So followers of The Webcomic Overlook may know that I’m not someone who was too keen on Strip Search. From the standpoint of a reality show, I thought it was too boring. From the standpoint of a webcomic show, I thought it was baffling. (A t-shirt design show? Really?) So before they even got to […]
Out of the Eisner-nominated titles, Ben Towle’s Oyster War is probably the one we’d most conventionally associate with the term “webcomic.” By that, I mostly mean the layout. This Will All Hurt is a metaphysical zombie comic where all the pages of the chapter are laid out vertically. Bandette is available as a digital comic on Comixology, the preferred format for the big piracy-averse publishers and arguably not really a webomic. Our Bloodstained Roof is a short story (most webcomics have runs longer than four installments), and Ant Comic is a bizarre little creature that looks like it would be more at home in the pages of an alternative magazine.
Oyster War, on the other hand, is a webcomic webcomic. Handy navigational buttons at the bottom of the page, familiar layout with a snazzy title header and sidebars, and a sensible pace of one page per post. It’s about as standard-looking as you can get on the no-frills WordPress format. There’s benefits to trying something new — in fact, it could be argued that because they’re more experimental, that they’re more deserving of award attention.
Oyster War shouldn’t dismissed, though. Mainly because it seems to have earned Eisner consideration on the merits of it being good.
Over at Robot 6, Corey Blake looks at the latest innovations from Marvel and DC in the field of digital comics. He gives a brief synopsis of the evolution of digital comics, mulling over the innovations that have gotten things to this point:
… it’s becoming clear that after years of digital and webcomics primarily mimicking print comic books and comic strips, a new kind of comic is emerging, one that is changing how they’re made and read.
These current platforms were far from the first to experiment with digital. Artists like Cayetano Garza Jr. began experimenting with limited effects and layout as early as 1998. Scott McCloud’s infinite canvas theory, in which digital could break free of the confines of the limited dimensions of a page, was proposed in 2000, ironically in the pages of his print book Reinventing Comics. Experiments with using an infinite canvas followed, but it never grabbed hold as a standard format. Mostly, webcomics have echoed the structure and dimensions of daily newspaper strips with the occasional experimentation.
Which leads us to the new innovations at Marvel Infinite and DC2. Blake is ecstatic over the new possibilities. He points to Yves Bigerel’s experimental techniques, which are up at DeviantArt.
The simplistic brilliance of Bigerel’s concept is that instead of spreading panels out across an infinite canvas, he stacked them up on each other like animation cells. It’s essentially a PowerPoint slideshow using comics. And most importantly, the reader controls when the next slide comes up.
While this simple change retains the language of comics, it fundamentally alters how the comics read and how they’re created. The writers, and probably more so the artists, have to re-think how they approach their storytelling techniques. There are benefits. Surprises can be controlled better because there’s no risk of a reader’s eye scanning over the opposite page and seeing the reveal of the big monster. Page breaks become clicks. Layering is one of the biggest advantages. Instead of a sequence taking place from left to right, it can happen in the same spot, with additions to the image adding more information with each click. For the letterer, the reading order of dialogue can be controlled more. There’s less chance of confusing the reader over what to read next when you can have the dialogue become visible in the correct order.
So what do you think? Is there a significant paradigm shift coming ahead? Or will this kinda fizzle out like the whole infinite canvas thing?
The Joe Shuster Awards, Canada’s award honoring the men and women in the comics field, announced their nominees yesterday. These included nominees for Créateur de Bandes Dessinées Web (or Webcomics Creator for you anglophones).
Canadians have had a very strong presence in webcomics. Previous winners include Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart. However, I have to say I’m not that familiar with this year’s crop of nominees. (Nor am I all that familiar with Emily Carroll’s work, which won in 2011 and 2012.)
Also, here’s a weird anomaly: the Joe Shuster Award has never gone to Kate Beaton (though she has been nominated from time to time). However, it HAS gone to Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza.
Let that sink in a little.
Comics Alliance reports that DC Comics is dipping its toes in the digital world with the illusion of choice.
DC Comics announced two brand new digital comics formats Tuesday evening, one that might look somewhat familiar to readers of Marvel’s Infinite Comics, the other which puts a new spin on the classic “choose your own adventure” book.
DC2, which will feature actions such as word balloons and sound effects popping up when readers swipe their screens, will debut in writer Jeff Parker and artist Jonathan Case’s Batman ’66 series later this summer. DC2 Multiverse, which enables readers to choose different paths through a comic story, will first appear in a Batman: Arkham Origins video game tie-in comic.
DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee told Variety that the DC2 Multiverse format is meant to mirror what video gaming is about: choices.
The pop-up word balloon and sound effect format has been tried in webcomics before, though I’m hard-pressed to remember exactly who did it. (My personal opinion: it’s way too gimmicky and distracting to be any sort of legitimate artistic choice. Sure, you can make an argument that the entire piece of art is worth enjoying … but that’s what blog posts are for.)
As for the “Choose Your Own Adventure” thing… I’m pretty sure a webcomic creator has tried that before. Andrew Hussie tried to put an early MS Paint Adventures called Bard Quest… probably because all the work in doing a branching narrative doesn’t beat a solidly told story.
Besides, choice in this thing is always meaningless. I know that Comics Alliance brought up video games, but how many endings do you get in those things, anyway? And there’s always one “true” ending, which gets followed through when the sequel comes out.
Even so, “Choose Your Own Adventure” books were still kinda fun, even if they were disposable and a little unmemorable. (The only one I remember was the one where I was on trial in England. Lying meant you get get to stay. Telling the truth meant getting deported to Australia. Oh, “Choose Your Own Adventures” and your cynical view of the justice system!)
So rumors of Comics Alliance‘s demise were greatly exaggerated. The site came to an abrupt close some time ago after AOL decided to cease publication. After a series of Batman themed teaser panels, though, Comics Alliance is back at the same Bat-time, same Bat-channel Bat-website.
What happened? Let’s Be Friends Again creators Chris Haley and Curt Franklin explain everything in the first post back through a handy-dandy webcomic — clearly the communication world’s most unassailable medium.
As proved by the “Shill Your Webcomic” post that I put up not too long ago, there are several readers who visit this site who also make webcomics. To you fine bunch of creators, I pose the following question:
Why do you make webcomics?
Is it the faint chance that it will one day become a cultural touchtone like Calvin & Hobbes? Is it a social exercise to meet new people? Is to enough just want to make people laugh? Or is drawing so encoded in your DNA that you just need an outlet for expression?
To you, I cede the floor.
Jimmy Palmiotti has done many things. He is probably best known for his highly acclaimed run on the Jonah Hex title. He once formed a publishing company with Joe Quesada, the former Editor In Chief of Marvel Comics. He co-created Painkiller Jane, which became a show on the Sci-Fi Network.
He also writes DC’s Digital First comic,Ame-Comi Girls.
So apparently the XBox One (which The Gameological Society dubbed the “xbone”) was announced last week, and gamers were frothingly rabid, as predicted. No backward compatibility! Kinect is mandatory! No way to share games! This is the end of gaaaaaaammmmiiinnnngggg!!!
So on and so forth.
Of course, it’s a field day for the gamer comics. Starting with Ctrl + Alt + Del:
Jeez, Buckley, a porn joke? What is this, the 1990′s? How original. Moving on to Penny Arcade:
….
Huh.
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