City Research Online

Abstract

The digital technology that has ‘disrupted’ creation, production, and consumption processes as well as communication models in publishing has had no less of an impact on the comics industry. Those who participate in the making of digital comics, including creators, publishers, and readers, have adapted to these changes by developing new models and processes, as well as new understandings and uses of the comics themselves.

But there is a noticeable empirical and qualitative gap in the kind of research that would address this disruption from the perspective of those who participate in the making of digital comics. To address this gap, the context for this research has expanded beyond comics studies and comics publishing to the broader publishing environment. By doing so, other influences that intersect with digital comics and their makers have been considered to provide a theoretical framework through which to conduct empirical research. These include communication from a sociological and digital perspective; publishing, including book history studies; the production of culture and comic works; and the influence of platforms on how digital comics are made and used.

The research findings have been identified through the lens of empirical data gathered from UK-based makers, including creators, publishers, platform providers, and consumers-readers. This user-centred data has been analysed and understood through the theoretical framework, contributing to a digital sociology of comics. Three major research themes evolved from the findings: the new makers, roles, and ways of working in the production of digital comics culture; the influence of materiality and embodiment in the experience of digital comics; and the different kinds of communication that build relationships and support through the vehicles of process, platform, and content.

Therefore, this research is not just about digital comics but how their making and makers contribute to the building of a digital comics ecosystem that is at once part of a wider digital ecosystem and user-generated personalized ecosystems. Digital comics, along with memes, video shorts, and similar visual media, are part of the currency and language of the web. They are used to communicate on comics- and non-comics platforms where UK digital comics makers create, discuss, live.

The significance of this research is represented by its contribution towards a sociological approach to digital comics through an empirical, theoretical, and thematic framework of study. This framework is based on the experiences of participants in the digital comics ecosystem: this approach provides for a holistic and human-centred investigation of the processes, use of technology, and communication that contribute to the making of digital comics. Its objectives are not only to understand the processes themselves through user experience but also to contextualize them within a wider digital comics ecosystem, indeed digital ecosystem, that can be comics-based but often is not.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR N Fine Arts > NC Drawing Design Illustration Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science T Technology > T Technology (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology > Computer Science School of Science & Technology > School of Science & Technology Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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