Comics as Enterprise: Economic Models and Creative Sustainability

 Comics as Enterprise: Economic Models and Creative Sustainability

Fer Garcia

 

Introduction

Comics are frequently framed as a creative medium defined by visual storytelling, authorship, and cultural expression. Yet such a framing risks obscuring a fundamental dimension of the field: comics are also economic enterprises. Every narrative, character, and serialized world emerges within a system shaped by market size, industrial organization, and modes of distribution.

These systems vary significantly across contexts. The scale and global reach of the United States comics industry contrasts with smaller, localized ecosystems such as Brussels and other European production centers. However, across these differences, a shared transformation is evident: the increasing convergence of creative practice and entrepreneurial responsibility.

This article argues that economic structures do not merely sustain comics production; they actively shape both creative outcomes and the long-term viability of creators. To understand comics today requires recognizing them as sites where artistic production and economic organization are inseparable.

 

The Creator as Entrepreneur

The role of the comics creator has expanded beyond traditional artistic boundaries. Historically, industrial models separated creative labor from publishing, distribution, and marketing. In contemporary practice, these distinctions have eroded.

Digital tools and platforms now allow creators to produce, distribute, and promote their work independently. However, this expansion of autonomy has also redistributed responsibility. Creators frequently assume roles that include marketing, audience engagement, and project management alongside their artistic work.

This shift reflects broader transformations in creative labor. As David Hesmondhalgh and Sarah Baker argue, creative industries increasingly demand self-management and entrepreneurial behavior from workers, often without corresponding institutional support.¹ In this context, the comics creator becomes structurally entrepreneurial—not necessarily by intention, but by necessity.

 

Economic Models in Contemporary Comics

The contemporary comics industry operates through multiple economic models that redistribute risk, control, and long-term value.

Work-for-hire remains central to publishers such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Under this model, creators are compensated for their labor while intellectual property remains with the publisher. This provides relative financial stability and access to globally recognized characters such as Batman and Superman.

However, this stability is accompanied by constraints. Corporate comics operate within shared universes that prioritize continuity and brand maintenance. As commonly described in industry discourse—often through the informal metaphor of “putting the toys back in the box”—creators are expected to work within parameters that limit permanent transformation.² Narrative developments may be revised or undone, reflecting the long-term management of intellectual property.

Creator-owned models invert this structure. They place risk on the creator while granting full control and ownership. Without the support of established brands, creators must build audiences and distribution channels independently. Yet successful cases demonstrate the potential for long-term value accumulation, as seen in the careers of Todd McFarlane and Peter Laird.

This contrast reflects a central economic tension: immediate security versus long-term ownership.

 

Platforms, Crowdfunding, and the Reconfiguration of Gatekeeping

Digital platforms and crowdfunding have significantly altered the structure of comics production. Platforms such as Kickstarter enable creators to fund projects directly through audience support.

The importance of this shift is well documented. Kickstarter’s own published statistics consistently identify comics as one of its most successful categories in terms of funding volume and project success rates.³

However, the narrative of democratization is incomplete. Established industry actors have also adopted crowdfunding mechanisms. For example, DC Comics participated in the We Can Be Heroes campaign (2013), hosted on Indiegogo, which combined charitable fundraising with branded content.⁴ While not a traditional publishing initiative, it demonstrates how large companies incorporate crowdfunding logic into existing strategies.

More broadly, platform economies introduce new forms of gatekeeping. Visibility is mediated by algorithms, platform curation, and pre-existing audience reach. Projects associated with recognized brands or creators often achieve rapid funding, functioning effectively as pre-sales.

Thus, rather than eliminating hierarchy, digital platforms reconfigure it.

 

Sustainability and Creative Practice

Sustainability remains one of the most uneven aspects of the comics industry. While some creators achieve substantial financial success, many others face long-term instability.

The case of Peter David illustrates this condition. Despite a prolific and influential career, including his work on The Incredible Hulk, David’s later-life medical and financial challenges prompted public fundraising efforts, highlighting the absence of institutional support systems.⁵

Similarly, artist Adam Hughes has discussed the difficulties of maintaining consistent output and financial stability within a competitive market, particularly given the time-intensive nature of high-quality illustration.⁶

These examples reflect a broader structural issue: recognition does not guarantee security. Sustainability is not embedded within the system but must be actively constructed by creators.

