Archaeology, Comics and Community: The Oswestry Heritage Comics Project
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 07/05/2017

Oswestry Heritage Comics is a series of comics which I created about the history, archaeology and heritage of Oswestry, a small market town on the border between Shropshire and Powys. The comics were published this summer in a regional newspaper - the Oswestry and Border Counties Advertizer - over the course of fourteen weeks between July and October. The comics were created as part of my involvement in Heritage Open Days, and were designed to introduce historical and archaeological information about the town and surrounding area, as well as discuss issues facing local heritage sites, monuments, historic buildings and landscapes.
This presentation will briefly outline the background to my professional use of comics as a medium for visualising and presenting archaeology, history and heritage - as well as the specific practical and theoretical approaches which shaped the Oswestry Heritage Comics series. I will also discuss the subsequent development of the project beyond its initial iteration as a limited-run newspaper strip, and the implications this has for the use of comics as a visualisation and outreach medium in community-based archaeological practice.

John Swogger, Freelance