Folklore, Comics, and Graphic Storytelling: Introduction

Abstract This special issue of the Journal of American Folklore draws together a cross section of perspectives from folklorists, anthropologists, literature scholars, and geographers that highlight ways in which the medium of comics can inform and enrich folklore studies. The papers that follow explore a range of topics including the use of comics in pedagogy, ethnographic representation, collaborative research, and research methods. They also include discussions of folkloric and folkloresque content and narrative convention in comic books, comics as a vehicle for articulating and affirming cultural and civic identity, and the act of comics creation as an emergent social process. Far from a definitive statement, this issue seeks to initiate a discussion of the broad potential of comics for our field by presenting scholarship arising from consonant disciplines alongside scholarship coming forth from our own.