Life Writing

This article discusses diverse forms of graphic life writing that have emerged roughly since the 1970s, as a sub-formation of the so-called underground comix, which were addressing a more adult readership than mainstream comics. Autobiographical comics or autographics, a term coined by Gillian Whitlock, have covered a variety of crises such as growing up in a dysfunctional family or suffering from a severe illness. Beyond such personal predicaments, more and more works have in recent years devoted themselves to global crises including war, genocide, and terrorism. This essay explores the question in what ways graphic life writing distinguishes itself from traditional, literary autobiography. It discusses how Philippe Lejeune’s influential concept of the autobiographical pact can be applied to autobiographical comics as well, which use different forms of authentication to convey a sense of truthfulness. In the second part, it focuses on several sub-genres of graphic life writing to give readers a sense of both the productivity and the diversity of this innovative cultural form.