Back to "Reinventing Comics", I read the introduction and the last two chapters, to get an overview of the book and also to read on what was relevant to my project. I found out that McCloud is a very passionate comic-lover, and he really wants to see comics grow beyond what it is. I get the sense that he simply wants the general public to know the potential of comics, that it is not just constricted to funny strips or superheroes. I guess I am somewhat on the same boat as McCloud, and his ideas from "Understanding Comics" may have cultivated my notion to expand the scope of comics. It is also part of the reason why I am doing this project, an attempt to draw more people into comics.
In the last chapter "Digital Comics", McCloud describes the monitor as an infinite canvas; a vast space for comics to grow in. But in contrary to my idea, McCloud stands opposed to the supplement of sound and motion in comics. He points out that, through those elements some creators wish to make comics "come alive", but because comics portray time through space with static images and relies on reader's ability to fill in the gaps, sound and motion become superfluous. McCloud asserts that if immersion was to be achieved through sound and motion, film has already done that. McCloud advocates the growth of the very essence and roots of comics, its capability to simulate time through space, sounds through silence and motion through still images, in the digital realm. The type of expansion McCloud dicusses is the temporal map of comics, conveying time through space; and since the computer screen is an infinite canvas, unlimited by area or number of pages, creators are free to experience all kinds of different panels and layouts. The interactivity McCloud sees in comics lies with the shared experience of creator and reader (much like Eisner's idea). One concept that McCloud and I agree on, is that within a digital environment, comics' interactivity can be exploited by integrating elements that would actually require the reader to exercise more work: clicking and dragging, choosing a path, revealing a detail in a hidden window, etc. Elements that demands more from the reader, instead of spoon-feeding them with multimedia cliches like sound and motion. McCloud believes that comics' static, silent nature should be preserved, and digital media should let it remain so.
McCloud's insightful account was incredibly helpful and eye-opening. He actually predicted that motion comics (comics with added sound and limited animation) would not be an enduring medium. And it turned out to be true. I will take McCloud's discussion into consideration, and I will find other sources that might have opposing views on this matter, but all in all this book has provided me with great information and a basis for discussion and arguments.
Mind-map for my project
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