Comixology and the Future of the Digital Comic Book
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ComiXology and the Future of the Digital Comic Book Hannah Johnston Abstract Since its launch in 2007, comiXology has been a key player in the digital comic book industry. ComiXology acts as a mediator between readers and texts, offering unique features with a profound effect on the reading experience in a digital environment. The Guided View interface alters the relationship between content and form, and introduces a level of editing distinct from the physical comic book. Similarly, comiXology’s DRM-free backups and subscription service provide different models for ownership of digital content. ComiXology’s model can also be understood through analysis of e-book distribution; Amazon’s Kindle provides a salient counterpoint. This paper incorporates the theories of multiple digital humanities scholars in order to explore how comiXology is influencing the future of the comic book. Keywords: Comic books, digital humanities, distribution platforms, comiXology The digital comic book distribution platform comiXology is a valuable generative example in comparing various theoretical approaches to the medium. In this paper, I will analyze what reading experiences the comiXology interface inspires, and what relationship to the text it generates. By examining the digital comic book as a specific genre within wider discourse on the future of the book, this paper will engage with multiple salient topics: interface theory, e-commerce, and ownership of digital content. This holistic approach to digital comic books both examines how the medium is theorized in the digital humanities, and facilitates an exploration of its marketing and consumption as a mass-market product. ComiXology is an online distribution platform for digital comic books and graphic novels. Users are able to purchase texts to read on PC/Mac computers, an iPad/iPhone app or its Android equivalent, or an Amazon Kindle. ComiXology distributes comic books from a variety of publishers. JOHNSTON COMIXOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF THE DIGITAL COMIC BOOK These include large houses like DC, Marvel, and Image, as well as smaller self-published indie creators. ComiXology was founded in 2007 and acquired by Amazon in 2014 (McCracken, 2014). The platform released its Comics iPhone app in 2009, and aided in software development for Marvel and DC’s digital comic apps (Wershler, 2011, p. 132-133). Contemporary digital culture and comic book scholarship make the significance of comiXology in the digital comic book market particularly salient: Despite a 300 percent growth of $17 million in digital comics sale revenue for the industry as a whole between 2010 and 2011, by 2012 the market had begun to shake out with a single EST [Electron Sell-Through] service, ComiXology, accounting for approximately 76 percent of sales…by the end of 2012, ComiXology had signed exclusive distribution deals with both DC and Marvel Comics…for the last few years its iPad app has been one of the top-grossing iOS apps in Apple’s App Store. (Steirer, 2014, p. 460) For the purposes of this paper, I will focus on a few key features of comiXology, examining the relationship between the text and the form in which it is presented to readers in a digital environment. ComiXology’s patented Guided View reading mechanism is of particular relevance to interface theory. As stated on comiXology’s website, Guided View “allows readers to view a comic on a panel- by-panel basis suitable for mobile devices in a way that mimics the natural motion of the user’s eye through the comic” (comiXology Support, 2014). Rather than seeing a full one or two-page spread, the reader advances through the panels sequentially. This feature is optional and can be disabled by the user. By suggesting that Guided View creates a naturalistic reading experience, comiXology tempers resistance from cautious adopters of digital comics. This is part of a wider shift to market digital comic books to a broader, non-niche audience (Steirer, 2014, p. 465). The design of the Guided View feature is indicative of comiXology’s orientation towards mobile devices. Minute text and detailed illustrations are difficult to see on devices with smaller screen dimensions, and Guided View facilitates readability. From a practical perspective (and an accessibility one) this feature is beneficial. However, it also fundamentally alters the reader’s experience of the text; although the intention of Guided View is to mimic natural vision, the reader’s subjectivity is compromised. For instance, a sense of artificial suspense can be created, since readers cannot see the content of upcoming panels. When reading a paper comic book, the reader is aware (at least vaguely) of the content of all panels in the two-page spread open at a given moment. As comic book and markup language scholar John Walsh points out: “while the reader’s eyes and attention may focus on a single panel at a time, other panels on the page remain in the reader’s field of vision” (Walsh, 2012, para. 6). Walsh also suggests that the juxtaposition of different