As a result, many rely on diversified income strategies, combining freelance work, commissions, teaching, and crowdfunding. This aligns with patterns of cultural entrepreneurship, where economic viability emerges from multiple overlapping activities rather than a single stable source.

 

The Long Tail and Niche Markets

Digital distribution has expanded the range of viable content within the comics industry. This development aligns with the “long tail” model articulated by Chris Anderson, which suggests that niche markets can collectively generate significant economic value when distribution costs are low.⁷

In comics, this allows highly specialized narratives to find dedicated audiences. Genres that might previously have been considered commercially marginal can now achieve modest but sustainable success. However, the long tail does not eliminate inequality. It expands opportunity while redistributing success across a wider range of creators, often at lower individual revenue levels.

 

Audience as Economic Infrastructure

The relationship between creators and audiences has become increasingly direct and participatory. Through crowdfunding, subscriptions, and social media engagement, audiences contribute not only to consumption but to production and dissemination. This dynamic creates a relational economy in which audience engagement becomes central to financial viability. Audience preferences influence creative decisions, while participation in campaigns directly affects production capacity.

In this sense, audiences function as an economic infrastructure that sustains creative practice.

 

Platform Economies and Creative Autonomy

Platform-based distribution offers new opportunities for visibility but also introduces constraints. A prominent example is Lore Olympus, created by Rachel Smythe and published on Webtoon. The series achieved significant global readership and was later optioned for adaptation by Netflix.⁸ Such cases illustrate the potential scale of platform success. However, they also reveal the influence of platform logic on creative production. Factors such as update frequency, episodic structure, and format shape both visibility and storytelling.

Creative autonomy, therefore, is conditional. While creators may operate outside traditional publishing systems, they remain embedded within platform-driven economies that shape production and reception.

 

Economic Constraints and Creative Outcomes

Economic conditions directly influence the formal and narrative dimensions of comics. Budget constraints affect production scale, artistic techniques, and publication schedules, while market considerations shape genre selection. Digital platforms have also encouraged formal innovation, including episodic storytelling and vertically structured narratives designed to sustain engagement.

At the same time, increased competition has elevated the importance of strategic capability. Creators who can navigate production, distribution, and audience engagement are more likely to achieve sustained success.

 

Conclusion

To conceptualize comics as enterprise is not to diminish their artistic value, but to recognize the conditions under which that value is produced. Economic structures shape who can create, what they can create, and how long they can sustain their practice.

The contemporary comics landscape is defined by expanded access and increased complexity. Creators operate within systems that offer new opportunities while imposing new demands. Platforms enable distribution but introduce new hierarchies. Audiences provide support but require ongoing engagement.

Understanding these dynamics is essential for any comprehensive analysis of comics. The medium is not only a site of storytelling, but also a system of production, circulation, and exchange—one in which art and economics are fundamentally intertwined.

 Fer Garcia, aka El Comicolog, runs The Comicpreneur, a newsletter and ongoing project focused on entrepreneurship for independent comic creators, helping them think about career sustainability, business mindset, and the economic realities of making comics. 

Notes

1. David Hesmondhalgh and Sarah Baker, Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (London: Routledge, 2011).
2. For discussions of continuity, authorship, and industrial constraints in American comics, see Paul Lopes, Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2009). The “toys back in the box” metaphor is used informally in industry discourse and is not attributed here to a specific creator.
3. General data on crowdfunding activity in comics can be drawn from publicly available platform reporting and industry analysis. For an overview of crowdfunding’s role in comics, see Gamal Hennessy, The Business of Independent Comic Book Publishing (New York: Allworth Press, 2015).
4. DC Comics, We Can Be Heroes campaign (Indiegogo, 2013), a philanthropic crowdfunding initiative combining branded content and charitable fundraising.
5. Reporting on the illness, fundraising efforts, and death of Peter David appears in industry and mainstream outlets. See, for example, obituary and coverage in The Hollywood Reporter (2025), which contextualizes his health crisis and GoFundMe campaign within his broader career.
   
