What Can You Learn from a Comic Book?

This two-part post originally ran as one, in slightly longer form, on The Content Wrangler. Abridged with the author’s permission.

When I utter the word ‘comics’ most people immediately think of spandex-clad superheroes, talking animals or a gang of perennial teenagers who never seem to graduate high-school. There is a common misconception that comics are a genre with a limited range. They aren’t. In fact they aren’t a genre at all.

Comics are a medium. Just like film, theater, prose, poetry or any other process of telling stories comics can be used to convey all sort so information about a wide variety of subjects to multiple audiences. Comics can make you laugh, cry, gasp in wonder, or shake in terror, and they can also make great instruction manuals, training aids, white papers, or any other type of business or technical communication you can think of.

I define comics as a graphic medium in which images are utilized in order to convey a sequential narrative.

• Studies have shown that humans as a species are hard-wired to understand certain sequences of symbols and icons. We understand the basic language of comics on a fundamental level.
• Comics can transcend language and cultural boundaries. Outside of the Anglo/American cultural sphere comics are the most widely read medium.
• Even the CIA considers comics as the most powerful communications medium, as most of its propaganda leaflets drops over the years have been in the form of comics.

There is also a long and successful history of using comics and comics techniques in various types of business and technical communications. Consider the following examples:

When Google launched its Chrome Browser the accompanying technical documentation was a widely distributed comic book.

The most widely read piece of technical documentation in the history of the US Army, officially known as “DA Pam 750-30 Operation and Preventative Maintenance of the M16A1 Rifle,” is a comic book better known by the troops as “How to love your rifle.”

The visitors guide for the European Organization for Nuclear research is a comic. Comics have been produced on all the major sciences including DNA research, paleontology, philosophy, just to name a few. In my library I have examples of Japanese comics telling the corporate history of 7-Eleven and the product history of the Datsun 240Z car. The graphic novel version of the official 9/11 report outsold the prose version.

So what can we learn from studying the comics medium?

Sequence. The fundamental backbone of comics is the idea of sequence, that one image follows another to impart information to the reader. Most technical documentation is also built on sequence and structure, yet often that sequence is ignored, or jumps in logic occur that confuse a reader. While working out the sequence of steps for a procedure just think, “If someone had to draw this sequence as a comic strip, do they have enough information to do so? Have you covered each step?” Instead of overloading your reader or end user with information, just show them what they need to know at that given point, one step at a time.

Narrative. The second fundamental of comics is the idea of narrative. Narrative should drive and guide the reader/user along on a journey. All communication is storytelling, and in storytelling your narrative must have a beginning, middle and end.

Symbols/Icons. The language of comics is built on symbols and icons, and as I mentioned earlier we, as a species, are culturally hard-wired to understand many icons. For instance the smiley face icon transcends cultures and is instantly understood even by people who have never seen it before. Comics have developed their own visual shorthand that also seems to be universal, including elements such as the speech balloon. Think about the use of icons and symbols in your documentation. They can speed up comprehension and drastically reduce translation costs. But beware, while many symbols are cross-cultural, others are not.

Alan J. Porter, a twenty-year veteran of the corporate communications industry, is founder of 4Js Group LLC, a consulting and services company that specializes in combining creative talent with business expertise to help companies tell their story.