Elemental definitions assert that particular qualities, such as juxtaposed images, make something a comic.

Knowingly incomplete definitions assert that all comics contain a particular component, such as sequential art, but that this is not sufficient in itself to be a comic.

Social definitions assert that the definitions of comics emerge from the communities that produce and use them. For example, a creator may produce a work with the intention of producing a comic, or a reader may receive something as a comic. Such definitions do not require particular physical features to constitute a comic, allowing them to incorporate edge cases that the other types of definition omit, but they can be accused of being vague and drawn by social factors such as trends.

Key Reference: Comics and the Senses, pp 11-18.

Two different operational models for the software layer of digital comics (see digital comics stack). Both categories are software, but they are perceived and operated differently by users.

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Comics as applications behave like other applications in a software environment and are installed into that environment like other apps. Such applications generally have access to an array of features bespoke to that work, including hardware elements such as vibration and sound effects.

Key references: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 47-51. ‘British Comics in the Early Twenty-first Century’, pp 50-53.

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Comics as files behave like files within another piece of software and are generally accessed through that software interface. Examples include comics read through Amazon’s Kindle software. The features of such comics are generally limited to those of the container software.

Key references: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 47-51. ‘British Comics in the Early Twenty-first Century’, pp 50-53.

The Materiality of Digital Comics describes three models of ownership for digital works.

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Ownership involves a purchaser receiving a download of a file or software that they can move, duplicate or delete freely, and which generally does not require proprietary software to open. This may not be true ownership in the formal sense as most digital works are sold as licenses, but in practical terms it is close to the experience of (for example) owning a printed book.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 87-8.

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Access describes the situation where a consumer pays for access to a library of works without any implication that they own the works in that library. Marvel Unlimited is an example from comics, Netflix is an example from beyond comics.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 88-90.

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Owned Access occurs where a digital comic is sold in a way that looks like ownership but only involves access. Often this means paying for a single work (rather than a library of them) but only receiving rights to access the work through proprietary software or systems, with no guarantee that the work will be available in perpetuity, and with no way for the consumer to produce a backup in a generic file format. Examples include works sold through Amazon’s Kindle platform.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 90-2.

An understanding of digital comics as a stack of elements that, taken together, enable us to engage with them as material objects. The Materiality of Digital Comics explores six such elements: identifier (pp 30-1), file type (pp 31-8), software (pp 38-51), firmware (52-3), hardware (53-61) and producers/readers (pp 62-5). Stacks can be dealt with vertically, considering each of the elements in relation to a particular work, or horizontally, comparing elements in one stack to elements in another.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 71-8.

See also: Print/Digital Relationships; Digital Comics as Applications/Files

Bratton, Benjamin H. 2015. The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty. Cambridge, Mass & London: The MIT Press.

Marks, Laura U. 2002. Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp 177-91.

The combination of the focusing and the motion of the eyes that takes place as a comic is read. Comics require readers to focus both narrowly (to take in a single panel and the words within it) and broadly (to take in the entirety of a page or spread), at the same time as moving their gaze across the surface of the page, to understand what Hatfield has called the sequence and the surface in tension.

Key Reference: Comics and the Senses, pp 45-9.

See also: Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (Charles Hatfield, 2005, Uni. of Mississippi Press), pp 48-58.

A notional position from which comics pages can be seen in their entirety, in a perfectly lit, perfectly flat, perfectly clear way, without any physical factors impinging on the capacity to observe them. This approach is widely used in comics scholarship and other fields, and is generally necessary to allow for comparisons between works, but it limits the capacity to consider works as material objects experienced through the reader’s senses.

Key References:Comics and the Senses, pp 34-8, 57-8; The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 12-3, 22.

See also: Technological Materialism

Various interactions within the hardware layer of digital comics (see digital comics stack).

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Print-Only comics are those that exist only in a printed form and have been made using analogue techniques.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, p. 58.

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Digitally-Produced-Print comics are printed objects produced using digital systems.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 58-9.

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Digitally-Augmented-Print comics are those in which the printed work is extended by the digital. Examples include augmented reality (AR) works, but also work such as a printed book packaged with an audio CD to provide a soundtrack.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 59-60.

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Duplicated Comics are works that have been created in either print or digital form and then reproduced in the other. Printed comics that are duplicated in digital format are described as being digitised.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 60-1.

See also: Priego, Ernesto. 2010. The Comic Book in the Age of Digital Reproduction. PhD., City University of London, pp 230-1.

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Digital-Only comics are those that exist entirely in a digital format from creation through to reception, and have no printed component.

Key reference: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 61.

Sensations that can be produced with reference to the comic, for example music through musical notation or smells and tastes through cooking recipes integrated into the text.

Key References: Comics and the Senses, pp 80-1 (hearing), 142-4 (smell and taste).

Various types of relationships between comics and the senses.

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Senses of comics are the sensations directly produced by the body of the comic itself, such as the sounds the book makes as it is being read, or the tastes and smells of an edible comic.

Key References:Comics and the Senses, pp 68-73 (hearing), 99-107 (touch), 126-136 (smell and taste).

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Senses in comics are sensations that are part of the diegesis, and are physically integrated into the work. Examples in include the use of audible soundtracks in digital comics and scratch-and sniff works.

Key References:Comics and the Senses, pp 73-7 (hearing), 136-8 (smell and taste).

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Senses with comics are sensations that comic packaged with a comic, but do not form part of its central body, and may require another mechanism, such as a CD player, to activate.

Key References:Comics and the Senses, pp 77-84 (hearing), 138-42 (smell and taste).

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Senses as comics implies that sensations such as sounds could, under some definitions, be understood as comics in and of themselves. Sounds are perhaps the most likely candidate for this type of understanding.

Key Reference:Comics and the Senses, pp 81-4 (hearing).

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Senses around comics are those sensations that surround a comic while it is being read, such as the music that is listened to or the food that is eaten while a comic is being read.

Key References:Comics and the Senses, pp 85-7 (hearing), 144 (smell and taste).

A concept of materiality rooted in descriptions of technology rather than specific material forms. This approach uses technology as a shorthand for materiality, for example by referring to a ‘tablet computer’ or an ‘iPad’ rather than specifying the actual dimensions of the material object that is being interacted with.

Key References: The Materiality of Digital Comics, pp 12-13.

See also: Ideal Perspective.