Image, Motion And Interactivity In Digital Comics Imagen, movimiento e interactividad en el cómic digital Margarita Molina Fernández After introducing the different kinds of digital comic and their denomination, this article will focus on the combination of motion, Licenciada en Bellas Artes por la animation and comic in the digital realm. First of all, it will explore Universitat Politècnica de València the conflicts between both media and the first solutions developed [email protected] by the creators of these hybrid forms. Then, with the inclusion of interactivity and touch screen reading devices, it will present some of the formal hybrid strategies with narrative function from case studies. It will conclude with an exploration of those works which emphasize the materiality of comics through the combination of traditional and digital mediums. Tras presentar los diferentes tipos de cómic digital y sus denominaciones, este artículo tratará la combinación del movimiento y la animación con el cómic en el entorno digital. En primer lugar, se plantearán los conflictos entre ambos medios y las primeras soluciones desarrolladas por los creadores de estas formas híbridas. A continuación, con la inclusión de la interactividad y los dispositivos de lectura con pantalla táctil, se expondrán algunas estrategias formales híbridas con función narrativa a partir del Key words análisis de ejemplos. Finalmente, se tratarán las obras que subrayan Digital comics, motion, la materialidad del cómic a través de la combinación de un soporte interactivity, narrativity, tradicional y digital. reading experience Full text available online: Palabras clave Cómic digital, movimiento, http://www.polipapers.upv.es/index.php/EME/ interactividad, narratividad, experiencia de lectura https://doi.org/10.4995/eme.2019.11360 3 When we talk about digital comics, even though it version of MAUS in CD-Rom5. With regards to the is a relatively young media, we are talking about a combination of motion image and comic, motion fertile, heterogenous field. Such denomination, digital comics became the main model, with the adaptation comic, is used in a variety of ways by theoreticians, of The Watchmen6 to this format being the most specialists and comic creators, so we will start representative work. by clarifying what type of work do we refer to in In the last decade, hybridation with videogames this article, when we talk about digital comics. and the development of multi-linear narratives take Every comic created for digital media and digital a further step, given the influence of Scott McCloud distribution is considered a digital comic. However, and his “infinite canvas”7 theory. The works of Daniel we will exclude from the digital comic family the Merlin Goodbrey, such as A Duck Has An Adventure8, works created for print edition that afterwards has and the digital version of Meanwhile9, by Jason Shiga. been digitalised, not adapted for its distribution Works with motion image such as motion comics online. These include both scantrad1 as ePUB format have been relegated by other formulae, such as publications, among others, of comics originally motion books, which bet on using loop animation and published in paper. We will refer to such works as movement synchronised with the reader’s navigation. digitalised comics. Finally, we will include those The works The Boat10, an adaptation by Matt Huynh hybrid works that combine in digital media the of the work by Nam Le, and Notre Toyota était characteristics of comic, alongside with those of fantastique11, by Boulet, are two wonderful examples other media, such as animation films or videogames. in which motion contributes great expressivity. Many of these hybrids have become standardised, receiving specific denominations, with their dormat Animation and film effects on digital comic and distribution channels easily identifiable. Webcomics, webtoons, hypercomics, motion comics, At this point, we will focus exclusively on the use of motion books, turbomédia are some examples of it2. movement in digital comics. As we mentioned earlier, These hybrid works are the centre of our interest. among the first digital comics that include movement According to Julien Baudry, we find hybrid works we find motion comics. Both cinematographic from the beginning of digital comics, in the 1990s, movement – camera movements, zooms, transition although original work that is truly multimedia were effects – and limited animation – loop animation still rare3. In those years some work appeared, that or moving elements – were combined with sound was close to point-and-click videogames, distributed and text bubbles. Cinematographic form and its in CD-ROM format, such as Opération Teddy Bear4 by temporality strongly determined these works: spatial Edouard Lussan. Other comics were digitalised, and temporality of comics, based upon the juxtaposition extra content added to them, like the augmented of panels in the space of the page was totally replaced by the yuxtaposition of images and planes in time, that is characteristic of cinematographic image. This 1. El scantrad es una práctica extendida entre los internautas fans de los cómics extranjeros, especialmente del manga. Consiste en el escaneo, would place the reader in the role of a spectator, traducción y distribución ilegal de cómics. 