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Comics Strike Back! Digital Forms, Digital Practices, Digital Audiences
  • ISSN: 2040-3232
  • E-ISSN: 2040-3240

Abstract

Digital comics are a ‘bastard’ medium, a hybrid of comics, animated film and video game, which is not subject to a fixed form or format. Authors design and develop their own writing methodology and format, exploiting the narrative and aesthetic opportunities of a digital environment characterised by diversity and constant technical evolution. However, tackling this task without having ever worked with sound, movement or interactivity is arduous. Based on my doctoral research, which analyses a diversified corpus of works and coupled with the development of an artistic project, this article will introduce the major concepts of my global portrait of digital comics, exploring the dynamics concerted between textual elements belonging to classic comics – such as text and images – additional textual elements available in the digital environment – such as movement and sound – and interactivity to tell a story. These concepts and dynamics will be presented following the main questions that I formulated from a creator perspective to conduct my research: what are the formal and methodological criteria for the creation of digital comics narratives and the design of their media devices? How can I use multimodality and interactivity in storytelling in a meaningful way? Why does the reception of digital comics appear to be an essential issue and what are its characteristics?

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2024-05-10
2026-04-14

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