Comics as a Tactile Medium: Functions of Touch in Experiences of Reading

Although the subtitle of this conference [International Conference on Comics and Graphics Novels: “Sites of Visual and Textual Innovation”] identifies comics as ‘sites of visual and textual innovation’, research by scholars such as Roger Sabin, Mel Gibson, Pascal Lefèvre and Ernesto Priego suggests that the medium is far more than that. In addition to their visual components, comics employ a wide range of material elements that can appeal to readers’ senses of hearing, touch, smell and even, in a few cases, taste. In this presentation, I will consider the various ways in which comics creators and publishers have sought to employ one of these senses, touch, to convey narratives and express meaning in ways that supplement and in some cases transcend the visual elements of texts.

Touch serves and has served many functions in comics. It is a means by which symbolism can be negated in favour of a direct contact between reader and object, to some extent eliminating the need for representation through visual forms. It is perhaps through touch that the reader is most acutely aware of the composition and changing configuration of the comic they hold in their hands. Touch has also become a political arena; the tactile experiences of reading being noted by some commentators as significant losses in the shift from printed to digital comics.

Over the course of this presentation I will consider some of the functions of touch and tactile experiences in reading comics and graphic novels. Drawing on a diverse range of examples, including Kyle Baker’s Plastic Man: On the Lam!, Art Spiegelman’s In the Shadow of No Towers and Bryan Talbot’s Grandville, I will seek to demonstrate that touch serves a far greater variety of purposes in comics than might initially appear to be the case. Much more than a simple ‘support’ to the text, the tangible components of comics contribute significantly to the meanings of the images upon the page, and these contributions will be the focus of my discussion.