Is there a comic book industry?

Abstract

The “American comic book industry” is not American, its true product is not comic books, and it may not even be an industry. This article uses a geospatial map of comic book and graphic novel publishers active in the US market as well as sales estimates derived from both the direct market of specialty comic book retailers and trade book stores to question inherited “mental maps” of comic book publishing, such as the divide between “mainstream” and “alternative”/“independent” publishing. Adopting a relational approach, it suggests that a sociology of comics publishing – and of the cultural industries more generally – must be cautious of taking on board un-sociological concepts like “industry.”