Mandatory Blog Post #5 - Opinions and Pixels and Scott McCloud

The 'infinite canvas' is a term coined by comic book writer, artist and theorist, Scott McCloud. He talks about it in his second book Reinventing Comics, which revolves around comics as high art and their place in the digital world. The book was written in 2000 just when the Internet and consumer computers were just becoming a big thing. He proposed, or rather, predicted a future where books, newspaper, movies, and comic books would be available digitally and for a lower price. He loved the idea of these mediums becoming digital because it would allow for faster and cheaper self publishing as well as more of a profit for the creators. Scott also believed in the virtually infinite space on the Internet would allow for more content, as well as more expression and growth in the arts, sciences and other media that was once limited by the finite space available on paper.

Reinventing Comics

As we all know, these predictions became a reality. Books are now much cheaper on the Kindle, movies can be bought digitally on Amazon for a fraction of the price, and some newspapers have resorted to digital only. Pixels are cheaper than paper to produce, distribute and purchase. This is horrible for people who enjoy the smell, feel, and taste of physical copies. I call them the collectophiles, they suffer from collectophilia.

Reinventing Comics

I am an avid collector of all things that I enjoy. I love comics, guitars, books, video games, Cd's, stupid toys, and all of that stuff. I have a lot of each and I love to show them off on my shelves and floor. I would prefer a physical copy over a digital, but that does not mean that digital media isn't the future and that we shouldn't welcome it with arms wide open and with plenty of space on our hard drives. Its inevitable that most if not all media will be digitized, so we better accept it.

The infinite canvas that I brought up earlier is the idea that because the Internet has nigh infinite space, that all printed media can and will go beyond its previous borders and limitations. An example is this blog that I am typing up right now. It is possible that I may extend this post for as long as I would ever need to. Unlike a sheet of paper, I don't run out of page space, I just keep on typing and the page goes on forever expanding until I hit the publish button; even then I have the option to continue editing this piece until these servers shut down. In Scott's case, the infinite comic book is a format of interactive panels that lead into each other and to other story arks, not unlike a choose your own adventure book. On the Internet, there are literally infinite possibilities.

I will miss the physical world when the digital world does take over, but I will be able accept all that it brings with it. I am willing to read a never ending comic book in a never ending world. I will miss my collection that may someday gather dust as I surf the digital world and uncover new and interesting things that creators have done to take advantage of the infinite canvas given to them.

I highly recommend reading more from Scott McCloud, even if you're not entirely interested in comics. He explores art history and loves talking about the artistic possibilities of new technology. His website is constantly updated and he's always working on new projects. A recent example is his comic-styled Google Chrome tutorial.  Here is a picture of some readings:

We have unlimited space to share our ideas, lets not push that away. Lets welcome it and all that it can do for us.