Superhero comics and the digital communications circuit: a case study of Strong Female Protagonist

ABSTRACT

This article examines the ongoing superhero webcomic Strong Female Protagonist (2012–present) by Brannon Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag and employs it as a case study to analyse the new communications circuit created by the digital production and delivery of comics. It adopts a perspective drawn from Book History to frame the communication model of print comics and to evaluate how webcomics such as Strong Female Protagonist redefine the role of readers, authors and publishers.

KEYWORDS:

• Webcomics
• Strong Female Protagonist
• superheroes
• history of the book
• history of reading

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Francesca Benatti

Dr Francesca Benatti is a Research Fellow in Digital Humanities with the Department of English and Creative Writing, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University, specialising in digital literary studies. Her digital research interests include stylometry, text analysis, digital editions and their applications to the study of literature. Her literary research interests are the writings of Irish author Thomas Moore (1789–1852), nineteenth-century periodicals and book history. She was the recipient of the 2016 Research Society for Victorian Periodicals Field Development Award. She runs the CHASE Arts and Humanities in the Digital Age doctoral training programme and is one of the editors of the Thomas Moore Archive.