Making Nonfiction Comics by eleri Harris and Shay Mirk - A review

Making Nonfiction Comics: A guide for Graphic Narrative by Eleri Harris and Shay Mirk is a beautiful and informative book relaying what goes into making nonfiction comics. It is the first book (that I am aware of) that deals specifically with nonfiction. It is a thorough look at what authors need to create viable, publishable nonfiction.

Each chapter discusses one aspect of nonfiction comic creating. They relay the information through prose, through comics, and through interviews. There are chapters dedicated to research, interviewing, graphic reporting, writing nonfiction comics, prompts for personal narratives, drawing nonfiction, collecting data on science and grapch medicine, editing, buidling community, and shariing and publishing your work. Each chapter provides an overview for that topic, they provide exampels and details, and then there are numerous voices within each chapter that describe individual experiences within that specific topic. Furthermore, within each chapter are resources for further exploration.

This book is chock-full of advice and the authors guide you through each chapter. Here are a few examples / excerpts that particularly resonated with me:

• "One big key to comics: write less and show more(p.95)" It seems simple enough but actually is difficult to do.

• "A useful rule of thumb is: one action and one sentence per panel (unless it is dialogue)... some actions will take multiple panels and some don't need words..." (p. 97)

• "In non-fiction comics we try to capture the emotional reality - - whatt does the moment feel like." (P. 107)

• "You need to think about the pace Pace is affected by space and should be read quickly or is it a big emotional or action scene where the reader spends more time. Create space for these moments (p. 108)

• "Think of each chapter as a paragraph and each page as a sentence." (p. 138)

• There are some really helpful spreads. For example on page 180, they discuss how to present data reliable through the use of colors, original data source, and comparisons; and they they have an interview with Joyce Rice on how to make data-dense stories feel active and engaging.

• Also really helpful is a chapter dedicated to editing - a very important and underrepresented skill.

I strongly recommend this book for creating and reviewing nonfiction graphic novels as it provides various lenses through which to approach this genre.