Motion Comics as Digital Public History

Motion comics—animated picture stories on historical subjects—have received little attention as a format for presenting public history. Yet due to their literally moving multi-perspectivity, motion comics readily engage viewers, especially with contested and complex national histories. In this article, I discuss the production process of motion comics as a vehicle for public history education. First, I provide a theoretical foundation for future analyses of motion comics as public history tools. Second, I share practical insights from the project “MoCom: Motion Comics as Memory Work,” which I conceptualized and supervised with cultural anthropologist Sarah Fichtner. I tie the theoretical and practical aspects together with discussion of my very first public history motion comic, “Ghost Train” (2020), about childhood memories from the divided Germany.