Tori Yama Literary Journal

Including Webcomics in the Literary Spectrum

In a previous essay, I brushed the surface of including webcomics in the vast spectrum of literature. Due to their inclusion of literary elements such as characterization, irony, allusion, and personification, webcomics are more literary than some people tend to give them credit for. While it is true that they are very different than works by Hawthorn and Poe, webcomics display many of the same literary techniques as poetry and stories today. Near the end of that essay, I specified that not all webcomics are literature, but that being called a webcomic shouldn’t bar this medium from being included. Comic and literature enthusiasts may have difficulty in agreeing on the points that make some comics more literary than others.

In comic terms, there are two main structures of any media comic writing: simple narrative, and complex narrative. In a comic studies textbook written by Randy Duncan and Mathew Smith, simple narrative comics are comics that “revolve[] around a problem and end[] with the resolution of that problem” and frequently include a punch line finish (Duncan 129). Readers come into simple narratives en medias res, in the middle of the action with little knowledge about the characters beyond the immediate problem being solved such as in webcomics like the popular VG Cats and XKCD. In the same book, Duncan and Smith state that complex narratives are more story-like, including character development, back-story, ongoing subplots, and a continuous plot from one page to the next. It is this second structure that places some webcomics into the category of literature.

A popular example of a complex narrative is the popular webcomic Homestuck, a comedic webcomic created by Andrew Hussie. The webcomic follows the adventures of four children playing a game that ultimately destroys their world and creates an unbeatable god-enemy for them to face. Over the course of the story, Hussie complicates the plot with subplots and back-story for not only the four children, but twelve alien children whose actions and dialogue are used to characterize each so that they are all their own individual character. The success of this complex story may be due largely to comic pacing techniques.

Pacing techniques are essential to traditional forms of literature. An example of traditional literary pacing can be found in Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Cask of Amontillado’, where Poe carefully lets short dialogue punctuated by descriptions or thoughts paint the mood as well as the pace of Montressor and Fortunado’s decent into the catacombs. Pacing techniques in webcomics work similar to those used by Poe, “time within a panel [is] governed by the panel’s shape, size, the amount of dialogue” as well as space between pages or panels to draw out events for emphasis or suspense (Andrei Luca).

Simple narrative forms use the same sorts of pacing techniques, but for different purposes. Unlike complex narratives, these types of webcomics typically do not use pacing to draw out plot. Simple narrative webcomics typically use such techniques to draw out a short joke in order to emphasize the punch line. The simple narrative webcomics found in VG Cats display this use of pacing to drive the punch line in many strips. The strips found in VG Cats may also display puns, metaphors, and long dialogue between characters for the sake of the joke. They do not, however, typically continue any sort of plot from one comic to the next, and characters are left relatively flat. In this narrative style, little to no background information is ever learned about characters because it does not further the effect of the current joke.

Simple narrative webcomics also tend to rely more heavily on visual metaphors and exaggerated images to move their short problems along to the conclusion rather than using many literary elements. These visual techniques are important in complex narrative webcomics as well, but are coupled with literary elements to create a unique hybrid between the art and the writing in a similar way to visual poetry. It is this combination of art and writing that lead many comic and literature enthusiasts to argue that neither comic narrative style can be counted as literature. In the book ‘Comics as Culture’, M. Thomas Inge points out that comics are an art form      (Inge 4). They are not meant to be simply read as text, and they are not simply to be looked at as pictures. Both elements of comics must be looked at together for the full beauty of the medium to be understood and appreciated.

It is true that both simple and complex narrative comics cannot simply be read as text. Just like in regular print comics, webcomics are filled with visual techniques that work together with dialogue or narration to further jokes or plots. This should not bar the medium from being considered literature. Complex narrative webcomics have the potential to use these unique drawing elements to create mood combined with things like dialogue and other literary elements in ways that other traditional forms of literature cannot. For example, the webcomic Fantasy Realms uses dark coloring to create mood while using dialogue and narrative to introduce themes, characterization, foreshadowing, and other elements essential to the furthering of the plot. Arguably, traditional forms of literature create moods in this same manner by using language only, but webcomics have the potential to combine this same language with visual techniques for a new sort of reading experience.

As in earlier cases, simple narrative webcomics do not use visual techniques to further a long-term plot. These webcomics may set the tone and mood of a strip in the same visual manner as a complex narrative webcomic, the visual techniques are not used to further develop characters or set the mood for a longer plot. The visual techniques used in this sort of narrative webcomic usually are short-term with the intent of emphasizing the joke in the resolution of the strip. Examples of this are like wavy lines replacing solid lines in character drawings in order to emphasize to a reader that they are trembling in order to end with a joke about a ghost hovering behind a second character.

 In the book ‘Comic Books; Examining Pop Culture’, David Haugen states that “comics closely integrate words and pictures,” which frequently causes many enthusiasts in both the literature field and comic field to deny their ability to be considered as literature (Haugen 35). The argument is the same about webcomics. While it is true that not all webcomics are literature, complex narrative webcomics combine comic techniques with literary elements to create long stories often filled with subplots, characterization, and back story. To deny that these complex narratives can be considered comics is to overlook the potential these types of webcomics have to unite visual art and literature in ways only comic styles can. Although they look nothing like their traditional literature cousins, complex narrative webcomics use many of the same literary elements for the same purposes as traditional forms do. They just add a little of their own flavor like visual and form poems did before them.

            Carla Vangrove studies English with an emphasis in creative writing at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Her central focus in these studies is not how creative mediums fit within the literary field, though she enjoys researching this on the side for her writing arguments class. As a creative writing student, she believes in not entirely limiting the literary potential of mediums without thoroughly researching the medium and considering all arguments for and against it.