Autographic Selfies: Digital Comics, Social Media and Networked Photography

After much debate as to whether digital comics are an extension of print practices or a distinct medium, there has been little discussion of the role played by social media in the production of comics constructed with and consumed through digital technologies. This, despite the fact that social media sites have become the primary means by which comics find their readers. This connection has been nowhere more in evidence than in Brazil, where the comics industry has made use of the dominant role played by social media in the country. This chapter examines the encounter between digital comics and the networked logic of social media, focusing on the use of networked photographic images and in particular the vernacular genre of the ‘selfie’. Taking as a case study the work of Brazil-based artist Éff, I use the term ‘autographic selfie’ to describe the meeting point between the graphic memoir genre – the dominant narrative mode employed by comics on social media – and the aesthetic regime of the selfie. Through an in-depth analysis of this individual body of work, I explore the critical role of digital comics in relation to the changing forms of selfhood and intersubjectivity bound up with social media.