The Materiality of Digital Comics

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-04953-7
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan

Buch, Englisch, 186 Seiten, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 469 g

Reihe: Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

asks how we can speak meaningfully about digital comics, and how we can do so in a way that remains meaningful as time passes and technology changes. In Part I, the book proposes a model for the study of digital comics that is founded on a material understanding of the form. Across three chapters, the book explores what digital comics are, in physical terms, and how we might structure our understanding of digital comics using six key terms: identifier, file type, software, firmware, hardware, and producers/readers. Each of these elements is explored individually before the relationships between them are discussed. The second part of the book develops this framework across three key areas: economics, histories and geographies. Chapter 5 explores the sales of digital comics and highlights a variety of costs and risks in digital comics that do not apply straightforwardly to print comics. Chapter 6 considers questions of histories as they pertain to digital comics, framing the discussion around four stages in the “life cycle” of a digital comic: creation, maintenance, movement and destruction. Chapter 7 addresses geographies through four topics: localities, nationalities, languages and law. Central to this chapter is the argument that digital comics are physically located things. The book concludes with a discussion of how the model presented here, and the concerns it raises, might be used actively for further scholarship, as well as an outline of other key areas that might be explored through a material analysis of digital comics in future.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hague, Ian

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik EDV | Informatik Angewandte Informatik Computeranwendungen in Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Medienwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaften Kommunikationswissenschaften Digitale Medien, Internet, Telekommunikation

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1: Introduction.- PART I: A Material Model of Digital Comics.- Chapter 2: What Are Digital Comics?.- Chapter 3: Six Core Elements of Digital Comics’ Materialities.- Chapter 4: An Integrated Model.- PART II: Contexts for Material Considerations.- Chapter 5: Economics.- Chapter 6: Histories.- Chapter 7: Geographies.- Chapter 8: Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Dr Ian Hague is the Associate Dean of Research at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (UAL), UK. He is the author of , as well as numerous shorter works. He co-edited and two volumes on . Ian is the founder of Comics Forum and a founding member of UAL’s Comics Research Hub.