Mapping Migratory Routes and Urban Imaginaries: GIS-Based Spatial Storytelling in Contemporary Graphic Novels
Abstract
This paper explores the intersection of graphic novels and spatial humanities by applying Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map migratory routes and urban imaginaries in contemporary graphic narratives. While graphic novels have long served as powerful vehicles for depicting displacement, exile, and the lived experience of cities, traditional literary analysis often overlooks the precise spatial dynamics embedded in their panel sequences, gutters, and visual layouts. Drawing on tools from the spatial humanities, I georeference key locations, trace character journeys, and reconstruct imagined urban environments in selected works, including Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, Shaun Tan's The Arrival, and Art Spiegelman's Maus. By converting narrative panels into layered GIS datasets incorporating base maps, migration trajectories, and qualitative annotations of space, I reveal how these texts construct "migratory cartographies" that blend real-world geography with subjective, affective urban imaginaries. The analysis demonstrates that graphic novels do not merely represent migration; they actively perform spatial storytelling through sequential art, where the movement between panels mirrors the fragmented, non linear nature of displaced lives. Interactive StoryMaps created for this project further allow readers to engage with these routes dynamically, bridging the gap between close reading and geospatial visualization. Ultimately, this study argues that GIS-based methods enrich our understanding of graphic novels as multimodal spatial texts and offer new possibilities for digital humanities scholarship in literature and cultural geography. By treating comics panels as geospatial data, we can uncover patterns of belonging, alienation, and mobility that remain hidden in conventional textual analysis.
Keywords
Download Options
Introduction
In the intricate pages of contemporary graphic novels, migration rarely manifests as a straightforward geographical progression from one fixed location to another. Instead, it emerges as a deeply fragmented, emotionally charged, and visually layered journey that unfolds across sequential panels, gutters, and meticulously constructed urban landscapes. Graphic novels have long served as powerful mediums for depicting experiences of displacement, exile, cultural hybridity, and the search for belonging. Yet, while literary and cultural scholars have extensively analysed the thematic, autobiographical, and representational dimensions of these works, the precise spatial dynamics embedded within them—specific migratory routes, the construction of real and imagined cities, and the interplay between visual narrative rhythm and geographical movement— often remain underexplored or treated metaphorically rather than analytically.
This paper seeks to address that critical gap by integrating tools from the spatial humanities, particularly Geographic Information Systems (GIS), with the study of graphic narratives. By georeferencing locations depicted or implied in the texts, tracing character trajectories as polylines, and layering qualitative annotations that capture emotional and symbolic elements, I demonstrate how three influential graphic novels construct what I term "migratory cartographies." These are hybrid spatial representations that blend verifiable real-world geography with subjective, affective urban imaginaries shaped by memory, trauma, and hope.
The primary texts under examination are Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis (2007), Shaun Tan's wordless The Arrival (2006), and Art Spiegelman's The Complete Maus (1996). These works span diverse historical and cultural contexts: political exile amid the Iranian Revolution, the surreal anonymity of immigrant arrival in an unnamed metropolis, and the intergenerational trauma of the Holocaust. Despite their differences, all three employ the unique grammar of sequential art— panel transitions, gutter spaces, perspective shifts, and visual symbolism—to perform spatial storytelling. Traditional close reading captures the emotional resonance of these narratives, but GIS mapping reveals hidden patterns of mobility, confinement, and belonging that would otherwise remain invisible.
My central argument is twofold. First, graphic novels are not merely representations of migration; they actively perform spatial storytelling through their multimodal form, where the movement between panels often mirrors the non-linear, fragmented nature of displaced lives. Second, applying GIS methods from the digital humanities enriches literary interpretation by providing a rigorous, visual, and interactive framework for analysing these spatial performances. This hybrid approach bridges quantitative geospatial precision with qualitative humanistic insight, contributing to on-going conversations in comic studies, migration literature, and the spatial humanities.
The paper proceeds as follows. I first review relevant scholarship in spatial humanities, comic studies, and migration theory. I then detail my GIS methodology. Subsequent sections present in-depth case studies of each graphic novel, accompanied by the GIS visualizations generated through this analysis, followed by comparative findings and a discussion of broader implications. Finally, I reflect on limitations and suggest avenues for future research.
Conclusion
Mapping migratory routes and urban imaginaries through Geographic Information Systems reveals dimensions of graphic novels that conventional literary analysis cannot fully capture. By transforming panels, gutters, and visual rhythms into geospatial data, this study has demonstrated that The Complete Persepolis, The Arrival, and The Complete Maus do not merely represent migration—they actively perform spatial storytelling. In these texts, space is lived, remembered, feared, and reimagined through the unique grammar of sequential art. The GIS visualizations made visible what remained implicit: the dense clustering of revolutionary Tehran versus the scattered isolation of exile; the gradual shift from alienation to belonging in Tan's surreal city; and the palimpsestic layering of Holocaust trauma that continues to haunt the present.
This research confirms my central argument that graphic novels function as performative multimodal spatial texts. The hybrid methodology—combining GIS precision with humanistic interpretation—bridges comic studies, migration literature, and the spatial humanities. It not only uncovers hidden patterns of mobility, confinement, and affective belonging but also respects the artistic integrity of sequential art.
In an era defined by global displacement and refugee crises, such spatially attentive readings hold both academic and societal value. Interactive StoryMaps transform passive reading into active exploration, offering pedagogical tools that foster deeper empathy and understanding of migrant experiences. By mapping the routes characters travel and the cities they inhabit—both real and imagined—we gain a richer, more empathetic understanding of human mobility and belonging in the contemporary world.
References
[1] Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The location of culture. Routledge.
[2] Bodenhamer, D. J., Corrigan, J., & Harris, T. M. (Eds.). (2010). The spatial humanities: GIS and the future of humanities scholarship. Indiana University Press.
[3] Fraser, B. (2019). Visible cities, global comics: Urban images and spatial form. University Press of Mississippi.
[4] Hirsch, M. (1992). Family pictures: Maus, mourning, and post-memory. Discourse, 15(2), 3–29.
[5] Satrapi, M. (2007). The complete Persepolis. Pantheon.
[6] Spiegelman, A. (1996). The complete Maus. Pantheon.
[7] Tan, S. (2007). The arrival. Arthur A. Levine Books.