Vis-à-Vis: Interview Encounters in Four Recent Comic Reportages

ABSTRACT:This article presents a close reading of interviews and interview-like scenes in four recent comic reportages about refugees. Guided by the assumption that these face-to-face encounters provide a significant, yet understudied look into both the topic of refugees and the genre, comics journalism, I compare the (dis)similar ways in which the four artists approach their task. The comparison rests on quantitative criteria such as the extension of interview moments as well as qualitative details including the verbal division of labor, the drawing style, if and how the journalist appears in the picture, if and how translation is addressed, how the background or environment looks, and what kind of experience the monstrator shows. Ultimately, I take stock of a range of artistic decisions within interview(-like) situations and outline three different ethical categories or poetics of how comics artists represent the interview with pen and paper.