Fer García
El Comicólogo · Comics Researcher · Educator · Speaker · Creative Entrepreneurship Specialist
Fer García, known professionally as El Comicólogo, is a comics researcher, educator, writer, speaker, and creative entrepreneurship specialist working at the intersection of comics, storytelling, entrepreneurship, transmedia, and the creative industries. His work approaches comics from two complementary perspectives: as an art form and cultural practice, and as an industrial and entrepreneurial ecosystem. With nearly two decades of experience in entrepreneurship and innovation education, Fer brings together academic research, teaching, professional practice, and hands-on experience in creative projects. His current work focuses particularly on independent comics, digital comics, creator economies, self-publishing, transmedia storytelling, intellectual property, and the entrepreneurial transformation of comics culture.
Researching comics. Teaching entrepreneurship. Building bridges between the two.
About me
I became interested in comics through the stories themselves, and I became interested in them as a field of study by asking a different question:
What happens when we look at the comic not only as a finished story, but as a creative, cultural, and economic system?
That question sits at the center of much of my work. My research examines how comics are created, circulated, adapted, commercialized, and transformed across media. I am particularly interested in what happens to comics when creators become publishers, entrepreneurs, community builders, marketers, intellectual-property managers, and transmedia storytellers at the same time. This perspective comes from combining two professional worlds that are often kept apart. My academic and professional background is in entrepreneurship, innovation, business development, and international management. My research and creative work increasingly focus on comics, sequential art, storytelling, digital platforms, transmedia, and creator culture. The result is a practice located somewhere between Comics Studies and Creative Entrepreneurship. That intersection is also the foundation of **El Comicólogo**.
Research
My research explores the relationship between comics and the systems that allow creative work to reach audiences, generate value, and develop over time.
Comics & Entrepreneurship
How do independent comics creators operate in an environment where they may simultaneously be writers, artists, publishers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and community managers?
Creative Sustainability
What economic and organizational conditions allow comics creators to continue producing work without reducing creativity to a purely commercial activity?
Digital Comics & Webtoons
How have digital platforms changed the ways comics are produced, distributed, discovered, and transformed into intellectual property?
Transmedia Storytelling
How can comics function as laboratories for narrative development and intellectual-property expansion across film, television, digital media, games, and other platforms?
Self-Publishing & Creator Economies
What happens when creators take control of publishing and distribution, and what new responsibilities emerge alongside that autonomy?
Storytelling & Innovation
How can entrepreneurial methodologies such as Lean Startup and iterative experimentation be adapted to creative and narrative projects?
Comics as Art and Industry
How can we understand comics simultaneously as artistic expression, cultural production, and industrial product?
Selected Publications
My writing includes academic articles, book chapters, critical essays, and reviews dealing with comics, visual narrative, entrepreneurship, transmedia storytelling, and creative culture.
Academic Articles
From Panels to Platforms: How Webtoon Pioneers Transmedia Storytelling in Startups
Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images, vol. 5, núm. 2, 2026.
This article examines Webtoon as a digital comics platform and explores how comics can operate as an early-stage environment for developing intellectual property and transmedia narratives. The research connects Webtoon, startups, transmedia storytelling, creative innovation, and Lean Startup thinking, introducing concepts related to Minimum Viable Story and the development of narrative projects.
Comics as Enterprise: Economic Models and Creative Sustainability
This article examines comics as an economic and entrepreneurial activity, exploring the models, strategies, and conditions that shape creative sustainability.
The text addresses issues such as contract or work-for-hire work versus creator-owned production, crowdfunding, digital platforms, audience economies, business models, creative labor, and professional sustainability.
The research is grounded in a central premise: understanding contemporary comics requires examining them not only as a narrative medium, but also as a system of production, circulation, and exchange.
[Read Comics as Enterprise in IJOCA]
Critical Essays and Reviews
I have also written on a range of topics related to comics, including their history, economics, culture, and theory, as well as their relationships with other forms of cultural production.
The Glamour of Ink, the Grind of Labor
Review essay published in the International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA), 2026.
Drawing on Comics: The Call and the Cost by C. J. Standal, the essay examines comics as labor, industry, and economic activity, exploring issues of authorship, exploitation, risk, intellectual property, sustainability, and the material conditions underlying creative work.
Book Review — Hip-Hop and Comics
Review published in the International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA), 2026.
