Reaching an audience: the publication history of David Hine’s Strange Embrace

Abstract

The publication history of David Hine’s Strange Embrace, which spans more than two decades by now, provides an interesting mirror of recent developments in the comics industry, most importantly the move to digital releases. This remediation had a significant impact on the comic’s mediality and materiality, such as the multi-touch interface of smartphones and tablets allowing for several ways to navigate between, as well as within, the comic’s pages. However, the third print edition, which added full colour, improved lettering, and a host of bonus features, can already be considered as a redesign of the book. This article sets out to relate the changes across the various editions of Strange Embrace to marketing considerations, reading them as attempts to sell Hine’s work as an idiosyncratic art comic in the early 1990s, a mainstream comic in the late 2000s, and, finally, a sophisticated graphic novel for connoisseurs of comics in 2014.

Keywords:

• David Hine
• digital comics
• materiality
• mediality
• remediation
• Sequential
• Strange Embrace

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Markus Oppolzer

Markus Oppolzer is an Assistant Professor of English Education at the University of Salzburg. Since completing his PhD thesis on early British Gothic fiction in 2008, his research interests have shifted to the comparative study of narrative strategies in various media, dealing mainly with comics, film, and picture books. He is currently working on a book that focuses on the advantages of using autobiographical comics in the EFL classroom.