Let Me Tell You About Webcomics: A New Postmodern Genre
by Paige Gelsimino
In Spiddrelli, almost all of the panels have some sort of animation in them. In some dialogues the characters are shown reacting as the reader clicks through the conversation by tapping on the dialogue boxes or bubbles, like when Topaz and Spiddrelli are talking Spiddrelli bursts out laughing at Topaz’s observations as to why his wife was dead and not divorced from him. Click on the image below to see the conversation play out.
While print comics can imitate movement they can’t show the real thing like webcomics can. Also Spiddrelli, unlike most webcomics, has a few speaking parts in it. The prologue is given to the reader by a detective talking about his cold case he needs to solve.
Further along in the story, Judd, Ollie, and Spiddrelli are shown a video which also has the reader listening to a speaking part. Voice acting is another way to utilize the many perks of having the internet as a medium and escaping the boundaries that print comics have.
Another time in Spiddrelli, Robin stops Louie from trying to hit Spiddrelli and Ollie with a broken bottle. Ollie comments asking why Louie was even let into the bar, considering he was obviously delusional and going on a date with a cardboard cut-out. The panel then adds music to the back of what Robin tells them next, that all of Midvale is an asylum. Click on the image below to view the conversation and hear the music.
Using music like this, webcomics can add to the atmosphere of what is being revealed to Spidrelli, Ollie, and the reader. Print comics can't do anything with music or sounds, they are silent and contained to the paper they are printed on. Spiddrelli doesn’t just use music, it also uses several sound effects, like a buzzer for when Topaz, Ollie, and Judd are going into the hospital.