Grassroots comics

Political cartoons have been a powerful form of social satire and comment for centuries, the use of comics as a campaigning tool for grassroots organisations is a more recent success story. This guide outlines how and why you may use grassroots comics, how to get started with producing a comic, and some ideas for distributing them.

Tell your story - simply, quickly, to anyone

Grassroots comics are an exciting and growing form of participatory communications.

What are grassroots comics?

• Comics are stories, which are told visually. They become “grassroots”
  comics when they are made by an NGO or community activists about an
  issue that is relevant to that particular community.
• Genuine voices that encourage local debate in the society.
• They can be produced by groups and individuals, who normally have little or no access to media production.
• They are rarely made by professional artists, but can be if they are available.

Who are they for?

Any group with an identity, a message and a target audience can produce and use grassroots comics as a communication tool.

What resources do you need?

The technology involved is not very complicated. Pen, paper, ideas and a way to reproduce and distribute them is all you need.

The comics deal with local issues, and use local languages, local visual culture and local meanings and metaphors.

In our experience, very diverse groups on different levels of literacy and technical sophistication can, with some encouragement, all learn to produce comics that are of great interest to their groups or communities.

Draw your own or use existing artwork

You can also create comic strips from pre-existing artwork using Bitstrips, Strip Creator, or Toonlet.
Each has a different style, so check them all out to see what suits your organisation, audience and strategy.

All of these will
allow you to share the comics you created online, however you may have
to pay for a premium membership or make a donation in order to download
your comic in a format that can be printed.

Find out more at World Comics

This section of Message in-a-Box is based on the book "Grassroots Comics – a development communication tool" by Leif Packalen and Sharad Sharma.

Visit the World Comics website to learn more, including simple "How To..." downloads to take away and guide you through the process.

Bottom cartoon: "The Education of Girls" by Ms. Koku Katunzi, who is an Assistant
Information Officer in the HAKI ELIMU-organisation (Right to
Education). 

Her story is about a Maasai girl, who wishes to go to
school. Her mother talks to her father, who in the end supports the
idea, but only on the condition that the girl's Maasai traditions are
respected and that she will not be subjected to a 'foreign' culture in
the school. In the last panel she is on her way to school together with
a friend.