The American Comic Book Industry and Hollywood
traces the evolving relationship between the American comic book industry and Hollywood from the launch of
X-Men
,
Spider-Man
, and
Smallville
in the early 2000s through the ascent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Arrowverse, and the
Walking Dead
Universe in the 2010s.
Perren and Steirer illustrate how the American comic book industry simultaneously has functioned throughout the first two decades of the twenty-first century as a relatively self-contained business characterized by its own organizational structures, business models, managerial discourses, production cultures, and professional identities even as it has remained dependent on Hollywood for revenue from IP licensing. The authors' expansive view of the industry includes not only a discussion of the “Big Two,” Marvel/Disney and DC Comics/Time Warner, but also a survey of the larger comics ecosystem. Other key industry players, including independent publishers BOOM! Studios, IDW, and Image, digital distributor ComiXology, and management-production company Circle of Confusion, all receive attention. Drawing from interviews, fieldwork, archival research, and trade analysis,
provides a road map to understanding the operations of the comic book industry while also offering new models for undertaking trans- and inter-industrial analysis.