Storied Objects

<h3>Comics and Graphic Narratives</h3><p>Series Editors: Sergio Figueiredo Jason Helms and Anastasia Salter</p><p></p><p><strong>STORIED OBJECTS</strong> is a comics-form monograph that investigates metaphor in digital scholarship through autoethnographic narrative and reflective multimodal methods. ERIN KATHLEEN BAHL examines material metaphor as rhetorical invention strategy through a deep dive into one creator's approach to designing digital scholarship. Her investigation guides readers through illustrative tours of the metaphor-based origin stories behind three published academic webtexts. Bahl offers practical tools for tracking how metaphors shape design and argument together at evolving stages of a project's development as well as reflective frameworks to inspire readers' own creative-critical practices. Overall <em>Storied Objects</em> illuminates the importance of systematically reflecting on material metaphors that guide our brainstorming processes because they fundamentally influence how our ideas take shape. </p><p></p><p>As a comics-form academic book exploring the creative craft of designing ideas <em>Storied Objects </em>builds on foundations laid by scholar-creators such as Scott McCloud (<em>Understanding Comics</em>) Nick Sousanis (<em>Unflattening</em>) Kay Sohini (<em>Drawing Unbelonging</em>) Sally Pirie (<em>The Good the Bad and the Data</em>) and Jason Helms (<em>Rhizcomics</em>).</p><p></p><p><strong>Erin Kathleen Bahl</strong> is Associate Professor of English (Applied and Professional Writing) at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta Georgia as well as the department's inaugural Social Media & Branding Coordinator. Her work focuses on creating knowledge telling stories and designing for access via digital scholarship webcomics folklore and interactive narrative. Her scholarship includes publications in<em> Kairos Computers and Composition Online enculturation The Journal of American Folklore Technical Communication Quarterly</em> and <em>The Digital Review</em> as well as several edited collections. Her creative work includes digital comics published by the Smithsonian's <em>Folklife Magazine</em> <em>Graphic RHM</em> <em>Vermont Folklife Center</em> <em>Variant Literature</em> and <em>Through the Twisted Woods.</em> Her digital dissertation on webtexts and invention won the 2018 Hugh Burns Distinguished Dissertation Award. Her 2022 illustrated webtext on audio description (co-authored with Margaret Price) received<em> Kairos's</em> Best Webtext Award and was selected for the Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2023. Along with Chris Andrews she is co-editor for <em>Kairos</em>.</p><p></p>