Behind the Panel: Examining Invisible Labour in the Comics Publishing Industry

Abstract

Despite the growing sophistication of comics studies as a discipline, it has yet to fully embrace the cultural materialist approaches of book history and publishing studies, a fact that seems rather intriguing in the face of the form’s insistent materiality. These omissions extend to an eliding of the roles played by agents other than the author in the production of a text; a factor of particular significance in comics where there is almost always a supporting cast of artists, pencillers, colourists and letterers who contribute to the finished product. In addition, the role played by publishers and editors in the dissemination and circulation of comics and graphic novels has also been ignored in much of contemporary comics criticism. By drawing on perspectives grounded in the disciplinary contexts of book history and publishing studies, I aim to provide a useful counterpoint to work done in comics studies that tends to focus on author as auteur.