ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the years in which the now well-established cultural proximity between comics and videogame was asserted and consolidated, arguing that a sudden mutual discovery happened between 1981 and 1983, coinciding with the moment the broader cultural meaning of videogames became fixed in the US. The study is conducted by examining specific early examples of remediations of videogames into comics, including Archie comics, the Atari tie-in minicomics, videogame ads in comic books, the representation of videogames in superhero comics, and the comics published by John Holmstrom in magazines such as Heavy Metal and Video Games. These case studies make it possible to construct a typology of remediations in which videogames were used as transmedial or untethered icons, as incomplete media objects in need of explicit narrative supplements (with parallels to the marketing of toys), and finally as a valid aesthetic and cultural form, apt to be integrated into a crossover culture ranging from punk rock to comics.
