In recent years data visualization scholars and practitioners have drawn
attention to the need for data to be humanized. In addition to making
complex information more coherent, visualizations can work to incorporate
empathy and help audiences connect to information. Addressing
this call for humanizing data visualization, this chapter considers the
emergent area of ‘data comics’, looking at how the new fields of graphic
medicine and graphic social science deal with numeric data. We examine
recent data comics from graphic medicine and graphic social science that
exemplify the complexities and potential of presenting data in humanizing
ways. Our discussion is framed around what we call the EMA framework,
considering the Epistemic (knowledge and perspective), Methodological
(ways of working), and Aesthetic (practices of representation).
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