Nuevos soportes y formatos: los cambios editoriales en el campo de la historieta argentina

This paper tackles some recent transformations in the edition, circulation and consumption of comics in Argentina. We offer a theoretical perspective to examine the changes in the comic book production beyond a national editorial field in particular. For this purpose, we will analyze the changes in format and layout of these cultural products, as well as the transformation of their mechanisms and agents with regard to this particular area. We will also take into account the trends pointing towards the changes in the instances of legitimization of their authors and products, which can be understood as a consequence of literary, economic and political pressures. We have discovered an overlap of these social spaces with those of the comic field, because of its having certain regions more autonomous than others (Bourdieu, 1995). We have observed that, in the last two decades, the book has become the main edition cradle for comics, parallel to the emergence of libraries and comic stores as the prevailing places for their circulation. This paper also studies the role of new technologies and New Media (Igarza, 2008) in the circulation and consumption of comics, as well as some instances of the canonization of works and authors.