Making Nonfiction Comics: A Guide for Graphic Narrative

The definitive guide to writing, drawing, and publishing nonfiction comics from award-winning creators Shay Mirk and Eleri Harris--"abolsutely essential reading" (Nate Powell)

Making Nonfiction Comics is an accessible guide to nonfiction comics perfect for graphic novel readers, writers, and of course, aspiring comics artists. This new classic is a must-have for readers of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Lynda Barry's Making Comics.

Sarah Shay Mirk and Eleri Mai Harris, award-winning graphic journalists and longtime editors of the critically acclaimed graphic journalism site the Nib, have compiled the perfect field guide to graphic journalism while showcasing valuable skills and practices for creating nonfiction comics.

Mixing comics, prose, infographics, illustrations, and interviews with some of the world's most influential nonfiction comics creators, Harris and Mirk introduce readers to nonfiction visual stories while also articulating the standards and ethics around blending traditional journalism with the visual language of comics.

Featuring contributions from Derf Backderf, Box Brown, Thi Bui, Nicole Georges, Malaka Gharib, Nate Powell, Kristen Radtke, Victoria Ying, and more.

Author: Shay Sarah Mirk,Eleri Harris
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
Published: 11/11/2025
Pages: 272
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.76lbs
Size: 9.20h x 7.20w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781419769276


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 11/01/2025
Publishers Weekly 11/17/2025

About the Author
Sarah "Shay" Mirk (she/they) is a graphic journalist, editor, and teacher. She is the author of Guantanamo Voices (Abrams ComicArts, 2020), which received a starred Kirkus review and was named a Best Book of 2020 by the New York Times. They were a contributing editor at graphic journalism website the Nib, where they wrote and edited nonfiction comics, including Be Gay Do Comics, which won the 2020 Ignatz for Best Anthology. They also cowrote the investigative comics series In/Vulnerable, illustrated by Thi Bui, which won an RFK Human Rights Award for Journalism in 2021. She resides in Portland, Oregon. Eleri Harris (she/her) is an Eisner Award-winning cartoonist, journalist and editor working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country in Canberra, Australia. For a decade she was features editor at the Nib, where her work received an Eisner Award, two Ignatz Awards, a Ringo Award, and two Comic Art Awards of Australia. Eleri is the author of the children's book A Loo of One's Own: The Mostly True Story of Australia's First Female Parliamentarians (Allen & Unwin 2025). She loves drawing tiny pictures in her studio at Gorman House Arts Centre, nerding out over fancy drawings and building sweet comics communities.