Value and the British comics industry
Publication Date
July 28, 2026
Creator
Humm, Stephanie
Abstract
This thesis presents a theoretical framework for understanding how cultural value is assigned, presented, and transmitted through creative labour practices in Britain’s comic book industry. Combining Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital and Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model of mass communication, it demonstrates that creative labour practices can be read as strategies for the management of capital in order to elevate the cultural value of the industry and its products.
This framework is exemplified across two case studies, following an analysis of the history of British comics publishing, to provide context for the structures and creative labour practices of the British industry in the early 21st century, as well as its perceived cultural value. The first case study is an analysis of qualitative interviews with comics creators and demonstrates that contemporary British comics can be understood as a primarily cottage industry, with some crossover with traditional book publishing and its practices of value accumulation. The second is a textual analysis of four traditionally published comics that invoke the canonised period of Romanticism in literature.
Building on the understanding of comics work as a network of roles that contribute to the production line and sale of comics as media products (Brienza and Johnston), which emphasises the similarities between comics and other creative and cultural industries (CCIs), this thesis concludes that creative labour practices in British comics are often defined by their distance from the British publishing industry. In addition, strategies for the accumulation of cultural capital in comics work consistently rely upon the medium’s perceived connection to literature, and to a lesser degree fine art, to actively improve its reputation, affecting both the culture of the industry and its output of comics as objects and texts.
Item Type
ethesis
Thesis Type
PhD
Supervisors
University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
University of Nottingham
Subjects (LC)
Associated Schools / Departments
UoN Repository URI
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Value and the British comics industry.pdf
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Format
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