Comics can be tools for activism, public memory, historical critique, and cultural transformation. Aaron Humphrey (Adelaide University) traces a century of comics created in internment camps and immigration detention centers, arguing for their importance both as historical testimony and as influences on contemporary graphic novels. Logan Uber describes how comics and cartoon mascots such as Smokey Bear and Mark Trail shaped environmental consciousness within the American conservation movement. Priel Cohanim (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) examines archival practices in the manga Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, unraveling its critique of political power in storytelling and historical archives. Jessica Boykin (South Mountain Community College) argues that nonfiction resistance comics published after March offer "liberatory counternarratives" that reshape public memory by centering marginalized voices and histories often excluded from mainstream accounts.
