Throughout history, we have seen comics change so much since their origins dating back to prehistoric times. The term comic itself is often misinterpreted as author Scott McCloud addresses in his book “Understanding Comics”. With the turn of the century comics have been used digitally and published through websites such as those of author Eryon Franklin. Upon reading McCloud’s book in print and also Franklin’s digital comic “Long Term Relationship” I have noticed a few differences that enhanced my interpretations of the readings. One is that the dynamic of how I read changes slightly. In print comics I read from left to right and seemingly like a regular book leads my eyes from one page to another. A good indication of this is McCloud’s concept of iconography. We are so used to seeing things a certain way like symbols and borders even. It’s purpose is to pose a certain way for us to interpret to the best of our ability. When I read the digital form, I had to scroll down of course and it was more of a suspenseful feel. In a printed format we can sort of preview two pages and depending the size of them we can catch a good glimpse of panels on the next page as opposed to the digital form. The digital versions seemed like a large collage that tells a story with some even having a single background representing a theme, that sits behind the panels aligned vertically indicating to scroll to continue the story. The gifs used in “Long Term Relationship” reminds me of a cartoon gif and of course differs from the conventional couple of panels known as moment to moment. Turning to McClouds discussion of what the future will look like for comics, I can sum it to be aiming now towards more of a digital approach. Specifically, comics will modernize in terms of media, ideas, and present references will begin to pop-up. In comparison many people will still be unaware what and what isn’t considered comics. New and upcoming authors will turn more to personalized website or blogs that helps display their work to increase recognition and social medias and network sites can influence that positively.

Image taken from Flickr