Alternative
Comics
Posted
17:33, 9th September 2005
I'm
a big fan of alternative comics. They're a great idea. I'm not talking
about webcomics as an alternative to syndicated comics. I'm talking
about webcomics that are an alternative to that alternative. That's
twice as alternative as syndicated comics.
You
see, most webcomics fail to realise that on the internet, there
are no pages. There are web-pages, but they're not like paper pages.
Webpages are rectangular areas of any size where you can see stuff
like images and words, whereas regular pages are different because...they
don't use electricity. So, if there are no pages, we need not adhere
to the tyranical form of panel comics. Panels were invented to oppress
the minds of readers. They were invented so that space could be
used efficiently. But on the internet, there is no space (apart
from webspace) and there are no pages (apart from webpages).
This
fact was brilliantly exploited by Scott
McCloud when he invented infinite canvas comics. They're
just like normal comics but with one important difference: they're
infinite. They go on forever. That is, until they stop. But they
could go on forever, though, if that were possible.
I read
Scott's comic
I Can't Stop Thinking. I found it logical, well-thought-out
and unpretentious. That symbol of an infinity sign with an eye in
it was especially unpretentious. It looks like he had lots of fun
making the whole strip using either Paint or an etch-a-sketch. I
can't believe that the beautiful landscape he's drawn halfway down
this
page is only 4k! And it's true that online comics'
greatest promise is the chance break out of the retangular
prison that is paper, not the opportunity to cater to any interest
without having to pander to a majority demographic or censor content.
Escaping paper is the most important thing.
This
is where Scott's brilliant invention of 'trails' comes in. Instead
of ordering panels left-to-right, top-to-bottom as they would appear
on a dirty, evil page you can just place them anywhere you
like and draw arrows linking them together. It may be confusing,
it may take up space unneccessarily and the process of following
the 'trials' may detract attention from the actual contents of the
panels you're trying to find but at least it's original.
Just
because the convention of ordering things a certain way on a page
has been around and stayed around since pages were invented, it
doesn't mean we need that convention. In fact, I'm going
to go one step further and break free from the convention
of spaces between words. Yousee?Everythingissofreenow,nottomentionattractiveandeasytounderstand.
But,
wait! I'm, still ordering the words left-to-right in the restrictive,
rubbish way of the page. Convention pointless that of tyranny the
escape to need I. Horizons my expand should I!
This
gives me an idea. I'll escape the restrictions of ordering
the letters of a word from left to right, as well. After
all, this is the internet! ?yawyna ,ecnerehoc fo tnaryt eht ot rednap
ot deen ew od yhW
But
I'm still rigidly adhering to the convention of consonants in words.
This is the internet! Surely, in this new medium we can express
things perfectly adequately through a new, made-up convention that
doesn't alienate anyone at all. From now on, I will only communicate
with vowels. The greatest promise of internet blogs is the chance
to break out of the prison of consonant-usage. Allow me to demonstrate:
Aoiueoiaueioaioueoiuaeoiaoiueaioieaoeuoaieuaeoaueaoieuaoieiaeioaeuiaeoiaeeeiaei!
Thank-you,
Scott McCloud, for expanding my mind and showing me how to escape
useless, unneccessary conventions such as pages and page-ordering.
And thank-you to alternative comics for showing me that comics don't
need to be funny, relevant, unpretentious, likeable, readable, free,
well-scripted, well-drawn or even drawn at all. What's important
is that they've been re-invented. Oh, yes.
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