Science Meets Comics - Proceedings of the Symposium on Communicating and Designing the Future of Food in the Anthropocene

Aug 28, 2026

Uploaded by Miles

Proceedings collect interdisciplinary research and perspectives on how comics and manga can communicate and shape public understanding of science and the future of food within the Anthropocene. The content examines readers’ expectations, genre conventions, and the cultural signals that determine what counts as “comicness,” arguing that educational potential depends on textual and paratextual framing as well as readers’ media experiences. A key focus is gakushū manga, educational or instructional comics, and how this less visible genre provides a site where science meets comics.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Manga meets Science: Going beyond the Education-Entertainment Divide

How readers perceive science comics

Genre expectations in Japan

Gakushū Manga, an inconspicuous genre

Science comics in Japanese education

Reinhold Leinfelder • Alexandra Hamann • Jens Kirstein • Marc Schleunitz (Eds.) Science meets Comics Proceedings of the Symposium on Communicating and Designing the Future of Food in the Anthropocene Jaqueline Berndt • Anne-Kathrin Kuhlemann • Toni Meier • Veronika Mischitz Stephan Packard • Lukas Plank • Nick Sousanis • Katerina Teaiwa • Arnold van Huis Editors Reinhold Leinfelder Freie Universität Berlin Institute of Geological Sciences Berlin, Germany Alexandra Hamann Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Berlin, Germany Jens Kirstein Freie Universität Berlin Institute of Geological Sciences Berlin, Germany Marc Schleuniz Freie Universität Berlin Institute of Geological Sciences Berlin, Germany This publication was made possible by the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung. An Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and by the Freie Universität Berlin. Financial support came from the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of the Excellence Initiative. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at [http://dnb.dnb.de](http://dnb.dnb.de). © 2017 by Christian A. Bachmann Verlag, Berlin [www.christian-bachmann.de](www.christian-bachmann.de) Layout and typesetting: Alexandra Hamann & Jens Kirstein Proofreading: Andrea Schlosser Cover illustration: © 2017 by Ruohan Wang Printed in Germany by docupoint GmbH, Barleben Print ISBN 978-3-941030-92-3 E-Book ISBN 978-3-941030-93-0 Dr. Jaqueline Berndt was Professor of Comics Theory at the Graduate School of Manga, Kyoto Seika University, Japan, and is now Professor of Japanese Language and Culture at Stockholm University. In addition to manga she has been teaching and writing on art as discourse and institution in modern Japan, visual culture, and media aesthetics. For The Japan Foundation she directed the world-traveling exhibition Manga Hokusai Manga: Approaching the Master’s Compendium from the Perspective of Contemporary Comics (2016-). Her publications include the co-edited volumes Reading Manga (2006) and Manga’s Cultural Crossroads (2013) as well as the monographs Phänomen Manga (1995) and Manga: Medium, Art and Material (2015). [http://kyoto-seika.academia.edu/JaquelineBerndt](http://kyoto-seika.academia.edu/JaquelineBerndt) Jaqueline Berndt Manga meets Science: Going beyond the Education-Entertainment Divide How readers perceive science comics is swayed by the general notion of comics they hold, in particular with regards to the question "... why call such works comics at all?" (Duffy 2015: 5). For most regular readers, comics are anything but a context-transcending medium of representation that interrelates image and text, simultaneity and sequentiality, page and panel. "Comics can name a means of communication and/or an aesthetic visual style and/or particular narrative tropes and/or a subculture and/or an industry." (ibid.). Conventions, connotations, and cross-references shared by specific readerships are not tobe dismissed when weighing the odds of a comics' educational impact.1 It is the 'culturally qualifying aspects' rather than the technological, material, and semiotic properties that warrant 'comicness' (Wilde 2015). In other words, the perception of comics is shaped as much by textual features and paratextual elements which may invite, for example, educational readings, as by readers'experience within a specific mediascape which may defer narrow educational intentions. In Japan, most contemporary readers expect comics, or manga2, to be entertaining fiction (story manga), magazine-based, and targeted at age-and gender-specific demographics. These narratives eventually reappear in bound book editions (tankōbon), after they have proven to be popular t

FAQs

What determines how readers perceive science comics?

Readers’ perceptions depend on the broader notion of comics they already hold, including cultural conventions, connotations, and paratextual cues that invite educational readings, as well as readers’ experience within a specific mediascape.

How do contemporary Japanese readers typically expect manga to function?

Most contemporary readers expect manga or comics to be entertaining fiction, magazine-based, and targeted at age- and gender-specific demographics, with popular works later released as bound tankōbon editions.

What is gakushū manga and why is it important in this discussion?

Gakushū manga refers to educational or instructional comics intended to teach. The text treats it as a less visible genre that offers a concrete point where science content can meet comic media beyond conventional entertainment categories.

Aug 28, 2026

Uploaded by Miles