6. Statements regarding Adam Hughes are based on the creator’s own public communications, including posts on his official Facebook account (various dates).
7. Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More (New York: Hyperion, 2006).
8. Rachel Smythe, Lore Olympus adaptation coverage:
    The Hollywood Reporter, “Lore Olympus Animated Series in the Works at Prime Video,” 2024, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/lore-olympus-animated-series-prime-video-1236478569/.

Comic Art Academic Monograph Publishers - An IJOCA Reference Guide

compiled by Mike Rhode

This listing is certainly not comprehensive, and does not include monograph publishers such as Fantagraphics and TwoMorrows who publish valuable histories and biographies, but not usually academic works. Different university presses not listed here occasionally publish academic books about comics, such as the presses of the Universities of Manchester, Pennsylvania and California, Berkeley. The list is arranged by seniority with the oldest publishing line at the top.

University Press of Mississippi

o   Series: Comics Studies (1989-)

·         Website: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Subjects/Comics-Studies

 

o   Series: Conversations with Comic Artists Series (2000-)

·         Acquisitions editor: Mary Heath (mheath@mississippi.edu)

·         Brief description: Volumes in this series include interviews with groundbreaking creators of comic books and comic strips. Founding series editor: M. Thomas Inge, Blackwell Professor of the Humanities at Randolph-Macon College.

·         Website: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Series/C/Conversations-with-Comic-Artists-Series

 

o   Series: Critical Approaches to Comics Artists Series (2015-)

·         Editor: David M. Ball, independent comics scholar and coauthor of The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing Is a Way of Thinking.

·         Acquisitions editor: Katie E. Keene (kkeene@mississippi.edu )

·         Brief description: Books in this series are edited, multi-author, scholarly volumes exploring a single major comics artist, creator, or graphic novelist from any period, genre, or country. Interdisciplinary, comparative, and multicultural approaches to understanding comics are particularly welcome, and the series highlights a wide range of disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical approaches to comics scholarship. 

 ·         Website: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Series/C/Critical-Approaches-to-Comics-Artists-Series/

 

o   Series: Great Comics Artists

·         Acquisitions editor: Katie E. Keene (kkeene@mississippi.edu )

·         Brief description: Monographs in this series critically assess a comics creator’s achievement and artistry. Founding series editor: M. Thomas Inge, Blackwell Professor of the Humanities at Randolph-Macon College.

·         Website: https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Series/G/Great-Comics-Artists-Series

McFarland

o   Series: Comics (1993-) [there is no dedicated comics series]

·         Acquisitions editor: proposals@mcfarlandpub.com

·         Brief description: A leading independent publisher of academic nonfiction, McFarland is recognized for noteworthy books about pop culture, sports, military history, transportation, body & mind, literature, history and medieval studies, among other topics. McFarland currently offers nearly 7000 books in print. Meeting high library standards has always been a major focus, and many McFarland books have received awards from the academic-oriented (e.g., Choice Outstanding Academic Title, ALA Outstanding Reference Work) to the mainstream (Hugo, Edgar, Stoker, and Eisner, among others).

·         Website: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/shop/literature/comics/

Bloomsbury

o   Series: Comics and Graphic Novels (2001-)

·         Website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/academic/literary-studies/comics-and-graphic-novels/

 

o   Series: Bloomsbury Comics Studies

·         Editor: Chris Gavaler

·         Brief description: Covering major genres, creators and themes, the Bloomsbury Critical Guides in Comics Studies series consists of accessible, authoritative and comprehensive introductions to key topics in the field. Providing historical overviews, guides to key texts and important critical approaches, each book in the series includes annotated guides to further reading and online resources, discussion questions and glossaries of key terms to help students and fans navigate the diverse world of comic books and graphic novels today. The series was edited by Derek Parker Royal until his sad passing in 2019.

