The title of this paper comes from a remark made by comic book writer Kyle Higgins during a 2013 interview for film-maker and fellow comics writer, Kevin Smith's podcast Fatman On Batman (August 8th). Higgins and Smith were discussing Higgins' work on DC's 'digital first' comic Batman Beyond 2.0 (2013-14), a series designed to be read online using the 'Guided View' feature of the ComiXology digital comics platform, established. Guided View, a proprietary system owned by ComiXology (established in 2007 and acquired by Amazon in 2014), allows readers to reduce the field of view of a comic from single or double page to single panel. In doing so, it also increases narrative suspense for the reader whose eye is no longer capable of 'wandering' across the page or pages and 'spoiling' surprises in the story. This reduction has an effect too on the narrative techniques deployed by 'digital first' writers such as Higgins. Aware of the change in field of view Higgins alters his approach towards the page so that each digital panel transition aims be the equivalent of turning a printed page in terms of the generation of narrative suspense, producing, as he remarked to Smith, 'a cliffhanger in every panel'.

In this paper, drawing on the narrative 'codes' outlined by Roland Barthes in The Pleasure of the Text (1973), I discuss the relationship between field of view and suspense in not only comics read using Guided View but also precursors such as Freak Angels by Warren Ellis and Paul Dufield (2008-2011) and publications available through other digital comics platforms like Thrillbent and Webtoons.