A brand new graphic novel. Strategies in the making of online comics

Abstract

The paper considers the current question about the new forms of interaction between contemporary Graphic Novel and dynamics of communication activated by digital technologies, whereas the renewed centrality of the comics. Among the issues under consideration, a prominent place is given to the reversibility work of the hallmarks of traditional meaning graphic novel: by the way the plastic units and the objects are placed in the visual space of the web page to the new consumption methods of the comics’ sequentiality, from the changing relational experience to the affirmation of a strategy of complicity, which inscribes the enunciatee in an extremely complex text. The underlying assumption being that the web space is capable of embracing a more innovative development of the structure and expressive potential of comics and a process of reinterpretation. This system provides its attitudinal orientation guiding the reader/visitor towards a participatory experience immersion in participatory experience. Starting with an analysis of three representatives cases – in order to continue a research project on the graphic novel and the effect of reality – this paper proposes a reflection on the fusional, interactive and immersive experience and on the effects of meaning generated by the syncretism of the historical and documentary graphic novel and reportage comics online.