Digital vs Print in Comic Books
And the Advent of Webcomics
And the Advent of Webcomics
The world of comics has grown since its beginning in the 19th century. Today, we have multiple ways to use sequential storytelling, and what was a medium tied to the printed page is now a plane of infinite possibility.
When looking at print sales in the comics industry, a lover of the medium might feel the future is bleak and consider the rise of digital comics as something of a betrayal. But digital comics are not a replacement for traditional printed comics. Rather, they are a new branch of visual storytelling with their own tropes and tools distinct from their paper-based cousins. Both print and digital have their advantages and disadvantages. The main areas to consider are:
1. Accessibility for Readers
2. Versatility in Storytelling
3. Accessibility for Artists
Accessibility for Readers
Price, availability, and readability
Digital comics maintain the original spirit of traditionally published comic strips and magazines which has since been lost. Accessibility for readers is closely tied to price, availability, and readability. Comics in the western world started out as political cartoons and funny strips in newspapers. Even people of small means and education were able to afford and understand them. They were considered “low” entertainment because they were made for the masses or for children. “Comics” as a word is a description of their funny subject matter. Though nowadays the term is a little misleading, since comic books can be of any genre.
Today, few people purchase newspapers and magazines, but many own smartphones. One used to be able to buy comic magazines at newsstands and pharmacies for pennies, but what used to be an affordable diversion is now an expensive hobby. Digital comics are often free or nearly free. Most are published on blogs or hosting sites like Webtoon or Tapas. Some have fees for the eager reader who wants to have an early peek, but reading does not have to cost more than the time to make an account.
In terms of availability, printed comics have always had limits. They are expensive to print, expensive to distribute, and a niche market to boot. One cannot expect to find even the most popular titles in every bookstore in the world, let alone less known or experimental ones. But digital comics can reach anyone
with access to the internet. Even better, digital comics can reach brand new audiences. The most popular platform for digital comics today is Webtoon, a subsidiary of Naver (the South Korean internet search engine). According to Forbes, as of 2022 they have 72 million monthly active users with 14 million of them in the United States. Shocking numbers, to someone familiar with the historical state of comic readership. Even better, 58% of the users are female, a demographic comics find notoriously difficult to reach in the West. The success of Webtoon is owed to several factors: Korean culture has a different relationship to comic books than Westerners, the platform is owned by Naver, the vertical scrolling format, the lack of mandatory fee for reading and/or posting.
Readability is not particularly different for digital comics than traditional ones, other than being much easier to translate and distribute to a wider audience. The format of comic books is simple and easy to understand by design. The image-and-text combination overcomes language and literacy barriers easier than traditional books. Translation is always a challenge, but it is significantly eased when one does not need to go through the trouble of re-printing. Another point worth mentioning on readability: the most popular digital comic style, the vertical scrolling style, can be easier to follow for inexperienced comic readers because it’s read panel-by-panel.
Versatility in Storytelling
The pros and cons of the digital format from a sequential storytelling perspective
Sequential storytelling becomes especially interesting when transferred to a digital space. The classic comic book format is one engineered around the function of the printed page, but when one uses a computer, tablet, or telephone the constraints of print are removed. Not too long ago, many would have said digital comics cannot exist, because they stop being comics in digital form. Perhaps it was true when the only format one had available was of badly scanned images, but today we can apply the broad principles of comics to our modern devices, creating a brilliant, new reading experience and pushing the medium farther than it could have ever gone without the use of modern devices. There are a slew of digital comic styles, but for the sake of simplicity one can categorize them as vertical scrolling style, horizontal “Infinite” style, and multimedia.
In Understanding Comics Scott McCloud defines the “gutter” as the white space between panels, and the most important part of the reader’s interaction with a comic. The gutter is the blank space where the action happens, where the author and the reader collaborate to create a story. Understanding this dynamic is essential because comic books are a more collaborative form of visual storytelling than films or single illustrations. Paintings and photographs are entirely still, and while a single image can hold an entire world of layered storytelling, the single “panel” is limited. Films are passive media. They do require suspension of disbelief, but one must simply watch once it plays. The watcher does not determine the pacing of the film and cannot influence the degree of attention each scene has. This is possible in comics. When one removes the gutter (though the gutter may take different forms) one does not have a comic book anymore. This is exemplified best by “motion comics” which never managed to take off because they attempt to remove this collaboration with the reader by animating the pages, creating a sort of paper puppet show. The result becomes a stilted animation using the art style of the comic rather than a “moving comic”.
