Tosti, Andrea and Gere, Charlie and Lackovic, Natasa and Fulop, Erika (2026) The Untapped Grid: Rethinking Educational Comics for a Post-Digital Academy : Towards a Visual Epistemology of Learning, Research, and Knowledge Production. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
![[thumbnail of 2026tostiphd]](https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/style/images/fileicons/text.png)
Abstract
Still considered emerging, the promising field of data comics (DC)—framed within the broader domain of educational comics (ECs)—struggles to establish itself in academia. In an increasingly visual/multimodal world with exponential data growth, effectively visualising and understanding complex information and concepts is crucial. Yet, approaches connecting DC/ECs with data visualisation (DV) and education remain scarce, challenging comics’ viability beyond niche interests. In response, this doctoral thesis redefines DC and ECs as tools for visualising and investigating complex data/phenomena in higher education (HE). DC combine the narrative, representational, and spatiotemporal principles of comics with DV techniques, offering a format that transcends traditional models and bridges the gap between visual and verbal communication. Fully harnessing this potential requires reconceptualising comics, centring the visual and leveraging multimodal affordances for HE teaching and research. To achieve this, the thesis proposes conceptual prototypes—the Educational Comics to Come (ECtC)—designed to overcome the predominant linear ‘strip’ approach inherited from traditional text-based formats. These prototypes emphasize comics’ spatial, multilinear, and diagrammatic potential, fostering critical and creative inquiry. This research follows a speculative qualitative methodology, positioning the researcher as a bricoleur integrating critical analysis of literature (ECs, DC, DV) with a corpus analysis of comics case studies. Findings highlight comics’ transformative potential in HE, advocating integration into academic curricula to enhance data comprehension and innovative knowledge production. By embracing multidisciplinary approaches including visual literacy, multimodality, and transdisciplinarity, this study provides a foundation for rethinking ECs as dynamic tools. It also posits the comics-fact as a unique epistemic event emerging from reader interaction with the medium’s visuo-spatial structure.