Web Comics and using Interactivity

After reading three online comics, I've found that the added layer of interactivity brought by the use of javascript and animation add a lot to a very traditional way of telling storys through graphic novels, which is very panel-based. These comics "thought outside the box."

The first comic is an odd manga-like short story that's, frankly, a little frightening. Even though the comic was not in English, it was able to communicate a very odd short story. It still used the traditional panel, scrolling down and viewing the square boxes as the story moved forward in a linear fashion. But the speed at which the panels were observed changed depending on the part of the story. Quick, flashly, and abrupt animation took over when you observed sudden reveals or frightening revelations. It also used simple animation on a couple frames to bring it even further to life. I enjoyed these small additions quite a bit, and would definitely conclude they are a "comic" even with a small amount of animation applied.

Where I might draw the line is the use of sound. Using sound in the medium makes it less a visual experience, and more an audio/visual experience more akin to animation or some definition of "mixed media." If this comic we played without sound, even with the animation, I would consider it to essentially be a comic. However, moving too far "out of the box" makes it more akin to a short animation or motion graphic, rather than a traditional comic.

The other two comics are Part I and Part II of Scott McCloud's "The Right Number." In this comic, you "flip the page" by pressing a small panel inside of the full panel, essentially delving "deeper" into the story with every press. It's a bit difficult to explain without simply experiencing the comic yourself.

Though for it's time, "The Right Number" was controversial as a graphic novel, in recent years it's become far more readily accepted as a true graphic novel. This was mainly because of how he used the traditional panel is a very non-traditional way. As Scott McCloud explains, "[The Right Number] plays with the idea of treating the screen as a window rather than a page (the so-called "infinite canvas" style, most often associated with my book Reinventing Comics)" (source).

Despite changing the norms and using a flash-based system to show the art, I feel it still has all the needed requirements to be a comic. It's slightly experimental, yes, but it still uses panels fairly traditionally, has a linear fashion, and still makes a lot of sense as a comic-reading experience. On top of that, the story is very fresh, deep, and just plain good. The story really feels like you're going "into the mind" of the main character. I believe the format really helps in presenting this story.