This anthology explores tensions between the individualistic artistic ideals and the collective
industrial realities of contemporary cultural production with eighteen all-new chapters
presenting pioneering empirical research on the complexities and controversies of comics work.
Art Spiegelman. Alan Moore. Osamu Tezuka. Neil Gaiman. Names such as these have become
synonymous with the medium of comics. Meanwhile the large numbers of people without whose
collective action no comic book would ever exist in the first place are routinely overlooked.
Cultures of Comics Work unveils this hidden global industrial labor of writers illustrators
graphic designers letterers editors printers typesetters publicists publishers
distributors translators retailers and countless others both directly and indirectly
involved in the creative production of what is commonly thought of as the comic book. Drawing
upon diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives an international and
interdisciplinary cohort of cutting-edge researchers and practitioners intervenes in debates
about cultural work and paves innovative directions for comics scholarship.