panels creates meaning in the comic book, and that presenting individual panels in isolation disrupts the original intent of the text (Walsh, 2012, para. 6). In certain panels – often full page illustrations – the digital image pans out from an affected zoom. This is an act of editing, creating movement not found in the original text. The iJournal (2)2, Winter 2017 2 JOHNSTON COMIXOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF THE DIGITAL COMIC BOOK In 2012, Marvel released its first digital exclusive comic; a New York Times article on the release stated the following: As each successive panel appears on the screen, each tap or click can reveal a new caption, subtly change an illustration or replace it entirely. Focusing and blurring effects can heighten the reading experience or simply allow one to appreciate the artwork, which is richer and more vibrantly colored than the printed page. (Gustines, 2012) The article goes on to suggest that digital comics have the potential to alter not just the way that users interact with the text, but the way that authors write and design to take advantage of digital modality (Gustines 2012). Interface theorist Matthew Kirschenbaum (2004) criticizes the assumption that interface and content can be separated, suggesting that the two are intrinsically connected in the user’s experience of a text. This sort of logic is evident in comiXology’s Guided View: the idea that digital technology can seamlessly approximate the experience of human reading in a print environment. Other digital humanities scholars hold that it may be valuable to approach meaning in digital books differently than in their printed form. Johanna Drucker (2009), writing of e-books, argues: There has been too much emphasis on the formal replication of layout, graphic, and physical features, and too little analysis of how those features affect the book’s function. Rather than thinking about simulating the way a book looks, then, designers might do well to consider the ways a book works. (p. 166) Guided View emphasizes the way that a reader’s eye moves through a printed comic book, but it also contains the potential to rethink storytelling through digital media. Use of intentional suspense is one possibility. Motion comics – which combine animation and sound with traditional illustration – are an exemplary form exploring the potential of digital tools. Exploration and innovation are made possible by considering the digital comic book as a distinct medium. Attempting to recreate a print reading experience does not take advantage of the affordances of a digital environment. Other features of comiXology have been salient to its commercial success. However – as with the sale of e-books – issues of content ownership are endemic to digital distribution. ComiXology was acquired by Amazon in 2014, which prompts examination of the different distribution techniques employed by the two companies. Rowberry (2015) characterizes the launch of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader in 2007 as the “‘iPod moment’ of ebooks,” marking a cultural shift that legitimized that digital medium (p. 6). In a similar vein, Maxwell (2013) suggests that sale of e-books and their printed equivalent is part of Amazon’s wider commercial strategy as a digital conglomerate (p. 36). Acquisition of comiXology fits with this monopolistic intent, as it allows Amazon to control access to another medium. Doody (2013) argues that Amazon’s marketing of the Kindle employs remediation (situating The iJournal (2)2, Winter 2017 3 JOHNSTON COMIXOLOGY AND THE FUTURE OF THE DIGITAL COMIC BOOK a new medium in relation to an older medium) as a rhetorical strategy (p. 136). This is achieved by “combining homage to the printed book (assuring readers of the familiarity of the Kindle’s content) with rivalry with it (vaunting the Kindle’s technological superiority)” (Doody, 2013, p. 142). This is analogous with comiXology’s approach to Guided View. By suggesting that it mimics natural eye movement throughout a comic, comiXology positions its interface as both an ordinary progression from print reading practices, and an improvement through the use of advanced technology. Multiple e-book theorists argue that digital rights management (DRM) is significant to Amazon’s distribution strategy (Maxwell, 2013, p. 37-38; Doody, 2013, p. 140-141). Digital humanities scholar Ted Striphas (2009) suggests that the distributors of commercial e-book technology categorically maintain control over the transfer and manipulation of purchased content (p. 45). This functions to undermine the principles of consumer capitalism that define sale as the complete and perpetual transfer of ownership rights (Striphas, 2009, p. 45). A high level of access control is afforded by DRM tools and software. According to Maxwell (2013), the proliferation of DRM has resulted in “walled gardens” in the competitive e-book market (p. 38). He posits that DRM is “ostensibly aimed at preventing e-book piracy…but fairly transparently in the service of locking customers in to one or another retail platform – that is, of using technology to enforce customer loyalty” (Maxwell, 2013, p.