Storytelling and the art of comics in visual and written expression: recovery with narrative art

As a cartoonist I use a semi-autobiographical character, Daisy, as a device to process my own experiences with therapeutic outcomes and I became curious about other cartoonists’ relationships with their characters as a healing and self-regulation process. I approached the ethnographic study with the view that creating autobiographical cartoons and comics could have application within formal art therapy settings. Drawing on narrative theory, and comics theory from an art therapy perspective, I immersed myself in the world of confessional comics with alter ego characters exploring a cross-section of themes. I discovered hundreds of webcomics and their followers. Many prolific and widely recognised cartoonists use the device of alter-ego cartoons and confessional comics to express lived experience and connect with others experiencing similar suffering. Many of these artists use an alter-ego to express their ideas and feelings. I am on a quest to find out why artists create alter egos and share them with audiences, and how this could be incorporated by art therapists in practice.