Mangix

Project directors

• John S. Bak, Université de Lorraine
• Christopher Craig, Tohoku University
• Sara Izzo, Universität Bonn

Project Associate Members

• Olga Kopylova (Tohoku, Japan)
• Adriana Habens (Lorraine, France)
• Matthew Strecher (Sophia, Japan)

Project Partners

Project Sponsors

LUE (Lorraine Université d’Excellence) and Global Engagement Division (Tohoku University)

Description

Along with documentary manga, comics journalism, a subgenre of literary journalism that has gained influence both as a practice and an object of scientific inquiry, fuses traditional textual reportage with visual narrativity. Evoking an intimate narrative voice entices readers’ emotions while awakening them to a truth about a given topic, and graphic literary journalism and documentary manga capture that emotion through the writer’s reimagined visual recollection of a textually recorded event. Therein lies its promise, and potential for problems. Operating on multiple semiotic levels not present in the textual version alone, graphic nonfiction requires a stronger implied contract to journalistic integrity because the text and the image can be at odds with that truth’s representation. Mangix – a blend of the terms manga, comics and comix, with a nod to the ubiquitous French linguistic puns in Asterix – seeks to examine the role, assessment, and representation of memory – as much for the journalist–artist as for the eyewitness – in comics journalism and documentary manga, as well as the history of and current trends in the illustrated literary journalism of various countries, from the rise of illustrated newspapers and satirical periodicals in the 19th century to investigative and immersive comics journalism and documentary manga of the 20th and 21st centuries. One of its many goals will be to identify the strands of a transnational migration of literary journalistic techniques, visual and textual alike, from France (and the U.S. and Europe in general) to and back from Japan over the years.

Program

Program 2024-25

The academic year started off with some very good news. The Mangix project, "Comics/Manga Journalism: Reportage Traditions and Illustration Praxes in Graphic Literary Journalism," was granted two-year seed funding by the Univ. of Lorraine (France) and Tohoku (Japan). The project, which can be found here, will officially begin on 10 Dec. 2024 with an introductory seminar (the program to be announced later). 

Click here to read more about the Mangix project.

On 10 December, John, Christopher Craig and Sara Izzo held the inaugural seminar for the Mangix project. John introduced the project publicly for the first time, and then each of them present a mini-talk on their comics/manga journalism works in progress.
 

 

In March 2025, John went to Tokyo, to meet with Matthew Strecher at Sophia University, and  then to Sendai to work with Christopher Craig at Tohoku University. They both participated in a two-day workshop on Trauma and Narrative at the university's International Research Institute of Disaster Science. The first day was dedicated to narrative journalistic writing dedicated to the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, which was the source of the deadly tsunami that hit the Iwate Prefecture where Sendai is located. Following the presentation of two reportages from foreign citizens present during the earthquake, the attendees were treated to a traditional Japanese Kamishibai,  which is a form of street theatre that uses pictures to help narrate a story (and is seen as a form of manga performance). This particular kamishebai was based on the earthquake's destruction around the Fukushima nuclear reactor.

 

 

The next day, John and Chris both presented their Mangix reseach in progress. John gave the talk "Of Little Boys and 'Little Boy': Nakazawa's Hiroshima Manga as Graphic Literary Journalism." He was looking for advice on the paper's discussion on trauma and memory on manga reportage, as well as feedback on the original panels in Japanese. Christ presented his research on WWII American war comics as nonfiction journalism.

 

 

In May, John, Sara and Tobias participated in a Mangix panel at the 19th Congress of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies held at Marist College in upstate New York. The panel, "Comics Journalism and Manga: At the Crossroads of Graphic Literary Journalism," gave each the opportunity to explore their research on nonfiction manga in France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Austria.

 

The Congress had other panels dedicated to comics journalism. And while there, John was able to announce to everyone that IALJS 20 will be held in Nancy in May 2026, and there will certainly be a program dedicated to the Mangix project at the congress. More on that to come....

Program 2025-26

The academic