·         Website: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/bloomsbury-comics-studies/

University of Texas Press

o   Series: Film, Media, and Popular Culture / Comics (2009-)

·         Website: https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/search-by-category/categories/film-media-and-popular-culture/comics

 

o   Series: World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction Series (2016-_

·         Editorial team: Frederick Luis Aldama, Christopher González, Deborah Elizabeth Whaley

·         Acquisitions editor: Jim Burr (jburr@utpress.utexas.edu)

·         Brief description: The World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction Series includes monographs and edited volumes that focus on the analysis and interpretation of comic books and graphic nonfiction from around the world. The books published in the series use analytical approaches from literature, art history, cultural studies, communication studies, media studies, and film studies, among other fields, to help define the comic book studies field at a time of great vitality and growth.

·         Website: https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/series/world-comics-and-graphic-nonfiction-series

Routledge

o   Series: Routledge Advances in Comics Studies (2015-) [UPDATED 7/9/2022 to add Knopf]

·         Editors: Randy Duncan, Matthew J. Smith, Christina M. Knopf

 

Brief description: Routledge Advances in Comics Studies promotes outstanding research on comics and graphic novels from communication theory, rhetorical theory and media studies perspectives. Additionally, the series aims to bring European, Asian, African, and Latin American comics scholarship to the English speaking world. The series includes monographs and themed anthologies. Comics Studies is a recently established and rapidly evolving field with much exciting research still to be done, and Routledge Advances in Comics Studies is dedicated to furthering the understanding of comics as an art form and a medium of communication.

 ·         Website: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Advances-in-Comics-Studies/book-series/RACS 

· 

·          ·         For proposal guidelines contact:

        Randy Duncan, Henderson State University, duncanr@hsu.edu, or

        Matthew J. Smith, Radford University, msmith455@radford.edu or

        Christina M. Knopf, SUNY Cortland, christina.knopf@cortland.edu

 

o   Series: Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Comics

·         Editor: Frederik Byrn Køhlert

·         Acquisitions editor: Alexandra.McGregor@tandf.co.uk

·         Brief description: Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality and Comics publishes original research in the areas of gender and sexuality studies as they relate to comics cultures past and present. Topics in the series cover printed as well as digital media, mainstream and alternative comics industries, transmedia adaptions, comics consumption, and various comics-associated cultural fields and forms of expression. Gendered and sexual identities are considered as intersectional and always in conversation with issues concerning race, ethnicity, ability, class, age, nationality, and religion. Books in the series are between 60,000 and 90,000 words and can be single-authored, co-authored, or edited collections. For shorter works, the companion series Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics publishes shorter-form books between 25,000 and 45,000 words.

·         Website: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Gender-Sexuality-and-Comics-Studies/book-series/GSC

 

o   Series: Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics (2021-

·         Editor: Frederik Byrn Køhlert

·         Acquisitions editor: Alexandra.McGregor@tandf.co.uk

·         Brief description: Routledge Focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Comics publishes original short-form research in the areas of gender and sexuality studies as they relate to comics cultures past and present. Topics in the series cover printed as well as digital media, mainstream and alternative comics industries, transmedia adaptions, comics consumption, and various comics-associated cultural fields and forms of expression. Gendered and sexual identities are considered as intersectional and always in conversation with issues concerning race, ethnicity, ability, class, age, nationality, and religion. Books in the series are between 25,000 and 45,000 words and can be single-authored, co-authored, or edited collections. For longer works, the companion series Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Comics publishes　full-length books between 60,000 to 90,000 words.

 ·         Website: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Gender-Sexuality-and-Comics-Studies/book-series/GSC

 

o   Series: Global Perspectives in Comics Studies (2022-

·         Editor: Harriet E.H. Earle (H.Earle@shu.ac.uk)

·         Brief description: This series focuses on comics as a narrative form and academic field that exists in a global context. The comics form tackles rich, complex narratives that span a broad range of societies and cultures. In recent years, the field has experienced an upward surge in scholarship and academic engagement, interrogating pre-conceived ideas about society, culture, politics, and history. Contemporary Comics Studies is concerned with offering fresh perspectives on established concepts and theories through the comics form. The primary objective of this series is to bring together original scholarship on a wide range of themes and theoretical concerns, foregrounding bold interventions into existing scholarly conversations and giving space for rigorous theoretical engagement to come together with visual analysis. In addition, the series’ thematic focus will allow contributors the freedom to collocate works by creators from different national and analytical traditions, as well as genres within the form, to forge links across the field and give attention to comics in all their various guises. Submissions are especially welcome from scholars who are either working on texts or authors from the Global South, or who are located in this geographic region. This series does not seek to exclude any voice, and aims to provide a platform for those who are not as strongly represented elsewhere

