Link:Comixpedia
If anybody cares, here's full disclosure:
That second panel was inferred and extrapolated from the posters comment, but I think it communicates his drift okay. He wasn't making any kind of judgement call, either (i.e. multimedia = not comics = BAD!) just arguing "purity" of form. I think the multimedia distinction is really a gray area in comics (a gray area I love to see played with) and not necessarily as absolute as any comics/not comics discussion. Any distinctions at these levels are splitting hairs anyway, and only important for categorical or formal concerns (for most people that reads "not important at all")
What? Nobody cares?
Thought so...
11 comments:
*walks in, reads comic, and walks right back out without a peep*
I tend to think of the interactive or multimedia webcomics in relation to regular comics the same way I would think of hypertext literature to regular old literature, a new form of an old, an evolution?
I'd say most webcomics are really just comics using the web as the means of publication.
Does it matter? Not as long as the comics are good.
There's even a bit of gray in the "digital distribution" method. Some digital cartoonists get away with certain things - like regular changes in format - which are possible in print but not all that practical, but it doesn't really change the mechanics of comics storytelling like some other multimedia effects do.
More and more webcomickers seem to have an eye toward print when making their comics- probably a little more financially secure of a decision, but we're missing out on good use of the technology here too.
It's a give and take.
*walks in for the fray*
I have to admit, webcomics have actually done well to help print comics break that rigid 6.625 by 10.25 book size mold. Half of the webcomic-to-print books I've bought are irregular sizes - and kinda cool.
I'm too cowardly to try that yet, but it's on my mind.
Screen-to-print transition is something I've actually given a lot of thought to. My first webcomic (Tree City) was a stairstepping infinite canvas but the pages were originally designed to print standards. From then on, I've come up with a lot of techniques to translate web-designed pages to print, and vice versa. It should be possible to design a comic to fit both media and I've got some ideas in that regard.
Now if I can just get my shit together to do something worth printing...
But there are even a lot of webcomics that couldn't translate a collection to print (easily) because they don't keep a standard day-to-day format. Essentially that ties them down to the web (without reformatting).
Reformatting comics has apparently been widely done in the European scene. It comes up a lot in bande dessinee theory books I've read about publishers (or the authors themselves) reformatting comics from one format (say magazine) to another (album).
I will admit to formatting my current comic with an eye towards possible printed book.
Given the relatively low cost of self publishing these days, and the tendency people have to be more willing to pay money to have the object rather than to see the pixels, it just doesn't make sense not to design with print in mind...
IF the electronic doodads and hypertextuality aren't a main feature of the comic...
I can see it's an uphill battle for these kind of webcomics - lots of work, little return - but I still think it's a shame that more people aren't even trying anymore.
This is off topic, isn't it?
Umm... webcomics, yeah... they're still comics.
Oh, and on reformatting - ther're lots of ways in can be done right but it takes a lot of care and respect for the original.
"I have to admit, webcomics have actually done well to help print comics break that rigid 6.625 by 10.25 book size mold. Half of the webcomic-to-print books I've bought are irregular sizes - and kinda cool."
Yeah I originally had a "Sunday Newspaper" format and was going to print it in a long rectangular book like the tattered "Garfield Volume XXXIV" book in the school library.
But I stumbled upon the square book on Lulu and I thought this made the books look like little record sleeves which fit with the strip's theme.
So now I'm drawing the new stuff in square format.
Dude, I feel the pain of this comic...
Grant, that's a pretty clever idea - the square format - given your subject matter (subject's treatment?) Mike Allred did a similar thing in the 90s with his Red Rocket Seven series - a kind of sci-fi alternate history of rock n' roll.
Bill, I guess you have been in your share of pointless arguments. At least yours are usually fairly entertaining...
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