Radiant Black #18 – written by Kyle Higgins and Laurence Homles, with art and colors by Stefano Simeone, and lettering from Becca Carey – is another one of those issues that play with the linear format of sequential art, utilizing a structure of four separate narratives across each page. In both cases, this breaks up the flow and takes the reader out of the sequence, which otherwise would have been smoother by reading the comic in a physical form. Either the reader has to know beforehand to disable the setting, which takes the experience out of the moment, or they have to stop reading to do so. Most devices support an auto-setting for screen rotation and thus impose an additional barrier to experiencing the creators’ intended effect. With a physical comic, the process of turning the book is easy but becomes more complicated when doing this on a phone or tablet. It’s a symbolic composition that reflects Batman’s mental state as he finds himself more and more lost, and requires the reader to physically change the perspective of their comic to experience the story in the correct direction. In the sequence where Batman is lost in the Court of Owls’ labyrinth, the layout of the pages begins to rotate. A perfect example of this change in experience is Scott Synder and Greg Capullo’s Batman #5. Things like the guided view help focus on a panel-by-panel flow or pinch to zoom lets a reader see the tiniest details. The shift has changed the physical act of handling a comic, and how it’s examined, seen, and experienced. As the medium has evolved and moved to a digital format. Comics offer an interesting intersection of technology and reader engagement.
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