Comics and other image-text hybrids—from illuminated manuscripts to commercial lithographs to modern-day flow charts--have been used successfully to communicate information, explain complex or difficult concepts, but also to teach audiences how to perform important, sometimes life-saving, skills or maneuvers. But do image-texts like these count as "art"? Or does the didactic function of these texts disqualify them as art? For example, is a comic showing how to perform the Heimlich maneuver art? What if the text was altered slightly to undercut the imagery in a humorous manner? Why is it that an explicitly didactic function of certain forms of representation, perhaps especially image-texts, render them "artless" to some? As everyday modes of communication and representation increasingly rely on image-text combinations, does it even matter if these image-texts are considered art or not?

Current trends in non-fiction comics reveal that artfulness and didacticism may not be mutually exclusive. The recent wave of non-fiction comics dealing with health and illness reveal the power of narrative in providing helpful information, and still others challenge our narrative expectations, especially as they may be shaped by literary traditions. Lynda Barry's recent publications—part memoir, part how-to, part theory—defy any easy categorization, but is explicitly pedagogical in content. These and other non-fiction comics reveal that the identification of comics as "literature," even as narrative, is only one way of conceptualizing the form; and that comics, as well as other image-text hybrids, can break open and offer new ways of thinking about traditional aesthetic categories and criteria.
This panel welcomes papers that explore any kind of image-text in all kinds of media—new and old—that has a didactic function, but challenges our preconceptions of what is considered art or artful or perhaps suggests the necessity of new aesthetic criteria. Papers that explore the ways in which "non-fiction" comics challenge traditional aesthetic categories and boundaries are especially welcome.

This year's conference will take place Nov. 12-15 in Columbus, OH. Please consult the convention website for more details: http://luc.edu/mmla/convention/

Please send any inquiries as well as 250-word abstracts (with your name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and paper title) to Ji-Hyae Park at jpark@roosevelt.edu by April 5th, 2015.