Abstract:
This ar ticle locates the practice of creating autobiographical comics
(autobiocomics) as products of autobiographical fiction (autofiction) and
imaginary worlds. Autobiocomics is a comics genre characterised by
imaginative and subjective representations of the autobiographical self.
Autobiocomic stories attempt to convey an emotional truth by depicting the
author’s authentic reactions to people, places, or events. With this research,
we intend to contribute to the existing autobiocomic scholarship by
demonstrating that autofiction and worldbuilding theories can deepen the
analysis of specific autobiocomics when instrumentalised in tandem. This
provides the oppor tunity to read autobiocomic texts for their shared
characteristics and generate insights on the author’s relationship to their
representations of self and the textual world wherein the self is revealed. In
this article, we review autobiocomics, providing a brief chronological overview
and identifying relevant concepts to position the analysis and discussion
thereafter. The analysis suggests future research into the implications of the
authors’ embodiment of their textual avatar and how they inhabit the textual
world. Three autobiocomics are read, discussed, and analysed to demonstrate
the characteristics of the medium as it pertains to both these theories:
Drieman (2020) by Wide Vercnocke, La mer à boire (2022) by Blutch, and
Fluctuat et Mergitur (2020) by Conrad Botes.
