Exploring Interactivity in Digital Comics

Abstract

The digital revolution has reconditioned our media landscape, instigating hybridity in traditional forms and reshaping the nature of storytelling through enhanced interactivity. This paper scrutinizes the transformative interplay of digital technologies and comic books, engendering new media narrative forms such as interactive comics and redefining conventional sequential storytelling. As a reflection of this evolution, comic books, long recognized as sequential art, have broadened their narrative scope by integrating elements of motion, interactivity, and game-like attributes. This research explores four distinct types of digital comics: Meanwhile: An Interactive Comic Book (Zarfhome Software, 2018), Framed (Noodlecake Studios, 2014), Florence (Mountains Studio, 2018), and Our Plague Year (Burton, 2022). By adopting Sheldon’s categories of interactivity and Lebowitz and Klug's interactive story spectrum, we analyze these stories' levels of interactivity and linearity. The findings indicate that the complexity, diversity, and multitude of reader agency do not necessarily render a story interactive in terms of content. While these digital comics vary significantly in design, most still adhere to a traditional linear narrative framework despite the diversity and many interactive elements. Only “Meanwhile: An Interactive Comic Book” deviates from linearity, manifesting non-linear, web-like narrative structures and branching story paths. This analysis unravels the nuanced hybridization of digital media and comic books, illuminating how digital technologies reshape and augment our narrative practices. The digital revolution has not only brought about a new storytelling habitat but also expanded our understanding of co-authorship, thus pushing the boundaries of sequential storytelling in an ever-evolving digital culture. It also highlights the importance of recognizing the differences between interacting with the medium and interacting with the story itself. Consequently, this research contributes to the understanding of the intricate relationship between digital technologies, interactivity, and sequential storytelling, paving the way for further exploration in the field of digital comics.