In praise of comics, part one

Not just the best medium, but the coolest as well.

Last week, in the exceptionally and encouragingly well-received Best medium; worst industry, I spoke about coming to grips with the latter by reminding myself of the former. While that’s all fine and good, the entire post raises an important question: What exactly makes comics the best medium?

It’s a common refrain: “Comics can do things no other medium can do!” but far too rarely do we discuss what those things actually are and even more rarely why they’re important. After all, every medium can do things of which no other medium is capable; ergo, that alone can’t be the thing that elevates comics to the greatest of all mediums.

Traditionally, discussion of comics’ unique strengths has consisted less of that which the medium is capable and more of arguments as to why it shouldn’t be relegated to also-ran status vis-a-vis film/television, e.g., interconnectivity across books and an “unlimited special effects budget.” But with the rise of cinematic universes and computer-generated imagery, comics no longer has a monopoly on continuity and bombastic-yet-affordable visuals.

A more promising angle on answering the question can be found in formal comics approaches, like those I frequently discuss in my comics breakdowns. However, even in the particularly elegant example below, formal comics approaches – while useful and impressive – amount to mere tricks and techniques. Rather than an example of comics’ unique strength, they are simply an expression of it.

Marshall McLuhan, in his oft-referenced Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, draws a distinction between “hot” and “cool” media. Hot media – like film and television – present the audience with everything they need, in sequential order, such that they can sit back and allow it to wash over them, i.e., it’s easy.

By way of contrast, cool media – such as comics – keep their audience at a distance, providing the audience with the building blocks to create their own meaning. In other words: Reading comics is an active engagement and potentially difficult work to boot. This is the medium’s true strength.

With no sound or motion and with crucial actions and moments elided in the gutters, comics demand participation from readers. What’s more – high-brow euphemism “sequential art” notwithstanding – one of the most distinctive and powerful things about comics is that they are not consumed sequentially.

Anyone who’s worked for a major publisher, been in a comics class or portfolio review, or even just read a book about comics has had it beaten into them: A crystal clear reading order – preferably a grid – is of the utmost importance. However, even when reading a prose novel, eye-tracking experiments have shown that readers do not simply go from left to right, top to bottom. Clearly (as further demonstrated by right-to-left comics traditions), this is nothing more than a cultural convention.

Upon turning a comics page, readers take in the entire spread – left and right pages alike – instantaneously, before beginning to parse out individual panels and moments. As they progress, readers’ eyes continue to dart around, intentionally and subconsciously, taking an active role in creating story, yes, but also something more powerful: Meaning.

This is not only why effective comics approaches work but why they delight us so much; formal comics tricks and techniques reward the work that the medium expects from us and that we instinctively do. What makes comics the best medium is that, in allowing us to discover meaning for ourselves, it becomes all the more personal and impactful.

Once fully embraced, knowledge of this fundamental component of comics can free us from the shackles of serialized moments, scene-based pacing and comics that resemble storyboards more than a self-sufficient piece of visual art. This is the precise mindset with which Jed Dougherty and I have approached every single spread of our upcoming new series.

I’ll be back next week but, in the meantime, please let me know if there’s something you’d like to see discussed further, in the comments below or, if you prefer, via email.

Aubrey