To write, in 2017, that digital comics constitute a multiple and shifting form is self-evident and in agreement with the observations of many scholars about digital literature in general. One also finds the terms multimedia comics and digital comics ( 2009: 19, my translation).Ĭonfronted with this obstacle, Rageul was more straightforward in 2014: ‘Digital comics don’t have the same substance as comics do, but are not another known medium either, they are therefore a new medium’ ( 2014: 18, footnote 19). Online comics are either called as such or webcomic (incidentally, the website is French), or BD/I by Thierry Smolderen. Laurène Steiff uses the term e-BD, by analogy with the e-mail. Édouard Lussan calls his Opération Teddy Bear an interactive comic.

Conventionally, a series of terms are often used. There is no ‘official’ terminology to talk about the medium which is our subject here. One can start with Anthony Rageul’s observation, in 2009, that ‘digital comics’ is a very vague term: Indeed, it seems naïve to pretend to be able to precisely define what digital comics are, even though this definition is needed as a basis for exploration. The field of digital comics is the uncertain area I will deal with here the difficulty begins right before one enters it since its very name proves problematic. I started my research for this article with what is, for me, scientifically obvious: a scholar must question the blind spots of his discipline, even (and perhaps specifically) when those uncertain areas resist all serious investigation. Should digital comics move away from print to earn their own place? Are digital comics lacking a masterpiece that could establish their legitimacy? Should they exploit the potentialities of digital art and offer interactivity, moving images, new formats to gain their independence? This article argues that asking these questions is to try to reconcile the disparities of digital comics and see how scholars, cartoonists and publishers all try to give digital comics a specific status, for different reasons, but sharing a common goal.

This shows a deference of digital comics to print: some scholars see in digital comics only a technological variation of pre-existent means of distribution. Many digital comics frequently resort to skeuomorphism, a digital reproduction of printed comics’ most salient aspects. Since digital comics were first published in the 1990s, it has not always been possible to gather them under a common denominator, apart from what already defines (with difficulty) printed comics. What are digital comics? The answers to this question are diverse and often contradictory.

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