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 kathleen fitzpatrick | course sakai site
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Comics online

Submitted by ghostwriter on 18 October 2006 - 12:45am. |

I was reading the latest installment of Kyle’s Bed & Breakfast online (which the comic artist describes as “the world’s favorite comic strip about a gay bed & breakfast”) and it got me thinking about how the prevalence of webcomics, and the role of the internet and new media in the production and consumption of comics. Making comics on the web seems to have a lot of advantages: it’s cheaper for the reader and can offer more control for the artist (possibility of more independent comics getting out there, animating images).

At the same time, I wonder about the drawbacks of a web/computer format. Over the summer I wanted re-read Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series (which is great, btw), but I didn’t really have the cash to spend $20+ on the books in the series I’m missing. So I ended up downloading the series online and reading the first few books in print and the rest on my computer. It was still a good read, but something was missing. One of the things McCloud talked about was color, and that may have been a factor, the differences between the color you see on your computer screen and the color that a printer can print. Another thing may have been reading strategy. In my Digital Art class, we talked about the idea that people tend to read things on the computer differently than the way they read books and other printed media. Reading on the web and the computer tends to be faster, more of a skimming for information. I definitely found myself getting caught up in that when I was reading Sandman.

Just some random thoughts. Anyone else want to weigh in on the web comics vs. print comics debate?

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it depends

Submitted by neurotica on 18 October 2006 - 3:38am.

I think that web comics can be a really innovatice and accessible way to spread one's comics. However, to be truly effective, the comic has to be conceived to be used for the web. if a comic was created originally for print, reading a scanned version of it online will understandably leave something to be desired. in web comics, there have been artists who take their format into account, and structure their comics differently and utilize different elements that one would unable to do in print. Our very own Scott McCloud, writes about this in his book, "Reinventing Comics". Here's a fun link http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/icst/icst-4/icst-4.html, where you can see an example of his work, taking advantage of what the web medium can do for a comic.

though i didn't know much about web comics, my gut reaction to your post was that there is a future for web comics. as i am proned to do, i decided to look up webcomics on wikipedia to see if i can find any evidence to back me up. what i found was that even though comics may lose some aspects in being online as opposed to print, there are a plethora of artists exploring what they can gain with their new format. here's another example: http://www.telltalegames.com/comics/samnmax/?permalink=8367058FE9CC052C2FEB69468A83EE4C.txt&smm=y
text only comes on to the panel when you scroll over it, which changes the reading experience. also, it dabbles somewhat with animation.

with comics in the web, it's easier for comics to incorporate different mediums, such as animation, video, or photos. as this happens, will how comics are conceived of change? is its definition will become blurred?

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