Future Comics

That Korean horror comic we linked to yesterday had everyone buzzing or else pooping their pants, but you know, future comics aren't future comics until Scott McCloud weighs in -- which he did on Google+.

This interactive comic from Korea has blown up on 4Chan and Tumblr, although its author remains unknown. Just click and then scroll down. KEEP GOING. KEEP GOING. And make sure the speakers are on! JUST CLICK WE'LL WAIT, in the unlikely event you have yet to see this.

While we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop on the New 52, digital comics are inching towards new developments that may make them even more native on digital platforms. A couple of examples were being tweeted about heavily this week. Cartoonist Dan Archer has been experimenting with interactive non-fiction comics for a while. What is Comics Journalism? by Dan Archer, a survey of non-fiction comics from Thomas Nast on. It's a nice looking piece but comes with bells and whistles:

Is the comics shop a typewriter or a ball point pen?

We've been remiss in not saying more about SVK and experimental comic that design group BERG hired Warren Ellis and artist D'Israeli to produce. The comic can only be read in full with a special UV lamp which reveals key elements of the art. Cool! The comic is only available through BERG and it's already sold out of 3500 copies. A second printing is on the way, however.

Via Cyanide and Happiness

Webcomics are moving forward with more experimentation on the infinite canvas of the browser, and taking new and unforeseen shapes. Here's one by Stevan Živadinović called "Hobo Lobo" that's a sidescroller/multi-plane retelling of the Pied Piper tale. Apparently this doesn't work on Explorer (what does?) but it worked on my decrepit and senile computer, so...happy scrolling!

Tokyopop is closing down its manga line. Not long ago, this company and others like it were sometimes pointed to as the future of comics publishing. I suppose they still might be.

Via The Comics Journal

Art schools and apprenticeships find themselves more popular than ever, let's all tip our hats to inspiration artist Rudolph Töpffer's for his creation of boarding school for boys. While anyone can teach themselves and become successful on their own, a lot of the specialty schools allow access to equipment, connections, mentorship of working professionals and opportunities in a condensed amount of time that are priceless.

The other day comics/tech guru Scott McCloud posted examples of two webcomics using current navigation techniques to give advanced motion and storytelling effects. One, Turbo Defiant Kimecan (top) uses Flash to allow readers to time the appearance of panels and balloons. Never Mind the Bullets (bottom) uses HTML 5 to gives kind of "motion comics-y" floating animation. As McCloud points out, both are just examples, not role models -- Never Mind the Bullets suggested we download IE9, which was an immediate fail. The comments are unkind: