Is Issue 10 of Alias a Comic?

Alias created by Brian Michael Bendis (writer) and Michael Gaydos (artist) under the Max Comics imprint of Marvel uses a number of created page layout throughout the 4 volumes of this comic series. One of the most interesting in terms mixing visual and textual elements is in issue number 10.

This issue of Alias is completely different from any of the other issues. There is no regular use of distinct panels, or really panels of any kind except for a few instances, nor do the visually elements carry the story. The plot is mainly conveyed by the textual elements, in this case in what looks like a transcript of the conversations. There is neither word bubbles nor caption boxes to go along with the images, just the conversation transcript layered overtop of the images.

This leads us to an important question: is this issue truly a comic? Scott McCloud makes it clear in Understanding comics that for a piece to be considered a comic there has to be a mixing of pictures and words with most of the plot line relying on the images. In an interview discussing whether or not illustrated children’s books could be considered comic, McCloud states that it would not be “if the prose is independent of the pictures. Not if the written story could exist without any pictures and still be a continuous whole” he goes on to states that “If the pictures, independent of the words, are telling the whole story and the words are supplementing that, then that is comics”. This could be used to look at this issue of Alias where the images are independent of the textual elements and the images do not tell the majority of the story. Due to this it could be argued that issue number 10 is not truly a comic since it relies on prose to convey the story.

In the end, It all depends on whether or not a reader considers prose heavy pieces such as this one to be a comic or not. And if this piece is not a comic then what is it? 

-Kaitlyn Renaud