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The beginning of 2007 is already suggesting that we are getting closer to accept comics as a serious and powerful communications channel. On the second day of the year, The Wall Street Journal published an article titled “Holy Heroes of Indian Lore. Batman!” which explains at length new ventures by Virgin Comics.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is taking an interesting approach to develop stories on comics, loosely based on traditional Indian mythologies and with preconceived cross-media extensions (mostly film). A bold approach includes recruiting the talent of two gifted film directors (John Woo and Guy Ritchie) to develop some of the stories, a move that will certainly raise the profile of the medium.

Also on the first week of January, The Economist published a short note referring to Philippe Cohen, Richard Malka, and Riss’ “La Face Karchée de Sarkozy;” the newest iteration of the political comic book in France (a country with a rich tradition with the medium). The book has also been at the center of a BBC article, discussed in several blogs, and even turned into amateur videos.

The recent success of Burger King’s Xbox arcade game series, with over 2 million copies sold at the end of 2006 (in just a few weeks), can’t be detached from pop culture’s increased appetite for comics. Since the beginning of the history of video games, designers have openly acknowledged the huge influence of comics in general and Japanese manga in specific on the video game medium. Chris Kohler documented this influence in multiple interviews with Japanese game designers; a great example comes from Nintendo’s Shigueru Miyamoto: “Thinking back, I would say that although it wasn’t done consciously, I ended up designing Donkey Kong like a traditional Japanese four-panel manga comic strip. That way of telling a story in four distinct parts seemed natural to me…”

Why is this medium so important? No one better to answer than Scott McCloud, who 14 years ago made a great push to liberate comics from its paradigm through his book “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.” Invisible because the mechanics of the medium include a great deal of interaction among the creator, channel, and reader that results in understanding beyond what is on paper. The visual language of comics lends itself to become a thought starter in the mind of the reader who often must complete the picture in her mind (in both, the literal and abstract sense). This exercise, known as closure, empowers comics with a unique and special faculty.

Invisible also because comics are created literally from nothing: ideas, pen, and paper. The medium of comics is as democratic as it is powerful, and the web as well as other internet-based platforms like Linden Lab’s Second Life will definitively play an important role in disseminating and offering new tools to artists and anyone with a vision.

We should welcome these developments because they will contribute to equalize tomorrow’s conversation while making us smarter in the process.

Images from Virgin Comics.