Olaf's comics blog

This is the third of a hundred comic ideas in a hundred days. This isn’t as much a plot idea as it is a suggestion for a way to present comics, which I’ve called stage comics.

Making comics based on literary works is not new. Many have done that before, the latest I can think of is Robert Crumb’s Genesis. If you really want to make a graphic novel, and you don’t have any plot ideas at all, I think it could be a good idea to grab an old book or play and try adapting it for comics. When I say “old”, of course I mean “old enough to be in the public domain”. You can find tons of these books on Project Gutenberg.

And while playing with that idea: Why not choose an old play instead of an old novel? That way, you get all the lines and even instructions on what things should look like already written – all you have to do is split it up into frames and draw it. Your own version of Hamlet or Peer Gynt, but with the original words? Sure, why not?

If you want to make comics for print, you can stop reading now. But if you want to experiment with new technology, there’s a lot more one could do with making comics based on plays.

I’m sure all of my readers know about Scott McCloud‘s infinite canvas. The idea is basically that by treating the screen as a window and not as a sheet of paper, you have access to an infinite canvas which stretches ininitely in all directions. And that’s a great idea for some comics. But plays are written to be performed on a small stage. Could comics based on plays do the same thing – be performed on a stage?

I’m not talking about a real stage here. I’m talking about a fixed background in Flash or a similar program. Let’s say I draw a large background (800 x 450 pixels would probably be a good size). The comic will still be a sequence of images, but instead of drawing backgrounds for all of these images, they will appear against the same background. A click of the mouse takes us onwards to the next image. If we just want to draw a character and a dialogue balloon, and the previous image contains another character, these pictures can easily be juxtaposed, too.

I think I’ve seen something similar before – a Flash comic where the room is already drawn, and for each click, a new panel appears at different locations in the room. Can’t remember the source, though, so if you know, please remind me.

I think that this would be a very interesting way to create comics based on plays: By removing the ability to change the background from frame to frame, the whole thing would feel a lot more stage-like. And of course, you don’t have to be unoriginal and pick an old Shakespeare play, you can write your own stage comic, too.

Phew! Three down. Ninety-seven to go.

Last week, the 2009 Eisner awards were awarded in San Diego. First thing first: Warm congratulations to Jason for winning the Best U.S. Edition of International Material category. I think it’s wild that a Norwegian can win an Eisner, but when the same Norwegian wins the same category three years in a row, it’s obvious that we have a true star we should be proud of.

And now, let’s look at what I think is one of the most interesting categories… Best webcomic. The winner was Carla Speed McNeil‘s Finder. I tried looking at this comic a few weeks ago, but had to give up. I found the comic a struggle to read. Not because of the quality of the comic, but because of how it is presented.

First, look at the URL: http://www.shadowlinecomics.com/webcomics/#/finder/. What is that # doing in there? Isn’t that a very inconvenient URL? “Hi, check out my webcomic, it’s at www dot shadowlinecomics dot com slash webcomics slash number sign slash finder”? Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But it appears that was never the intention, either. You’re apparently supposed to go to shadowlinecomics.com, click “webcomics” and find your way from there.

Now, the first thing you notice there is the huge Flash thingie that the entire comic is presented in. Which annoyed me a lot. What is the purpose of it? Apparently, only to make the reading experience more difficult. The pages of the comic are so large you have to scroll to be able to read all of them, even when viewing it in full screen. That wouldn’t be that big a problem if this was ordinary HTML files where one could scroll, click the button to read next page, scroll, and so on. But here, the previous/next buttons are on a separate toolbar. Meaning: When you’re holding your pointer over the “Next” button, you can’t use the scroll wheel. You can’t use the keypad to scroll, either. And I seem to recall that when I tried reading this comic in Opera (my browser of choice — but not the one I use at work, where I currently am), the scroll wheel didn’t work either. Goddarn it, why not just let me progress forward by clicking the page itself?

It seems as if this comic is being updated on a semi-regular basis. Well, that’s good, but if I’m a regular reader, how do I get to see the latest page? Most webcomics either display the latest page on the frontpage or they have a link to it from most other sites. Here, if you want to see the latest page, you either have to click “Next page” fifty-seven times, or you have to find the thumbnail button, open the thumbnails (which you’ll want to close again as soon as possible because it takes up even more of the screen so that you have even less space to view the comic), drag the scrollbar all the way right, and click the correct thumbnail. Imagine doing that three times a week.

The Flash format has a few nifty advantages, for instance you can zoom in on the comic if you want to. However, there are also some disadvantages that may or may not be intended. In addition to the navigational problems mentioned above, one thing that annoyed me was that there seems to be no way to print the comic. Okay, I understand that McNeil wants me to buy her books, but this comic is hardly ideal for viewing on a screen, so why can’t I just print it as long as it’s free online anyway?

And every time you click to view a new page, you have to watch the Shadowline logo while it’s loading. As long as you’re using Flash, why not actually take advantage of it and pre-load the next page while I’m reading the first?

Notice that in the <title> field, words like “Finder” or “Carla Speed McNeil” aren’t mentioned at all. That’s probably one of many things that make this comic near-impossible to find in search engines. If you google “Finder Carla Speed McNeil”, the Shadowline comic won’t show up in the top ten. However, you will immediately find a link to Carla Speed McNeil’s website, where she also publishes “Finder”. Wait, I’m confused. This looks as if it’s a completely different comic? Okay, apparently it has run for thirteen years, so I understand that there are tons of different material to choose from, but the stories seem so very, very different. The “Finder” we learn about on McNeil’s website appears to be “a secret society of hunters, trackers and more“. The comic published on Shadowline’s pages… I’ve only read the first thirty pages, but I get the impression that it’s about a beauty contest and that there’s a species of people where men have boobs there.

Oh, and by the way, this comic isn’t finished. No, seriously. I don’t mean that the ending isn’t written yet, while that seems to be the case it’s not really a disadvantage, but most of the last 26 pages haven’t been inked yet. Only pencils are published. I would link you there, but that’s another disadvantage of the Flash navigational system used… Linking to or bookmarking a specific page is impossible. But seriously: Why on Earth isn’t the entire comic inked before publication? That just looks unprofessional.

I’m sure McNeil is an excellent writer and artist and that the Eisner award was well-deserved. But this was a terrible, terrible way to present a webcomic.