Postcolonial Comics and Graphic Novels: A Review Essay.

This essay reviews recent scholarship on postcolonial comics and graphic novels, focusing on Mark McKinney's *Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics* (2021) and Esra Mirze Santesso's *Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing* (2023). Both works analyze comics that challenge reductive, mainstream representations of minoritized and Muslim characters, contributing to postcolonial studies by exploring counter-hegemonic narratives and visual forms. McKinney's study traces the evolution of French comics by ethnic minorities from xenophobic portrayals to depictions of immigrant agency, employing concepts like "graphic polyphony" to analyze revisionist aesthetics. Santesso examines Muslim comics through the lens of "warscapes," highlighting complex civilian experiences under conflict and critiquing Islamophobic stereotypes in U.S. comics. The essay situates these studies within broader debates on the legitimacy of comics as a scholarly medium and the contested nature of postcolonial theory, noting ongoing developments in terminology and thematic focus within the field.