Reading comics in time

Comics exist in time, not only as historical objects, but also through their reading, and it is the combination of these two aspects that this article addresses. I will start by analyzing a temporal paradox: reading comics seems to be timeless (fast, instantaneous, superficial: hardly “reading” in the noble sense of the word), yet at the same time it never stops (neither at an individual nor at a collective level). This paradox is something that can be framed in “cultural” terms, having to do with the fundamental problem (both a threat and an opportunity) of cultural memory and the possible conflict between transgenerational reading, transmission techniques, and shifting aesthetic categories