From poly-medium to post-medium A discourse on non-evolutionary movements of manga and comics

Abstract

This is a reflection on manga as a litmus to talk about two dimensions of comics at large. The first is the non-evolutionary nature of the comics medium. The article first argues that manga's and comics' perceived stages over time cannot be informed by the metaphor of evolution, but proceed-ed via "lateral" movements. We suggest that this form has mutated and is migrating into different technological realms, following non-ascending movements that date back to more ancient forms of visual sequential languages. The second dimension we discuss is in fact comics' transition from a "poly-medium" to a "post-medium" status. This article's focus on comics' post-mediality relates the new situation of media convergence where comics as content carrier is in turn carried through any possible image-supporting device, and this entails the loss of its status of a technology-specific form.