Comics through the Online Medium

I enjoyed reading the comics (graphic novels?) online this week. At first, as reflected on Twitter, I thought the medium would be a hindrance. Some Twitterers (Tweeters?) seemed to enjoy the zoom in capabilities of reading the comics online. Theoretically, this would give us more time to get into the nitty-gritty of each panel, taking time to savor, but for whatever reason, I felt less compelled to zoom in, even when all it did was take a click. I enjoyed the ability to, and I think I did a few times, but I didn’t feel as compelled to read “close” like I did when I had the graphic novel in front of me wherever I happened to be reading it.

I found some elements to be pretty interesting about this week’s readings and movie. For Shooting War, I liked the ability of the comic to be so “in your face” and relevant for today. The guy was a blogger, vlogger, multi-media journalist, and that made it seem all the more realistic or at least all the more present, even when the comic was straying from the current reality (President McCain, for example). Maybe I just like that the comic is that relevant, an element that will probably be a moot point soon enough. I think I liked that initial reaction more than I liked the comic itself. I was taken back by several of the panels (in a good way), but overall, I’ve just never been into political…anything so it’s not Shooting War’s fault necessarily that it couldn’t completely keep my interest.

I did enjoy Bayou, however. The colors and the drawings themselves reminded me of a children’s book, even when the content was disturbing. The colors were washed out enough that we knew we were in a different time without them saying anything, but they weren’t sepia enough to be distracting, which I thought was well-done.

Stylistically, both of the comics had something to offer the reader, and I took away something from each. With Bayou, I was more taken with the story, and with Shooting War, I found myself more impressed with the form (running camera feed, etc) and the notion of the comic than I was with the actual product.

~Kelley