Infinite Canvas - The Future That Ain't

To Infinity and... Where Did That Get Off To?

Probably the most well known idea of McCloud's as far as digital comic mechanics are concerned is the idea of the Infinite Canvas. A very short explanation of the concept is that the comics "page" is much larger than its viewing area. Therefore, the reader must navigate the view window around the page-plane to explore the narrative.

As I've said before, McCloud's analytical strengths are clear from his insightful observations of existing works, seeing the patterns, abstracting from there. Probably he's at his weakest when he tries to see into the future. I don't mean this to come off as overly critical, seeing the future is mad hard, and nobody can really do it. So now that I'm looking at an assortment of good digital comics, I'm going to go over some of the things that don't seem to be panning out with this approach and some of the reasons for that. I'm hoping some of the newer terminology I've trotted out will help us with this.

To contextualize the Infinite Canvas with my terminology, the image sequence and the turn are not defined by the comic's creator. One could argue that there is no sequence at all, since the "page" is one giant image. As the reader cannot take all this in at once, I believe there is then an implied sequence. The items in this implied sequence are determined by where the view window rests. The turn can likewise be seen as any movement of the view window which creates a new image. I'll touch on some of the ramifications of this below.

The mechanics of the Infinite Canvas are more thoroughly discussed by McCloud in another article. Here he lays out the narrative tools he sees the Infinite Canvas providing to artists who might utilize the concept. These are:

• Trails - Connective lines that can be used to guide the reader between panels, their arrangement no longer presenting "normal" readerly order. 
• Distance Pacing - Artists not being constrained by a physical limit (page size) can be more fee with their use of space between panels. This space can fluctuate more freely without the reader complaining about paying for blank pages. The differences in spacing can be used to pace actions.
• Narrative Subdivision - Without the page as a divider, panels can be chucked in larger groups or smaller groups. The artist can use these different groupings to achieve different effects.
• Sustained Rhythm - Somewhat of a corollary to Narrative Subdivision, the pacing of a story is likewise not dictated by paged chunks.
• Gradualism - Artists can stage their reveals (dramatic or otherwise) much more often. Paper based comics are generally poor at "information hiding" as each page turn opens up a relatively large narrative space to peripheral observation. 

The current style of digital comics that seems to be emerging takes advantage of many of these. Narrative subdivision is one of the hallmarks of this current style. Individual panels can be updated, there's no need for a whole page to turn for something to change. By the same token, gradualism is achieved as well. Panels or panel elements can appear from nothing on each turn.

Actually, I feel that the Infinite Canvas does a poor job with many of these. While McCloud very strongly believes that "space = time" in comics, I'm not sure this holds up in a digital context. The reader's scrolling (the turn in practice) cannot be modulated by the author in any way. The reader might very well scroll more quickly through perceived blank areas to get back to perceived content. Here's where I feel the Infinite Canvas fails Distance Pacing, Sustained Rhythm, and Gradualism. The reader might scroll too far or too quickly and take away any authorial reveals. It's true that the whole point of a turn is user pacing, but the turns themselves are a defined area of authorial intent. Imagine a book displayed as an endless text on your screen. What if you scrolled too far and missed a bunch of details? What if you accidentally scrolled to the end and read the last sentence on accident?

All in all, I think the Infinite Canvas actually takes a number of powerful tools away from the author while providing no real benefit to the reader. In fact, there are those online that argue that readers do not like scrolling at all.

In my next installment, I'm going to review some existing Infinite Canvas works and give a "play by play" as to which of the above theorized issues I encounter.