 CCT 300: Critical Analysis of Media Class 8: Reinventing Comics – Genre and economic changes in a digital world

Administration  Comic creation  Group proposals on wiki – ASAP if not today  Feedback on group wikis – 5% of final project mark = providing feedback on others proposals – do it over this week to be helpful  Feedback tips

Reinventing Comics  12 basic concepts, 4 sections  Comics as Art  Industry and Audience  Creator/Audience Diversity  Effect of Digitization

Reinventing Comics (1): Creation as Art  Comics as Literature  Comics as Art  Creators’ Rights

Comics as Literature/Art  Comics can be both literature and art if properly done  Many of you have already discovered this in writing the paper  Six steps in UC – building a foundation for something more than surface understanding as driving force

Comics as Literature  Focus on complex narrative  More complex than simple serialized strip or simple webcomic - a full story from beginning to end (or a serialized strip that takes months/years to tell story…)

Comics as Art  Comics as visual narrative – complexity of narrative extends to area  Japanese influence - a range of interesting non- action transitions directly supporting artistic storytelling

Creators’ Rights  Like other media, similar battles between creators/publishers (examples?)  Creator concerns for ownership and control, fair share of profit  Increasing interest in maintaining fair access and compensation for talent – away from studio work for hire models  Challenges?

Reinventing Comics (2): Industry and Audience  Industry Innovation  Public Perception  Institutional Scrutiny

Innovation in Industry  Creators’ rights require innovation in industry model - and sometimes drive it  Simple model of “getting into the business” - photocopy a drawing and sell it yourself - trite but true - but it’s more complicated in practice

Steps in Traditional Publishing  Author  Publisher  Accounting  Marketing  Printing  Distribution  Warehousing  Retail  Transportation among above

Creation and Distribution…  Many will sacrifice control over non-creative tasks to gain broader market  Often a good idea – but can be a trap – why?

Public Perception  Comics as kid-lit – what effect does stereotype have?  Traditional model of production creates vicious cycle around stereotype – perception of comics as kid lit influences what is and is not produced which reinforces perception

Comics and Censorship  US history - tainted by censors who lamented the debasement of culture, perversion of youth - pretty much everything  Ironically, drove comics underground where they became even more debased (e.g., R. Crumb and other alt comics of 60s)  Driven by perception - if comics were seen as valued art, would this happen?

Audience/Creator Diversity  Gender Balance  Minority Representation  Diversity of Genre

Comics and Gender  Traditionally creators and audience were male - leading to particular stereotypes of both genders  Creators have been female - but still expected to follow expectations of audience  To what effect?  Alternatives?

Minority Comics  Stereotypical audience, and many creators - white, male, straight, Christian, young, physically able, middle class  Similar to gender issues – stereotype can be hard to break through  To what effect?  Alternatives?

Diversity of Genre  Superhero domination of shelf space via perception, creation and audience - a vicious cycle  Non-traditional graphic novels - breaks through ideas of what a comic “must be”  Required breaking through comic store as core distribution channel

Reinventing Comics (4): Digitization and the Internet  Digital Production  Digital Delivery  Digital Comics

Digital Production  Production of comics digitally - including McCloud’s two last books, but others as well  Many webcomics – 100% digitial  What about your own?

Digital Delivery  Like other media, removes steps in production process - ideally creating more direct consumer/producer links and lowering costs of system  Social networking technologies – allow for comics to spread widely  Also digital payment – how do webcomics make money?

Digital Comics  Can include immersive and interactive environments  Not as bound to page requirements (e.g., I Can’t Stop Thinking scrolling example)  Can even be more traditionally framed comics simply distributed via web  Diversity of genres, explosion of options (

Related Direction: Flash-based Animation  What does Flash contribute to visual and experiential effect of animation?  Why is it still comical in nature?  Is it really a comic though?

Weekly assignment  McCloud’s take on micropayments (an extension of the book – now very old!)  5/icst-5.html 5/icst-5.html  6/icst-6.html 6/icst-6.html  What failed?

Next week(s)  The “newness” of new media  Social media/Web 2.0  Closing thoughts and exam review