By Sarah Rotman
TheComic.com features the work of Gareth Hinds, a truly talented,
remarkable artist. Having never been exposed to his work, I was in
for a pleasant surprise when I discovered this site. The same thoughtful
beauty and sophistication that characterize his images are fully present
in the planning and execution of his website. The site is versatile-a
user can both discover Hinds' traditional graphic novels in print
(and order them through the site) and explore his work made expressly
for online viewers. In this way, Hinds has succeeded where many producers
of print media have failed in their transition to online space: he
has created new content for the web that does attempt to take advantage
of the unique properties of the media, instead of essentially digitizing
the pages of a book without regard for the inherent differences between
print and digital media.
That said, there is some room for growth in Hinds' site. His made-for-the-web
comic, Deus Ex Machina, does experiment with graphic and narrative
styles, but does not yet take full advantage of the media. The best
example of this is the format of the comic, which does not quite break
away from the limitations of a printed page (each sequence is limited
to a rectangle with roughly the same amount of information as a printed
page; to continue the sequence, one must click on the "next"
button which effectively flips the page). As Hinds includes Scott
McCloud's site as a link with the acknowledgement, "If you want
to see what the web really signifies for the comics medium, go here
now," he is obviously acquainted with what McCloud is doing with
the shape of the comic liberated from the printed page. I would be
interested to see where Hinds heads next as he fills the space he
has just begun to occupy.
Another comment of note: Deus Ex Machina and all the other
content on this site is free. As McCloud commented in his lecture
to our class, to provide quality content for free is not sustainable,
not because artists are greedy capitalists, but because they need
to eat. I wonder if in the future as Hinds devotes more resources
to digital comics he will find it necessary to adopt some other economic
model. Until then, I encourage anyone who loves sequential art to
visit this site.