Comic Books, Science (Fiction) and Public Relations

Comic books have a long and mostly unacknowledged history in the field of public relations. Notable British examples from the 1980s include the Department of Health campaign against smoking that pitted Superman against the supervillian Nic O’Teen and Raymond Biggs’ anti-nuclear weapon graphic novel When the Wind Blows. More recently comic books have been extensively used in promoting health campaigns across the world and this has started to receive some critical attention through the Graphic Medicine network and associated conferences.

Comic artist and theorist Will Eisner would have categorised the above examples as instructional comics and this term will be explored in relation to issues of public engagement using science (fiction) based examples. The science fiction genre has been a mainstay within comic books since the 1930s and the two case studies examined here draw on visual and narrative tropes of this genre used to engage schoolchildren of various ages in science based issues and topics. Dreams of a Low Carbon Future was published in 2013 by the University of Leeds with ESPRC funding to examine and promote solutions to climate change. Asteroid Belter was produced by Newcastle University in conjunction with the British Science Festival 2013 to promote science mainly to primary school children. An analysis of these examples concludes by examining public engagement and the impact these comics can have on specific target audiences, factors that make them such a valuable tool within the public relations profession.