As an inherently mixed medium including visual and verbal tracks, comics is open to experimentation with techniques and tools characteristic of other media, such as photography. The origins of photocomics can be traced back to mid-twentieth century Italy and to the local variations of comics, fumetti and the roman dessiné. The latter is a genre of comics heavily influenced by cinema, as it compiles hand-drawn reproductions of film stills to create a tactile version of the movies. Although besides adaptations, original stories also appeared as roman dessinés, cinematographic and photographic references remained clearly recognizable in them: illustrations mimed the greyscale shades and compositions of the film stills, and characters were look-alikes of the movie stars.
Later, comics employing sequential photographs in their panels appeared as a distinct subgenre, spreading all over the world in local varieties. Until the 1980s photocomics were most popular in Europe, Latin America and South Africa, afterwards being replaced by different television genres. Nevertheless, graphic novels, memoirs, travelogues, and other genres of comics still recur with the integration of photographs, both in the traditional printed format and in the newly emerging digital environment. Photocomics remain in circulation in pedagogical and civic education functions, as they have proved to be an ideal medium for reaching persons with low literacy skills.
With the rise of graphic journalism, photocomics and comic books integrating photographs also acquire a new relevance, linked to the power of attestation and objectivity attributed to photos. Graphic reportages often rely on the use of visuals in a documentary function, such as charts, maps, and photographs, to provide evidence and enhance the credibility of the reportage in the eyes of the reader.
