Tara McInerney

Since 2016, I have developed and taught on the BA Comics and Graphic Novels course at Teesside University, becoming a senior lecturer in 2018. In 2019, I developed and became course leader for the MA Illustration programme.​ I am a visual narrator and illustrator, with academic interests in manga, queer theory, LGBT+ issues and fan-work. 

I studied Illustration at Cardiff School of Art And Design, and soon after, I moved to London to finish an MA in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art.

I have hosted workshops in Cardiff, Newcastle, London and Tokyo at major illustration and comic fairs and developed my practise through exhibitions, illustrations for commercial magazines and articles for art journals. I am passionate about collaborative learning and self-publishing, and as such, I produce comics, anthologies and zines on an independent basis about a wide range of issues. 

My latest graphic work, Not A Copycat, is a research-based docu-manga. It has been funded by the Japanese Ministry for Cultural Affairs and CGArts, and exhibited in Ginza, Tokyo. The first chapter addresses the phenomenon of manga doujinshi in a global context, explores Comiket festival, and introduces the educational uses and gratifications of fanwork.

Current Projects:

I am lead researcher and co-editor on a feature-length film documentary about Japanese Fan Comics (Doujinshi), which has been generously funded by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation and the Sasakawa Foundation.

I am working on a graphic novel about the hybrid economy of Doujinshi in Japan, supported by the Japanese Ministry for Cultural Affairs.

"Communication happens when an image
reminds the viewer of his own knowledge"

- René Magritte