• Website:https://www.taylorfrancis.com/series/global-perspectives-comics-studies-harriet-earle/GPCS?context=ubx

Ø  Editor’s note – The company has been publishing on animation, usually practical texts but not completely so, since 2001 and on comic books since at least 2011, but never with a unified series or imprint. See https://www.taylorfrancis.com/search?key=comics or https://www.taylorfrancis.com/search?key=animation for texts.

Sequart

o   Series: Sequart Books (2011-

·         Acquisitions editor: sequart.mike@gmail.com

·         Brief description: Sequart Organization publishes scholarly non-fiction books on subjects related to the medium of sequential art. Our books attempt to be scholarly but accessible to a general audience. We specialize in literary analysis that avoids the insularity that can typify academic writing, trying instead to open critical discourse on comics to a wider, intelligent audience. We maintain an open pitch policy and are always looking for new authors and ideas.

·         Website: http://sequart.org/books/

Ø  Editor’s note – This is not exactly academic publishing, but something adjacent to it.

Ohio State University Press

o   Series: Studies in Comics and Cartoons (2013-)

·         Editorial team: Jared Gardner, Charles Hatfield, Rebecca Wanzo

·         Acquisitions editor: Ana Jimenez-Moreno (jimenez-moreno.1@osu.edu)

·         Brief Description: Books published in Studies in Comics and Cartoons focus exclusively on comics and graphic literature, highlighting their relation to literary studies. It includes monographs and edited collections that cover the history of comics and cartoons from the editorial cartoon and early sequential comics of the 19th century through webcomics of the 21st. Studies that focus on international comics are also considered.

·         Website: https://ohiostatepress.org/books/series/scc.htm

Leuven University Press

o   Series: Studies in European Comics and Graphic Novels (2014-

·         Editorial team: Hugo Frey, Editor in Chief, Jan Baetens, Bart Beaty, Christopher Pizzino, Ann Miller  

·         Brief description: Studies in European Comics and Graphic Novels presents state-of-the-art contributions on comics and graphic novels. The series publishes research on European comics and graphic novels and aims at stimulating scholarship on European BDs. It includes titles from scholars working in different disciplines, such as history, literary criticism, literary theory, art history, and visual studies. Typical themes to be addressed will comprise European graphic novels and comics in historical context; gender and other social identity analysis; theorizations; and detailed case studies or wider surveys. The series publishes monographs and collections for university-level researchers and ambitions to advance knowledge of this still relatively under-discussed subject. All volumes will be published in English, but the comics and graphic novels under investigation will be of any European language and from any European culture. Like graphic novels and comics, Europe itself is hard to define, and the approach for the series will be open and not overly prescriptive.

·         Website: https://lup.be/collections/series-studies-in-european-comics-and-graphic-novels#MainContent

Penn State University Press

o   Series: Graphic Medicine (2015-)

·         Editorial team: Susan Merrill Squier, Juliet McMullin, Brian Callender

·         Acquisitions editor: Kendra Boileau (klb60@psu.edu )

·         Brief description: Books in the Graphic Medicine series reflect the value of comics as a resource for communicating about medicine and health. For healthcare practitioners, patients, family members, and caregivers dealing with illness and disability, graphic narratives enlighten complicated or difficult experiences. They can also communicate the scaled meanings of health, from the molecular to the human and to the planetary, including works addressing climate change, environmental pollution, zoonotic diseases, and other complex problems not commonly conceptualized as “medical.” For scholars in literary, cultural, and comics studies, the medium articulates a complex and powerful rethinking of the boundaries of medicine and the expansive meanings of health. Originally founded by Ian Williams as part of a broader editorial collective, the Graphic Medicine series focused on the publication of self-reflective “graphic pathographies.” A newly appointed trio of series editors that includes Susan Merrill Squier, Juliet McMullin, and Brian Callender will focus their acquisitions on scholarly monographs and edited collections by researchers in the health humanities, activists, and medical practitioners analyzing the ways in which comics address the scaled meanings of health. The series editors are interested, too, in considering works that incorporate original comics, whether that be for comics-based research or for medical training and education, thus providing a creative way to learn and teach.

