Normalità del Web e alterità del fumetto = Normality of the Web and otherness of comics

Abstract

As is well known, new media do not kill the old ones. They just redefine their scope. Sometimes this new scope is too narrow, and the old medium dies. Sometimes, though, the new scope turns out to be advantageous and the old medium thrives. As long as the Web was new, the danger it posed to more traditional entertainment tools was real. Since it has instead normalized, constantly pervading daily life, some of the more intrinsically material media have begun to enjoy the advantage of a growing otherness, diversity from normal conditions. The advantage does not exist in normal working conditions and daily life, where the greater usefulness and pervasiveness of the Web is easily winning. And yet, precisely for this reason, the possibility of evasion often seeks conditions that are different from the normal ones. In recent years, comics and cinema have enjoyed this condition of otherness, which favored their success for recreational purposes (including cultural recreations). Paradoxically, the extreme effectiveness of the Web has made it less suitable for appearing like a real elsewhere.