Paratexts in factual comics: how to know if and when we are faced with “reality”?

Abstract

It tries to enumerate some of the paratextual strategies of comics that seek to establish some kind of referential relationship with reality (in factual or fictional terms). For this, is based on the notions of metacommunication and framing (Bateson, Watzlawick, Goffman), metasign (Volli), paratext (Genette), the status of fictional text (Searle), and sign as (also) an instrument lie (Eco, Bougnoux, from Peirce). Four works are analysed: A arte de Charlie Chan Hock Chye (Sonny Liew, 2015); As mais loucas aventuras de Mickey (Lewis Trondheim e Nicolas Keramidas, 2016); Oleg (Frederik Peeters, 2020); e Guardiões do Louvre (Jiro Taniguchi, 2014). In the end, some peculiarities of the corpus are perceived, such as the editorial position of the catalog sheet.