Broken Frontier

As established in last week’s column*, the iPhone comic market, while not exactly booming, has developed at least to the point where the numbers are a little too hard to ignore, especially with the ever-looming possibility of making iPhones compatible with e-readers and the slate devices such as the recently announced Windows 7 Slate.

So, what was once the playroom of small press, who either out of ingenuity or desperation carved the way for this digital revolution, is now seeing the likes of Marvel and other larger companies join in on the fun.

And this is a good thing for all of us, but it does mean that in order to stay relevant, indies will have to maintain their willingness to adapt and experiment with new methods. 

In this week’s column, I’d like to spotlight some of the indie comics that are testing new ways to create for the digital platform in an attempt to improve the way we read sequential art on them.

First up is Box 13 created by David Gallaher and Steve Ellis, who also collaborated on High Moon for Zuda. Box 13 was developed specifically with the iPhone format in mind.

There are a number of things about it that are interesting. First and foremost, each and every issue of Box 13 has been free. This departs from the usual economic plan of offering the first issue for free and then pricing the follow-up issues at just 99 cents.

Their plan is simply to take full advantage of the ability to reach new audiences with a new platform. And while the number of people willing to pay for a digital comic is growing, the amount of people, especially those new to comics, is just so much larger when it’s free that David and Steve are prioritizing bringing in new readers over an immediate profit.

The next thing that I noticed about Box 13 is that each issue is only 8 pages long. There’s no problem justifying this smaller size when it’s free, and I find that this is actually a more suitable length for reading on the iPhone. When I have a 22- pager, I find that I often read it over a period of two or three segments. And of course the shorter length also allows them to put Box 13 out more frequently, averaging about one every two weeks, which fits nicely with the mobile format where people are used to shorter, more frequent updates.

The other area where Steve and David tried something new is with their page format. As David told me,

“Steve and I wanted something that could work across a broad range of formats. Readability and ease of use were our primary concerns. The content should adapt to the device, not the readers. With that in mind, we developed page layouts that took those concerns into account.”

What they’ve done is break the page down into four tiers, most commonly putting two panels side by side. Each of these panels fits perfectly on the iPhone screen so readers can see each panel clearly, without cropping, as it goes through the story one panel at a time.

What I wonder, though, is why they felt the need to even make the pages standard comic book size. Even if they eventually print this up as a trade paperback, there’s no reason to conform to that tall, skinny format. A lot of collections and graphic novels use different sizes.

And the problem I see this causing is in bringing Box 13 to other platforms with slightly larger screens such as an e-reader or slate device. They still won’t be able to fit the full page on the screen because they’ve made them so tall. The options would be either to read it one panel at a time, with each one being bigger than they need to be since they fit perfectly on the phone screen, or try and fit two panels at a time, or maybe half of a page at a time if the screen is big enough or the person doesn’t mind reading it on a small scale.

Not a huge problem, but something that should be addressed. And actually, another comic on the comiXology app has formatted their comic to handle a transition to a slightly larger screen. It’s called X the Unknown. Only the first issue (for free) is out now, and I haven’t found the story to be that interesting, at least not yet, but I love the page size they chose. It’s just slightly wider than it is tall. The full page actually fits onto the iPhone screen perfectly, which is the way I prefer to read it rather than have it navigate from panel to panel, but then again, I don’t mind reading small. However, if this ever made the jump to an e-reader or slate, it would be the perfect size for most people to read one page at a time, which is the ideal way for comics to be read.

Lastly, I want to mention this other comic called Valentine by Alex De Campi and Christine Larsen. It was also made with the digital format in mind. Valentine has done away with the concept of a comic book page and just tells the story one screen shot at a time with no need to navigate around a page. It makes for a very clear reading experience.

They’ve also experimented with a few other concepts that can be utilized in the digital format. One of them is showing the image first without words, and then with another tap, the text fades in.

This can also be used with visual elements whereas in traditional comics you might see two panels that look exactly the same except for a single difference, such as a slight change in expression. In a digital comic, however, as one shot fades into another, the person’s head might remain in the same spot on the screen, but with the change in expression coming in almost like animation.

I do have one concern about all three of these comics. The art is all done in a fairly loose style. It still looks good, and I realize they all want the turnover to be quick, but if anything, I think digital comics look better when the artwork is really clean. I’ve seen that loose pencil style on printed comics and it can look kind of cool on paper, but with the backlit screen really projecting the art, I think it would be better with sharp lines. That’s just my thought.

But overall, these comics are making great progress and offering new interpretations for what the digital comics reading experience can be.

###

Tyler Chin-Tanner started his own publishing company, A Wave Blue World, and writes and draws layouts for Adrenaline, its flagship series.
© 2010 Tyler Chin-Tanner.  All rights reserved.
Email: tyler@awaveblueworld.com
www.awaveblueworld.com