Reading comics for the field of International Relations: Theory, method and the Bosnian War

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European Journal of International Relations 23(3)
rather than the substance of the atrocities committed, that Sacco opens up fora self- reflexive critique of journalistic practices, and perhaps, more broadly, of the West and its waning interest in Bosnia after the conclusion of the Dayton Accords (Holland, 2014).
Conclusion
This article has made the call for why comics should become one of the mediums of expression that IR scholars engage. Given the virtual absence of theory on comics and international relations, the article has devoted space to the introduction of the medium of comics and its distinctiveness as a cultural form of expression, as well as to the elaboration of a theoretical framework composed by three components cultural capital and comics practices the particular text–image discourse of comics and an intertextual approach to the composition of specific studies. This might not be the only way to theorize comics from an IR perspective. Those coming to comics from the perspective of international political economy might, for example, foreground the way in which the global comics market works through processes of translation and marketing and how this connects with the cultivation of cultural legitimacy and audience reception. Gabilliet’s
(2010: 105) argument that the supply of Japanese comics was the most dynamic segment of the American graphic novel market following their introduction in the middle of the s could be the starting point for such studies.
There are also possibilities for further developing the theoretical framework presented earlier. One such development would be to consider the possibility that comics can enrich debates over how to bring the silent subject into analytical and political view, which is central to critical IR scholarship. Dingli (2015: 730) argues that the question of silence has usually cast those being silent as suffering from a violence waiting to be represented by the theorist (Hansen, 2000). The understanding of the gutter as simultaneously absence and presence might provide away to rethink the dichotomy between silence–speech at the heart of this debate (see also Parpart, 2010). Rather than either speaking or silent, the subject might be constituted as ambiguously situated as both speaking and not speaking at the same time, as both present and absent. Another theoretical and empirical line of research could move the cultural-sociological study beyond the US and Europe to the third centre for comics production, Japan/Korea, as well as to less known locales like Africa, where comics are also used and produced (Chaney,
2011; Hunt, 2002). At the semiotic level, we should raise the question of whether theories like Groensteen’s fully account for the way that comics communicate across the globe.
A final component that could be engaged theoretically and empirically is the study of how comics are received — or practised around — at the level of readers. Gabilliet
(2010: 191) laconically notes that Data concerning the historical readership of comic books are disparate, few in number, and inconsistent in quality. Print-runs and sales numbers provide some measure of how comics meet readers, but suffer from the fact that print-runs might not equal sales, that publishers have an interest in presenting high sales numbers, that sold books might not be read and that the ‘pass-along circulation number is hard to estimate. Readership is also influenced by the availability of libraries

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and their acquisition and lending practices. With the digitization of paper comics and the development of the distinct medium of the digital comic, such numbers become even harder to identify. However, social media also opens up new practices that accentuate the international aspect of comics. The immediate circulation of images of Tintin crying on social media in response to the terrorist attacks in Brussels on 22 March 2016 can, for example, be understood not only as a testimony to this comics figure’s iconic status, but also as a mediation of a dramatic event at the non-elite level Such instances also take comics studies beyond the analysis of those very devoted readers that form fan communities.
Ending on a concrete note, there are multiple interfaces between comics and other IR themes and questions worthy of further pursuit. For instance, those analysing the role that trauma and stigma play in foreign policy (Adler-Nissen, b Edkins, 2003;
Fierke, 2004) might note that there is substantial literature examining the mediation of personal and collective trauma in comics (Adams, 2008; Chute, 2010). Intertextual study could compare the representation of the 9/11 attacks in acclaimed comics produced by artists witnessing the attacks (e.g. Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers and Henrik Rehr’s Tuesday), the comics adaptation of the page official investigation into the attacks on the World Trade Centre, The 9/11 Report A Graphic Adaptation, and IR intertextual studies of 9/11 such as Cynthia Weber’s (Britten, 2010; Jacobson and Colón,
2006; Weber, 2008). Recent works on diplomacy as an everyday practice resonate nicely with the winner of the 2013 Best Album Prize at Angoulême, Quai d’Orsay/Weapons of
Mass Diplomacy by Antonin Baudry, who worked as a speechwriter for the foreign minister of France Dominique de Villepin during the run-up to the Iraq War (Adler-
Nissen, a Neumann, 2012). Situating the comics on Bosnia in a wider intertextual study, one might compare these to photography representations of the war, as well as attempts to commemorate its aftermath (Lisle, 2011; Lowe, 2014) . These are just examples in a closing call for reading comics in and for IR.

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