·         Website: https://www.psupress.org/books/series/book_SeriesGM.html

 Rutgers University Press

o   Series: Comics Studies (2015-)

·         https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/search-list?category=RUPCSOM

o   Series: Comics Culture (2016-)

·         Editorial team: Corey K. Creekmur, Craig Fischer, Jeet Heer, Ana Merino

·         Acquisitions editor: Nicole Solano (nicole.solano@rutgers.edu )

·         Brief description: Volumes in the Comics Culture series explore the artistic, historical, social, and cultural significance of newspaper comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels, with individual titles devoted to focused studies of key titles, characters, writers, and artists throughout the history of comics; additional books in the series address major themes or topics in comics studies, including prominent genres, national traditions, and significant historical and theoretical issues.  The series recognizes comics of all varieties, from mainstream comic books to graphic non-fiction, produced between the late 19th-century and the present. The books in the series are intended to contribute significantly to the rapidly expanding field of comics studies, but are also designed to appeal to comics fans and casual readers who seek smart critical engagement with the best examples of the form.

·         Website: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/search-list?series=comics-culture

 

o   Series: Critical Graphics (2021-)

·         Editor: Frederick Luis Aldama

·         Acquisitions editor: Nicole Solano (nicole.solano@rutgers.edu )

·         Brief description: Volumes in the Critical Graphics series bring scholarly insight to single authors and their creator-owned graphic fiction and nonfiction works. Books in the series provide context and critical insight into a given creator’s work, with an especial interest in social and political issues. Each book is organized as a series of reader friendly scholarly chapters that precede the reprinting of short graphic fiction or nonfictional works—or excerpts of longer works. The critical insight and commentary alongside the creative works provide a gateway for lay-readers, students, and specialists to understand a given creator’s work and life within larger social and political contexts as well as within comics history. Authors of these books situate the work of their subject within the creator’s larger body of work and within the history of comics; and  bring an engaged perspective to their analysis, drawing on a variety of disciplines, including medical humanities, environmental studies, disability studies, critical race studies, and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.

·         Website: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/search-list?keyword=Critical%20Graphics&series=critical-graphics

 Palgrave

o   Series: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels (2016-)

·         Editor: Roger Sabin

·         Acquisitions editor: Camille Davies (camille.davies@palgrave.com)

·         Brief Description: This series concerns Comics Studies—with a capital “c” and a capital “s.” It feels good to write it that way. From emerging as a fringe interest within Literature and Media/Cultural Studies departments, to becoming a minor field, to maturing into the fastest growing field in the Humanities, to becoming a nascent discipline, the journey has been a hard but spectacular one. Those capital letters have been earned. Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels covers all aspects of the comic strip, comic book, and graphic novel, explored through clear and informative texts offering expansive coverage and theoretical sophistication. It is international in scope and provides a space in which scholars from all backgrounds can present new thinking about politics, history, aesthetics, production, distribution, and reception as well as the digital realm. Books appear in one of two forms: traditional monographs of 60,000 to 90,000 words and shorter works (Palgrave Pivots) of 20,000 to 50,000 words. All are rigorously peer-reviewed. Palgrave Pivots include new takes on theory, concise histories, and—not least—considered provocations. After all, Comics Studies may have come a long way, but it can't progress without a little prodding.

