[ecrea] Call for Book Chapters: Cultures of Comics Work

CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTERS

Cultures of Comics Work

Editors: Casey Brienza and Paddy Johnston

"All artistic work, like all human activity, involves the joint
activity of a number, often a large number, of people. Through their
cooperation, the art work we eventually see or hear comes to be and
continues to be. The work always shows signs of that cooperation,"
wrote sociologist Howard Becker in his seminal monograph on cultural
production Art Worlds. Comic art is no exception to Becker’s basic
insight. Writers, illustrators, graphic designers, letterers, editors,
printers, typesetters, publicists, publishers, distributors,
retailers, and countless others are both directly and indirectly
involved in the creative production of what is commonly thought of as
the comic book.

Yet comics scholars all too often advance a narrow auteurist vision of
production in their research. Names such as Art Spiegelman, Alan
Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Osamu Tezuka continue loom large in the
intellectual firmament, while, despite recent calls for sociological
approaches to comics scholarship, the large numbers of people without
whom no comic would exist in the first place are routinely overlooked.
A clear focus upon these people and the contributions of their labor
is therefore long overdue and absolutely necessary to advance the
boundaries of the theoretical and methodological study of comics.
After all, how are we to understand any work of comic art if we know
nothing about the myriad varieties of cultural work that went into its
creation?

This anthology takes as its problematic the tensions between the
artistic ideal and the realities of contemporary cultural production
and builds upon preliminary work mapping out this important but
underexplored area of inquiry in the "Comics&  Cultural Work" Special
Theme Month which ran through December 2013 at Comics Forum
(http://comicsforum.org/comics-forum-archives/website-archive/comics-and-cultural-work).
Chapters addressing the theme of cultures of comics work outlined in
the previous paragraphs are solicited, with a view toward the
publication of a multi-authored volume consisting of between 12-14
chapters. A series editor for a well-known academic press has
expressed preliminary interest in this project.

We welcome submissions from a variety of theoretical and
methodological perspectives and are particularly interested in
underrepresented areas of comics scholarship, such as women in comics
and comics outside the Anglo-American region. Possible topics include
(but are not limited to):

- cultures and/or experiences of work in the comics production,
distribution, promotion, and consumption circuit
- theorizing the cultural work of comics
- casualization, freelance labor, feminization, and other employment
inequality and precarity
- histories of comics work, how production has changed over time
- professional identities and self-identifications in the comics industry
- new workflow/publishing models for comics in the digital age
- case studies of particular national/regional/local comics production cultures
- analyses of autobiographical comics and/or fictionalized narratives
about the life of the comic book artist

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Chapter proposals from authors with both academic and
industry/practitioner backgrounds are welcome. Prospective
contributors should submit 1) an extended abstract of 300-400 words,
2) an indicative bibliography, and 3) a short biographical sketch no
later than November 30, 2014.

The deadline for full manuscripts of 6000-7000 words (including notes
and references) will be three months from notification of acceptance.

Please direct any inquiries and submissions to Casey Brienza
(casey.brienza.1 [at] city.ac.uk).

EDITOR BIOS:

Casey Brienza is Lecturer in Publishing and Digital Media in the
Department of Culture and Creative Industries at City University
London. Her research focuses on transnational cultural production and
consumption; the social organization and influence of the contemporary
culture industries; and digital technologies of publishing and
reading. She has written extensively on comics and manga. Her
forthcoming books include Global Manga (Ashgate) and Manga in America:
Transnational Book Publishing and the Domestication of Japanese Comics
(Bloomsbury).

Paddy Johnston is a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of English
at the University of Sussex, currently researching comics as labor and
the socioeconomic history of alternative comics. His other research
interests include cultural work, authorship, crowdfunding,
neoliberalism, and political economy, with particular applications to
alternative comics and graphic novels. He is also a publishing
industry professional, cartoonist, musician, and podcaster, yet he
still finds the time to write about comics for The Comics Grid, Comics
Forum, and Graphixia.

______________________
Casey Brienza
Lecturer in Publishing and Digital Media
Department of Culture&  Creative Industries
City University London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7040 8531
Email:(Casey.Brienza.1 /at/ city.ac.uk)
Website:http://www.caseybrienza.com

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