2. Los webcómics suelen presentar una maquetación próxima a la forma which was not well received at the time in the world tradicional de la página y se publican periódicamente, ya constituyan o no una serie. Se distribuyen por internet en plataformas de publicación colectivas, en comicblogs o en redes sociales. El webtoon es un formato propio de Corea del Sur, donde tienen una gran popularidad. Se trata de 5. SPIEGELMAN, ART: The Complete Maus CD-ROM - A Survivor's Tale. historias cortas, seriales y de publicación periódica, pensadas para su Productor: SCARBOROUG, ELISABETH, New York, Voyageur, 1994. lectura en dispositivos móviles. Se presentan en forma de banda a lectura 6. HUGHES, JAKE S., GORDON, LAURENCE, LEVIN, LLOYD: Watchmen Motion vertical. Los hipercómics presentan historias no lineales al estilo de los Comics, DVD de 12 capítulos, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 2008. libros “elige tu propia aventura”, con lo que el lector obtiene un cierto 7. McCLOUD, SCOTT: Reinventing Comics, New York , Paradox Press, 2000. control sobre la naración. El formato infinite canvas formulado por McCloud El “infinite canvas” propone sobrepasar los límites de la página para (2000) es popular entre estas obras. Los motion cómics, formato ya extinto, aprovechar el espacio digital infinito. Las viñetas pueden extenderse se acercaban a lo que en el mundo de la animación se conoce como una en cualquier dirección y la pantalla toma el rol de una ventana móvil animática. Los motion books conservan un formato de página, maridado con de acceso a dichas viñetas. La navegación en cualquiera de las cuatro la animación, el sonido y en algunos casos interactividad. Están destinados direcciones (arriba, abajo, izquierda y derecha) permite crear narraciones a la lectura en tableta. Los turbomédia adoptan el cuadro horizontal de con bifurcaciones, donde la historia varía según la dirección tomada por el la pantalla y buscan efectos narrativos utilizando la técnica denominada lector. panel delivery, una técnica de narración secuencial temporal que permite 8. GOODBREY, DANIEL MERLIN: A Duck Has An Adventure, 2012 <http://e- la aparición, la desaparición y la sustitución de elementos dispuestos en merl.com/stuff/duckadv.html>. [18 enero 2019]. superposición o yuxtaposición en la superficie de la pantalla. 9. SHIGA, JASON: Meanwhile, 2011 <https://store.steampowered.com/ 3. BAUDRY, J. : “Génealogie de la bande dessinée numérique”. En ROBERT, app/714980/Meanwhile_An_Interactive_Comic_Book/>. [18 enero 2019]. PASCAL : Bande dessinée et numérique, París, CNRS Éditions, 2016, pp.36-37. 10. HUYNH, MATT: The Boat, 2015 < http://www.sbs.com.au/theboat/>. [21 4. LUSSAN, EDOUARD: Opération Teddy Bear. Director artístico : SIMIAN, enero 2019]. JACQUES, cómic educativo y programa ludo-educativo en CD-rom, Index : 11. BOULET : Notre Toyota était fantastique, 2013 <http://www.bouletcorp. Flammarion, 1996. com/blog/2013/10/08/notre-toyota-etait-fantastique/>. [21 enero 2019]. 4 Fig. 1 y 2. Notre Toyota était fantastique of comics, were complaints were voiced around the and reconstructs the narrative sequence. The only loss of freedom due to the control of the reading pace difference between a fixed image and an animated being taken away from the hands of the reader12. one is the length of the capture. In spite of this, creators would not give up Loop movements revealed themselves as a experimentation with animation and movement. powerful expressive resource. We can observe its Keeping the spacetime system of traditional comic, use in the mentioned Notre Toyota était fantastique13, they chose to replace kinetic lines and polimorph in which one of the main characters is light itself. frames – constructions of the language of comics to Colour and movement are the key indicators that represent motion – with loop animation images. Loop allow us to identify the different sources of light in images have the same time value of a fixed image, the images. The lights of the tunnel and the lamp they are a capture of instants preserved in time. posts both have a yellow tint, however we are able to Ultimately, it is the work of the author to choose tell them apart thanks to the frequency with which in a sequence of actions the captures that best their light is projected in the interior of the car. transmit such sequence, to display them on the page. The moonlight, on its part, is soft and bluish, and it The reader watches them, completes time ellipsis highlights the shadows of trees along the road (fig.1). The light atmosphere is, thus, perfectly transmitted 12. McCLOUD, SCOTT : Reinventing Comics, opus cit. p. 210. GROENSTEEN, through animation. However, the use of motion is not THIERRY : Bande dessinée et narration, système de la bande dessinée 2, Puff, 2011, p. 76.