Vertical Scrolling Style
In digital comics, the gutter is redefined, but not removed. The most popular form of digital comic, the vertical scrolling style, places the gutter above and beneath the panels. Unlike the traditional snaking left-right-down reading order required by a comic arranged into a book or magazine form, each panel comes individually and takes up at least half of the screen. The scrolling motion is how the reader interacts with the story and how the pacing is defined. This style is easy to follow both for those used to scrolling on their phones and those who are not. It is easy to draw, even seasoned comic book artists can create confusing panel orders, but this style is much more limited in its composition. This upside is also its biggest downside, because the lack of landscape images limits the sense of atmosphere. In other words, it may not lend itself well to stories bigger in scope, but it’s perfect for slice-of-life, comedy, romance, and some horror styles.
Horizontal / Infinite Style
Another form of digital comics is the “infinite canvas” style. Comics like Valentine or any title from Marvel’s Infinite Comic series are like the scrolling style except they are landscape in format. The action for changing the panel is more of turning pages than scrolling. The effect is like a flipbook, closer to the traditional comic format. A number of the “pages” still use panels within them and contain more than one action, unlike the panels in a vertical style, which do not have room. This format is unique because it is the platonic ideal of creating the effect of motion whilst still letting the reader set the pace of said motion.
Movement is essential to comics, but as said above once actual animation is integrated it is difficult to still define the comic as a comic. The reader must set the pace. And the flipping style of the infinite comic allows for this whilst also giving the impression of movement. The biggest disadvantage for this format is that it is difficult to draw, especially for someone who is used to the traditional style.
Multimedia
Multimedia comics must be included in the discussion and yet the term is broad and difficult to define. Comic books have been combined with sound effects, music, animation, videos, photographs, and they have come in hyperlink formats, as applications, as webpages, blogs, Instagram posts, etc. They are usually experimental and fun, though not always flexible as they may need to be read on a particular device or application. These comics push most at the concept of what a comic is or could be. The least invasive form combining media is with background music, and some webcomic apps include this feature. But other comics like Thunderpaw include GIF animation in several panels. Others, like Scott McClouds early experiments, use hyperlinks to move the reader from one panel to the next. Other comics include video-game style interactive elements. The possibilities are endless. They are experimental and not meant for everyone, but they do tell stories in new, interesting ways.
There are numerous ways to tell sequential stories digitally, but these are three categories which one must consider when analyzing this young medium. I chose not to include the traditional comic style as a category, even if most digital comics on the market right now are simply scanned versions of traditionally printed ones, because the format does not change. Some platforms do include the option of zooming in on pages and reading them panel-by-panel, but it usually detracts from the experience instead of adding to it.
Accessibility for Artists
How digital comics are a window for new and experimental artists
Another benefit of digital comics over traditional ones is the accessibility in terms of self-publishing. Though digital publishing will never be considered as serious as traditional publishing, the ability to get one’s stories read at all without the need for a proper publisher is golden. The expenses used to be an impossible hurdle for small-time artists and beginners. Digital publishing eliminates a big part of this barrier. Yes, to get one’s work seen one still needs to find a way to advertise, but the expenses are hardly comparable.
The ability to self-publish also brings about the ability to experiment. The status quo can never be pushed by a traditional publisher without a great deal of risk. And risk is the last thing any businessman wants, especially in an industry constantly precarious in its profits. Experimentation is vital for growth and innovation in any area, and it is the lifeblood of art. Stagnation is a slow death in any creative field, and the fate of any domain without room to breathe around the need for profit. In comics, zines and small publications have brought vigor and new perspectives from artists who wanted to do things differently. These were also brought about by improvements to technology, in printing to be specific. Though small publications have existed since printing itself has been around, the advent of home printing technologies and accessible editing software gave access to more artists than ever. This is even truer today regarding access to digital technologies. To assume anyone can afford a tablet and a stylus would be an ignorant overstatement, but it still is a vastly more accessible goal than the pipe dream of having one’s experimental comic published and distributed by a publisher.
Conclusion
Despite pitting these two mediums against each other in this text, the point isn’t to elevate one over the other, but to explore new possibilities. Digital innovation is often met with despair by artists and art lovers who fear the disappearance of a beloved medium. Though not unfounded, this fear should not stop a comic artist from exploring new styles and materials, and the easy accessibility for both creation and distribution is brilliant for building and interacting with one’s audience. Comic books are not dying, but flourishing in a distinct format which still champions the soul of the medium.
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