ABSTRACT
Building on Hong Kong Arts Centre's claim that the Hong Kong Government and NGOs are as important as the private publishers in promoting comics, this chapter discusses the interactions between different institutions in consecrating Hong Kong independent comics. It focuses on three institutions, namely, the Hong Kong government, Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC), and Joint Publishing Hong Kong, to propose that the synergy created via the collaborations of these institutions is bigger than the sum of its parts in facilitating the growth of Hong Kong independent comics. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed the heyday of Hong Kong comics, and the comics industry grew to be a significant sector of the Hong Kong economy. Hong Kong independent comics are defined as "often experimental, independent of big publishers, oriented toward local sentiments, and personal and light-hearted in story and style".
