The website “From Hogan's Alley to Coconino County: Four Narratives of the Early Comic Strip,” by David Westbrook is a detailed account of early comic strips. From examples taken from the New York Journal and the New York World, Mr. Westbrook examines the underlying meaning and worlds of both the comic strip and the artist. The site/article is set up fairly well for the web. Even though it could probably be just as good in print, Westbrook does try to use new media features in the details of the strips. For example, after clicking on a thumbnail, a new window opens that allows toggling of commentary. Westbrook’s use of frames also adds a sense of organization to the over all site. However, some of the links with in the text seemed to be confusing, just ‘dropping’ the reader to a future point of the text that they would have gotten to eventually anyway. It appears that Westbrook was doing this to highlight a specific aspect, but perhaps there is a more effective method that he could have used. Publishing this material on the Web, instead of in a printed journal, adds a sense of newness to it; newness in its ability to connect several different kinds of print media together, to comment on both the image itself, and the underlying meaning at the same time, and reach an audience that perhaps would not generally read a printed version of the American Quarterly. Seemingly, by following the conventional rules of scholarly writing, and adding some new methods of publication, Mr. Westbrook is on the right path of melding two different areas of interest into one.
Lynn Hunt and Jack Censer’s website, "Images of the French Revolution," is quite interesting. Although I found the opening page to be dark and undirective, once I chose an area to explore, the ideas became clearer. The navigating tools along the left edge, and the textual options on the right were easy to follow and read. While reading the essays, it was nice to be able to open the image being discussed in a smaller window for reference. Perhaps one feature change would be an enlargement button in the image window so the reader could see the details of a selected image as they read the essay it pertains to. The imaging tools in place give the reader a lot of good options to increase visibility of the image, except it is in a different section of the site. Another good feature, is the ability to link from a specific image to the essay it is discussed in, as well as from the essay to the specific image. As with Westbrook’s site, this could probably have been presented in a printed form and not be affected too much. Being on the web, however, Hunt and Censer made very good use of what they did. The flash at the beginning adds interest and a sense of action, the highlighted choices as the reader scrolls over them adds ease of visualization, and the corresponding image at the top of the screen with the image assigned to each section adds to an overall site continuity.