters embrace their first-person perspective, self-consciously challenging the supposed objectivity of modern mass media. They understand laborious, hand-drawn art as a method for witnessing contemporary crises as they unfold and cover the breadth of topics that affect modern life: from on-going wars and conflicts to mass migration and the immigrant experience, to environmental disasters, trials, and the prison industrial-complex. This talk sketches out the origins of comics reporting, before considering some key artists, and most importantly, what this new genre has to offer.
Aubrey Gabel is a specialist in French and Francophone literature and visual culture, especially cinema and comics and graphic albums. She has published widely in both academic journals and popular venues. Her first book, The Politics of Play: Oulipo and the Legacy of French Literary Ludics, was recently published with Northwestern University Press (Oct. 2025). She is the founder of the Comics and Graphic Albums University Seminar at Columbia.
