I had a great time at SXSW 2009. Met a lot of great people, heard a lot of great ideas, and ate a lot of great food. While I was there, I did a quick interview with Gary-Paul of New Riders about my upcoming book, Speaking In Styles, although it was not the most flattering of angles:
Watchmen on the iPhone
So, it looks as if the legal bru-ha-ha between Fox and Warner Brothers is finally over, and the long awaited Watchmen movie will make it to the big screen on time (March 6th) with Fox much the richer for it. But this is not the first time the Watchmen will have been brought to life in motion. In conjunction with the Movie, DC comics is releasing “Motion Comics” of the 12 issues of Watchmen, taking the original panel art and adding simple animation, a music score and a single narrator reading all of the parts.
Currently, episodes are available up to issue 10, each lasting a little under half an hour and selling for $1.99 each through the iTunes and Amazon.com.
The Interactive Watchmen iPhone App
Although I’m sure the author, Alan Moore, would disagree, the overall effect is quite good, and makes for a great way to enjoy the story on the go. The art is well preserved and the animation is smooth, although not nearly as complex as it might be if it had been fully animated. Still, it’s miles better the Clutch Cargo.
The single narration voice is not completely to my liking, they could have at least splurged and gotten a female narrator for female characters. Silk Specter may smoke, but the narrators gravely voice is about as sexy as a lime green polyester pants suite.
What intrigues me most about the Watchmen Motion Comic, though, was how seemingly easy it was to take the static images of the comic page, which require a more active role for the reader to animate the action in their minds, and turn it into the more passive video format. Although this is far from the atrocity that colorizing old black and white movies was in the 1980′s, it does give me some pause for thought.
Moore commented in a recent interview with the LA Times that, “There are three or four companies now that exist for the sole purpose of creating not comics, but storyboards for films.” In fact, It looks as if they don’t even need to make the film, but simply take the storyboards and animate them. But why is this a problem? It does take a dimension out of the hands of the reader, placing it back into the creator (or a creator’s) control, but is that necessarily a bad thing?
This is one of the important questions I’m hoping that my panel at SXSW will be addressing next month in Austin. If you have any thoughts or will be at the panel and have suggestions, leave a comment her or email me.
Check out the Watchmen Chapter 1 Teaser, and let me know what you think.
Going to the show? Let me know.
My 2009 speaking and conference schedule will be kicking off in March at South By South West (or SXSW as it is more commonly called) where I’m hosting a panel discussion about Online Comic Books. Originally I had pitched two ideas, the first on Web Safe fonts; however, what the good folks in Austin eventually choose was a panel presentation to discuss how the comic industry is using the Web. I’ve long been fascinated by how graphic novels are (and are not) being successfully moved into the online world.
My own experience trying to bring sequential art storytelling off the page and onto the screen taught me a lot about the inherent difficulties. Balance and Grace (renamed from The Innocents) was a comic project I worked on with Top Cow Comics a few years back while I was the Creative Director of AOL RED. We were going to provide the online component for the print version of the book. Due to legal hang-ups, the online version was finished but never officially launched. However, we came up with the best online comic-book reader that I’ve seen.
I’m still putting together the panel, so I can’t make any announcements about who will be on it. I should have representatives from several of the larger comic companies, some comic book creators, and other industry pundits. We’ll start off by defining what is meant by “Online Comic Books” and possibly even try to come up with a better name!
If you have any suggestions for who you would like to see on the panel, please let me know ASAP and stay tuned for more updates: jason at brighteyemedia • com.