Visual Public Relations

3Comic books, science (fiction) and public relations

Ian Horton

Introduction

Comic books have a long but mostly unwritten history in the field of public relations yet they have had a significant impact on society throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. Notable British examples from the 1980s included: AARGH! (Artists Against Rampant Government Homophobia) created to protest against Clause 28 of a government bill banning the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality, Strip Aids designed to raise awareness of Aids and Raymond Biggs’ anti-nuclear weapon graphic novel When the Wind Blows (Sabin, 1993: 102–4). In the early 1980s the Department of Health created an anti-smoking campaign that pitted DC Comics Superman against the supervillian ...