Comics Escape a Paper Box and Evolve to the Web

securitas writes "The New York Times' Sarah Boxer takes a look at the evolution of comics from paper to the Internet and asks: 'It's drawn and it's written, but is it still comics?' She cites Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics '...in which he argued that the future of comics is on the Web.' Also cited in the article are Copper by Kazu Kibuishi, found on boltcity.com and The Discovery of Spoons by Alexander Danner and John Barber, found at twentysevenletters.com, as well as several others. The article links to an angry attack by Gary Groth of Fantagraphics against McCloud and his views in Reinventing Comics."

Comments

I'm not surprised this made it to /.

[aussie_a]

I'm not surprised to see this article here, but if you click here you'll find a good disection of the piece. Here's a small snippet that summarises the post:

Boxer's research would barely qualify for a Freshman Comp essay, much less a piece of journalism in a newspaper of record. She seems to have drawn her information off of several Comics Journal articles, read Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, and looked at the Web Cartoonists Choice Awards.

Well, at least she dipped her toe into webcomics before declaring it a failed experiment.

I found that blog post (yes! It's a blog post! Oh noes!) much more interesting (and informative as well as correct) then the actual news paper article itself.

Re:Well...

[aussie_a]

On the other hand, I believe having real comic books published online would be a boon for the industry.

They have for quite some time now. They're certainly nothing new (unless by "real" you meant the many rehashed comics from the 1930s.

If DC/Marvel had a decent online presence and started making original comics again, Keenspot and the rest of the webcomic industry would be hard-pressed.

I can see them having an online presence before they start actually make original comics. But even if they did do both, I just can't see them handling the sort of comics I've come to enjoy, so I doubt very much Keenspot would be threatened by them.

Digital *and* portable

[openSoar]

There is a new genre of comics appearing that are both digital and portable like this outstanding one that's specifically aims at the Sony PSP. Some of them (like this one) are also have a Creative Commons license so readers are positively encouraged to remix it.

Re:no need for any further discussion

[pfafrich]

For a more interesting look at what a comic really is, I highly recomend Understanding Commics, by Scott Mc Cloud. It really is worth the read and makes you think. Theres about a chapter exploring what commics really mean, with many different definitions, he finally comes up with "sequential art", refelecting the intergration of time into the commic experience, this is its main distinction from other forms of art which don't have the time element.

Theres also lots to read about the creative process, which has relavance to us hackers, hew shows it as a multly level thing. Where you can focus on details, form, structure etc.

Overall one of the best books I've read.