_topics

In this project the concept of "postdigital" is understood after the industrial, technological and cultural changes brought about by digitization, and therefore postdigital comics are postdigital in the sense that the digital no longer poses a new and revolutionary technology and mentality, but has become normalized and internalized in everyday life. Postdigital as a concept describes certain contemporary modes of production and distribution, but also a set of specific cultural and aesthetic practices that have emerged in the last two decades. At the same time, and from a formal perspective, the potential of manga for empathic connection and transmission of social values has been analyzed by making use of the strategy of caricaturization, following the theories of Ōtsuka (2003) Nagaike (2020). In addition to the publication of some academic articles and book chapters, an international symposium was organized in which not only members of the research team and project team, but also experts from universities in Asia and the United States participated, delving into topical aspects of manga (and the notion of the post-digital referred to above), including the role of international adaptations -in a transnational medium and a more global publishing industry-, the inclusion of virtual reality, the generation of images through AI, the rise of webtoons and the transformations in the distribution of the page and the use of vignettes, the reelaborations due to digital versions, or the irruption of participatory culture and the tokenization of comics, among other topics. This meeting has resulted in a publication (as detailed in section D of this report) that will be published in Spanish and English (in open-access format) in the coming months.