The Networked Author: Looking at Contemporary Authorship Through Postdigital Comics

Abstract

This article investigates contemporary authorship in the (global) English-speaking context, focusing on the shared creative practices of postdigital comics – those that bear the inscription of digital technologies and practices in unprecedented or renewed ways. In doing so, it proposes an original framework to discuss how the digital has brought forward novel network dynamics of comics creation beyond the single author, arguing for the identification, within this networked authorship, of (a) renewed forms and practices of ‘collective authorship,’ and (b) new types of ‘distributed authorship.’ In a conceptual reframing of this landscape, the article divides the former into ‘collaborative’ or ‘participatory’ authorship, and the latter into ‘algorithmic’ and ‘rhizomatic’ authorship, surveying and discussing their configurations.

Keywords

• postdigital comics
• authorship; networks
• media archeology
• generative ai
• comics memes
• comics apps