Photography in Non-Fiction Comics: The Encounter of Two Languages

Abstract

Photography and comics were both media born with modernity in the nineteenth century, with an important role in the configuration of mass society. Photography has been related to comics in many ways, but it is in non-fiction comics where authors have exploited its potential as an index of reality and as evidence for testimonies. Works such as Art Spiegelman's Maus or Emmanuel Guibert's Le Photographe [The photographer] contributed to open a field of experimentation that some Spanish cartoonists have also explored. A comparative analysis of graphic novels such as Paco Roca's Regreso al Edén [Return to Eden] or Carlos Spottorno and Guillermo Abril's La Grieta [The crack] and La Falla [The fault] enables an assessment of the multiple values of photographs when they are included in a graphic narrative.