·         Website: https://link.springer.com/series/14643

 Wilfrid Laurier University Press

o   Series: Crossing The Lines: Transnational/Transcultural Comics Studies

·         Editorial team: Barbara Postema, Candida Rifkind, Nhora Lucia Serrano

·         Acquisitions editor: Siobhan McMenemy (smcmenemy@wlu.ca )

·         Brief description: Crossing the Lines focuses on interdisciplinarity, multiculturalism, and globalism research in comics and graphic narrative studies. Headed by three women in

·         Canada, the United States, and New Zealand - a first in the field of comics - from diverse backgrounds, different countries, and various research agendas, Crossing the Lines welcomes groundbreaking books that recalibrate and re-envision the disciplines of gender and feminist studies, art history and visual studies, and postcolonial and diaspora studies within a twenty-first century scholarly framework of comics studies. Criss-crossing national and regional boundaries as well as ethnic and linguistic comics traditions, Crossing the Lines will foster and promote comparative research and direct attention to under-studied regions, diasporas, art historical trends, digital and new media platforms, and literary/ theoretical trends. Crossing the Lines invites submissions from different countries and locations and from a variety of disciplines across the humanities. Monographs and edited collections in this series may focus on a specific artist/cartoonist, tradition, movement, genre, form, or theme. As well, they may explore historical, geographical, cultural, and aesthetic confluences and connections in comics production, dissemination, and reception regionally or globally. Ultimately, this series will produce accessible, engaging, and affordable books for students and scholars alike in comics studies and related fields such as art history, cultural studies, comparative literature, digital humanities, gender and sexuality studies, media and communications, and postcolonial and diaspora studies.

·         Website: https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/

 De Gruyter

o   Series: Comics Studies – Aesthetics, Histories, and Practices (2021-

·         Editorial team: Jaqueline Berndt, Patrick Noonan, Karin Kukkonen, Stephan Packard

·         Acquisitions Editor: Myrto Aspioti (myrto.aspioti@degruyter.com)

·         Brief description: This new international series expands the field of comics studies with research from around the world and across disciplines. It explores the aesthetics, histories, and practices of comics in order to bring different academic traditions engaged in the study of all forms of sequential art and graphic narrative into dialogue with one another. The series covers formal, semiotic, media and cognitive studies approaches to the artistic, graphic, and media formation of comics. It seeks to illuminate the varied historical contexts, developments and differences between styles, schools, and genres of comic books; and to bring into focus the various practices, uses, functions, politics, and the conditions for production and reception of comics, including production studies as well as fan and participation studies. In other words, it addresses questions such as, What makes a comic book? What are the effects of lines, panels, and page-layouts? How are comics produced, distributed, and read? We specifically aim to further the emerging global discourse on comics by making truly groundbreaking work in the field accessible to a broader community of critics and scholars. We promote both innovative work and the internationalization of existing schools of comics studies from various languages that have hitherto been inaccessible to an international academic community. The series editors want to prioritize Gold Open Access publications and will work with authors to acquire financial backing to make this possible.

·         Website: https://blog.degruyter.com/call-for-manuscripts-comics-studies-aesthetics-histories-and-practices/

 University of Nebraska Press

o   Series: Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies (2022-

·         Editors: Martin Lund, Julia Round

·         Acquisitions editor: Heather Stauffer (s-hstauff1@unl.edu )

·         Brief description: In the creation of comics or graphic novels, encapsulation refers to the artistic and cognitive process whereby panels, images, words, and page layout create meaning and engage the reader. These connotations of selection and design underpin the aims of Encapsulations. This series of short monographs offers close readings of carefully delineated bodies of comics work with an emphasis on expanding the critical range and depth of comics studies. By looking at understudied and overlooked texts, artists, and publishers, Encapsulations facilitates a move away from the same “big” and oft-examined texts. Instead the series uses more diverse case studies to explore new and existing critical theories in tune with an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and global approach to comics scholarship. With an eye to breaking established patterns and forging new opportunities for scholarship, books in the series advance the theoretical grounding of comics scholarship and broaden critical knowledge of global comics. By showcasing new interdisciplinary perspectives and addressing emerging conceptual, formal, and methodological problems, Encapsulations promotes new approaches, contributes to the diversity of comics scholarship, and delves into uncharted sections of the comics archive. Compact, affordable, and accessibly written, books in the Encapsulations series are addressed to the interested general reader as well as scholars and students. These volumes provide teachable, critical texts for comics studies as well as myriad classes beyond including history, literature, cultural studies, semiotics, media studies, and many others, fostering a deeper general understanding of comics’ cultural and historical impact, promoting critical public literacy, and enriching comics-based teaching while expanding notions of what’s worthy of academic study.

·         Website: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/series/encapsulations-critical-comics-studies/