The review examines the relationship between hip-hop, comics, public identity, and character construction, drawing on the volume Hip-Hop and Comics, edited by Sheena C. Howard, Justin D. Burton, and Brea M. Heidelberg.
Book Review — Speaking in Pictures: A Vision of Language
Review published in the International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA), 2026.
An examination of Neil Cohn’s work and the relationship between cognition, visual language, and sequential communication.
Presentations, Talks, and Workshops
Since 2023, I have participated as a speaker, presenter, and workshop facilitator at academic conferences, professional gatherings, and specialized events focused on comics, graphic narrative, creative entrepreneurship, storytelling, and cultural industries. .
2026
The Grammar of Space: Narrative Architecture in Comics and FilmFAMU – Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague · Prague, Czech Republic · August 21, 2026
Presentation delivered as part of a panel on narrative, space, and audiovisual language, exploring the relationship between the narrative architecture of comics and film.
Learn to Sell Your Comic
Multiversos NGM Gathering of Creators and Researchers of Mexican Graphic Narrative · Centro Cultural de España en México · July 11, 2026
Talk on strategies for commercializing and developing comic projects, aimed at creators and researchers of graphic narrative. Centro Cultural de España en México – event program
When Comics Are Truly Scary: Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Ontological Horror
International Congress of Comics Studies · Comics Studies Seminar · 2026
Presentation examining ontological horror in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and the possibilities of comics for representing forms of horror that transcend conventional fear.
From Comics to Creative Entrepreneurship: Why Talent Is Not Your Biggest ProblemUniversidad Anáhuac México · April 29, 2026
Talk on creative entrepreneurship applied to comics, addressing the relationship between talent, storytelling, business models, and professional sustainability.
Worldbuilders vs. Page-Makers TASQ Art · February 17 de 2026
Masterclass delivered with Eoin McAuley on the difference between building stories and developing narrative universes with transmedia potential.
2025
The Indie Hustle: How Independent Comics Are Redefining the Creative Economy
Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) Annual Virtual Conference · 2025
Presentation on the transformation of the independent comics creator and their role as a cultural entrepreneur within the creative economy.
From Trash to Treasure: The Entrepreneurial Shift in the Perception of ComicsJoint Conference of the International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference (IGNCC) & International Bande Dessinée Society (IBDS) · Brussels, Belgium · 2025
Presentation on the changing perception of comics as both cultural and commercial products, with an emphasis on webcomics, crowdfunding, transmedia storytelling, and intellectual property development.
Beyond the Cliché: Comics and Graphic Novels as Authentic Literary Expression
Graphic Novel and Comics Course in the Classroom · 2025
Presentation focused on comics as a literary and narrative form, exploring their value as an artistic medium and their incorporation into higher education.
2024
Lean Startup for Independent Comic Creators
La Mole International Comic Convention · Mexico City · 2024
Workshop for independent comic creators applying the Lean Startup methodology, the build–measure–learn cycle, and MVP development to comic projects.
2023
Comparative Analysis of the Business Models of Manga and American ComicsColoquio International Colloquium on Manga and Anime · 2023
Presentation examining the differences between manga and American comics business models, analyzing the strategies that have contributed to manga’s international expansion and the possibilities for innovation within the American comics industry.
Interviews and Media Appearances
From Film to Panels: Tim Disney on The A.R.C., Comics, Satire, and the Politics of Truth
International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA) · September 21, 2026
Interview conducted by Fer García with Tim Disney on The A.R.C., adaptation across media, satire, and the relationship between comics, film, and cultural politics.
Interviews with Fer García
Fer García: Creator In Conversation · Episode 66
Interview with Eoin McAuley · TASQ Art · May 19, 2026
Conversation on entrepreneurship as a pathway for the development of new comic creators, audience and community building, brand development, and strategic considerations before launching a crowdfunding campaign. Creator In Conversation – Episode 66
Los Mijines del Multiverso – Interview with Fer García
2026Interview on comics, creative entrepreneurship, and Fer García’s experience as a researcher, educator, and public scholar specializing in graphic narrative.
Superman – Born on Paper, Taking Flight in Imagination
Pantalla y Memoria, Episode 82 · July 8, 2025
Conversation with Fernando García “El Comicólogo” about the origins of Superman, its creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and the character’s significance in the history of comics, popular culture, and the collective imagination. Pantalla y Memoria – EP #82
