The challenge of digital scholarship is to use the techniques of new media to improve historical knowledge. Many historians, such as Professor Vernon Takeshita of Yale, http://www.dartmouth.edu/~history/newsletter/spring01/web.html, see mostly the negative aspects of this new medium--the derivative has superseded the analytical. Others, such as Professor Edward L. Ayers at the University of Virginia, http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/PastsFutures.html, envision its potential--not just to attract a wider audience, but also to serve as a “catalyst and tool in the creation of a more literary kind of history.” This new historical narrative, for Ayers, would use “shared networks of communication so that references, connections, and commentaries grow and change.” History would not be dumbed-down, as some fear has already happened; it would become more complex. Here complexity challenges the reader rather than obfuscates. I chose to look at the two examples of digital scholarship that use comic books as the medium for presenting the past.

David Westbrook accepted the American Quarterly’s challenge to go beyond theorizing about the promise of digital scholarship and to present a new media “article.” His bibliography for his online piece, “From Hogan’s Alley to Coconino County,” found at http://chnm.gmu.edu/aq/comics/index.html, contains many examples of traditional print books about comic strips. But the visual nature of comics lends itself eminently to a digital representation. Thus Westbrook has chosen to weave a traditional narrative with illustrations, but in new and interesting ways. He seeks to actively engage the reader, but is that what historians want? Reading Susan Smulyan’s article, “Everyone a Reviewer? Problems and Possibilities in Hypertext Scholarship,” (American Quarterly, 51.2 (1999): 263-67; and by subscription at Project Muse) one detects the frustration that some in the academy feel toward the burdens that this new media have placed on them. Smulyan is in a hurry, as are many academics. They need a shortcut--the thesis on the first page and the conclusion at the end. They may not have time to read it all.

But Westbrook has not provided the reader with the typical linear construction found in a journal article. He even says that there is no one thesis. Instead, he presents us with three essays or “threads” that are complimentary and interrelated through links, and that together form his “bundle” of historical evidence. It would have been very difficult for Westbrook to link so seamlessly three traditional chapters on the business, culture, and spectatorship of turn-of-the-century comics as he was able to do on the Web. The Web format that Westbrook chose for employing illustrations throughout his analysis succeeded in providing the reader with easily manipulated images. Furthermore, in this well-planned, reader-friendly article, the author reiterated his textual analysis with shortened summaries on the images themselves, thus further aiding the reader’s comprehension.

Westbrook’s article on comics proves that the Web is a receptive site for linking the textual and visual, which compliment each other. The creator must have a well-defined plan and the reader must be willing to invest the time to navigate. The end result can be rewarding for both.

Joshua Brown in his review (“The Past Impaneled”; http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/cp/vol-01/no-03/reviews/katchor-ware01.shtml) of the compilations of two comic book writers, Ben Katchor and Chris Ware, has chosen the non-typical format of the comic strip to assess their works. They have integrated historical events throughout their comics with the intent to present the past in a non-traditional way. By reviewing these books online, Brown is showing that there are many ways to present history besides the print medium. Just as Westbrook finds economic and cultural history in fin de siecle comics, Katchor and Ware are presenting comics to their readers with a mixture of fiction and social history. Brown’s online review has adopted a few elements of the new media such as external links to other informative websites (MAUS Resources on the Web; http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/2671/); internal links from single to full-paneled comic strips; and audio links that provide further information about the comics and their authors. By juxtaposing the works of these two artists, Brown shows that Ware succeeds better than Katchor in portraying a scene graphically. The latter must depend on text to evoke an atmosphere that Ware can depict visually.

Most of what Brown has done in this online review could have been done in a printed journal. There is little creative use of the new media here. (His site needs some technical assistance, as some of his strips were fuzzy and distorted.) But that is not to say that Brown in not innovative. He has chosen to find history in non-traditional places--the comics. And he has adopted a mixture of text and comics to write his review. What could be more appropriate than delineating a graphical media such as comics on that most visual of platforms--the Web?

Christine Hughes

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