Comic books have long been a part of the world’s cultural consciousness, birthing various blockbusters, Lego sets and towering cultural figures—such as Superman or Captain America—for nearly a century. For many, flashy colors and a somewhat juvenile style are synonymous with comics as a medium, but Islamic scholars and some USC students are discovering the depth contained within their panels.
“I think that as new material emerges from the comics medium, we realize that there's actually quite a bit of interesting aesthetics that is complicated, sophisticated,” Esra Santesso, a leading scholar of post-colonial theory at the University of Georgia, said. “It's not necessarily an easy read, but a kind of a reading experience that demands the reader to take part in the meaning making process. It's a collaborative effort.”
On Feb. 13, Santesso brought her research to USC through a panel discussion co-sponsored by the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies and the Humanities Collaborative. Santesso, whose main research interests include Muslim identity in literature, saw an explosion of comics from the Middle East as an opportunity to explore stories which portray Islam with understanding and nuance. She published her most recent book, "Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing" in 2023, and it remains one of the only academic texts written about the topic.
Eman Chaudhry, a Pakistani American senior at the university, was recommended the panel by her professor and thesis advisor Sarah Waheed as an opportunity to dive into a new facet of Muslim art.
“For me, the South Asian Pakistani experience is really closely tied to my experience as a Muslim,” Chaudhry said. “That's why I attended. A lot of it was new to me. Because for me, when I think about Muslim art in general, I think of more like calligraphy or like geometric designs, and not really about comic books. I was really interested in learning more.”
The Comic Legal Defense Fund has described the Middle East and North Africa—both predominantly Muslim regions—as the “world hot spot for underground and experimental comics.” This boom has provided a platform for artists and writers to continually tackle heavy topics such as gender inequality and everyday lives threatened by war, says Santesso, providing examples such as "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi or Joe Sacco’s "Palestine."
“By way of producing these comics, they are making a political statement,” she said. “By visualizing either the sort of trauma that's happening in conflict areas or grievances or the disgruntlement of the people who fill up the Azadi Square in Tehran, they are making political statements.”
In her book and panel, Santesso chose to focus on these “warscapes” to highlight nuanced portrayals of Muslim identity in the face of violent political environments, as well as investigate the subversion of the violent Muslim trope popular in Western comics.
“The question that I was thinking about is not necessarily a war zone where there's a recognizable conflict between two easily identifiable armed forces, but warscapes, which are everyday civilian spaces that all of a sudden turn into violent and life-threatening spaces for people who live there, that was the nuance that I was going for,” Santesso said.
Viewing Muslim individuals and cultures through this lens contrasts heavily with tropes Chaudry has noticed in Western media, such as the presence of a central white savior character who “saves” a Muslim woman. She walked away from the panel discussion feeling as though the event allowed the audience to gain a deeper understanding of the Muslim experience worldwide.
“I think it's great to have more panels discussing other cultures, other experiences, religions,” Chaudhry said. “I think it's great because it allows other individuals to kind of get an understanding of our culture and what we go through, and I think it's a great way for people at USC to definitely broaden their world view.”
Aidan Reilly, a senior USC student and research assistant for the Humanities Collaborative’s Muslim South project, also attended Santesso’s panel. He admired the comics presented for their nuanced depiction of warscapes such as Palestine and Kashmir, as well as their refusal to play into tokenism.
“It's much different than like a superhero comic, right? Because it's not showing like a one-dimensional character, it's showing the reality,” Reilly said. “It’s not trying to combat something; it's trying just to show the reality.”
The panel has shifted Reilly’s perception of comics, allowing him to appreciate them as art which can share important and complex stories.
“You could really just like sit there and stare at these images for like five minutes, there’s just so much going on,” Reilly said. “I think it really changed my perspective on that medium. It's like, 'Oh, this is a true art form.' This is a true way of storytelling that I didn't really think about.”
