Tag: Futuristic Comics

by Serhend Sirkecioglu -- Web comics have at least 3-4 formats, the reader (page-page), the slideshow (panel to panel), the vertical scroll and the horizontal scroll (which could be just be called the scroll and is panoptic). Personally I like the intuitive feel of the scroll over the reader; which feels more like post production 3D; and the slide show, which is just a slide show. I recently came across this comic called The First Word from Electric Sheep Comix which uses CGI models…in a way where I don’t cringe as much, but put the scroll to good use. 

Artist Tommie Kelly sent us a link to his webcomic Ouija: A Panelplay, which uses what he calls "PanelPlay" which is basically clicking for the next panel, along with some subtle, appropriate animation effects. The story is nothing great, but it is a nice demo. I know panel-click advance comics have been around for a while, so in the comments, throw up some links to other recent Future Comics of note.

Responding to last week's Dark Horse vs the retailers controversy over the price of Dark Horse's simultaneous digital release, writer Brian Wood has summed up the very hard rock and very rocky hard place that we all find ourselves in. While acknowledging that no one wants to see their local comics shop go under, he says for creators, it is a rough time with big question marks everywhere:

An article in The Gauntlet, the University of Calgary's student magazine, boldly proclaimsThe beginning of a new comic era -- and Calgary's Maad Sheep Productions are just the guys to do it. What the article does not mention is that in order to flourish, comics creators must dress like a NASCAR pit crew.

In our tableted world, it's only a matter of time before a multimedia magazine with embedded videos and animations and music and all becomes all the rage and changes our culture forever. Just like they did when CD-ROMs were all the rage*...only those were just ahead of the platform curve. Eisner- and Harvey Award-nominated artist Mike Perkins emailed us to explain that he has a 6-page comic strip in one such magazine, Apparatjik World, which has a preview issue available for free download on the iPad. This one centers around the band Apparatjik, which consists of bassist Guy Berryman from Coldplay, guitarist/keyboardist Magne Furuholmen from A-ha, singer/guitarist Jonas Bjerre of Mew and producer Martin Terefe.

After a hurricane, the sun usually comes out resulting in sparkling skies for the clean-up. As the East Coast attempts to clean up and dry off from a storm that could have been much worse (but was still pretty bad in spots) we wake up to a fairly epochal week in the history of comics. Because the internet wasn't around, we didn't know that the 1980 arrival of SUPERBOY SPECTACULAR or DAZZLER #1 -- the first comics produced by DC and Marvel that were direct market-only -- would mark the beginning of a whole new era for the comics industry, and -- despite the protestations of imminent death at every turn -- usher in a era of undreamed of creative fertility and energy. Wednesday at 12:01 am the new era begins. Not the era of the New 52 -- despite any declarations to the contrary, that's really business as usual, just jump started in the manner of a car battery. No, it's the era of digital comics. While everyone has been transfixed over whether GREEN LANTERN by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy will be better than GREEN LANTERN by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy; or how Tony Daniels' DETECTIVE COMICS is going to vastly improve on his Batman comics, the real revolution has quietly been dawning on retailers and readers: DC's decision to go with simultaneous digital and print release of their 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