All click and no play: how interactive are interactive digital comics?

Abstract

This contribution investigates a specific subcategory of digital comics - part of what I call 'expanded digital comics' - considered by many to be inherently more interactive than prototypical comics, and often related to video games. However, whether they are indeed more interactive, and what it means for a comic to be interactive at all, is an open question. Trough a reframing of the concept of interactivity as one of the possible subtypes of agency (narrative, interpretative, material and social) that a semiotic text allows for, this contribution will survey and discuss a selection of ostensibly interactive digital comics, interrogating the types and degrees of interaction they establish and reflecting on the specificities of their meaning-making processes.