The Tail That Wags the Dog: The Impact of Distribution on the Development and Direction of the American Comic Book Industry

Abstract

This chapter explores the production of culture as represented by comics work. It explicitly recognizes the diverse inputs of the larger network which ultimately delivers comics work (i.e. graphic narratives in a variety of formats) into the hands of readers, the ultimate consumers of the work. This network of individuals and organizations fulfills a number of vital tasks that directly influence the finished work and its viability in the marketplace. Some of the contributions of that network are traditionally overlooked and are not fully recognized by consumers, or, indeed, even by scholars of comics work. One of these necessary but routinely disregarded roles is that of distribution. The role of distribution is often ignored or minimized because it is not customarily viewed as a creative activity, especially in the context of an industry which views itself as “artistic” or “creative.” Distribution is considered to be a mundane activity, and its profound impact on the success (or failure) of comics work is therefore easy to overlook. Comic book historians can better understand and interpret the full richness of the American comic book industry and its history by explicitly incorporating a more thorough investigation of distribution into their analyses. To explicitly make the role of distribution in the production of comic books as culture more visible, this chapter applies the notion of constraints on the production of culture developed by Richard A. Peterson (e.g. 1982, 1985) to an analysis of a number of pivotal events in the comic book industry. This analysis is augmented by also integrating concepts from strategic management, especially those of Michael Porter (1979, 1980).