Broken Frontier

One of my favorite Flash-based webcomics recently updated, if only to announce more sporadic updates to come. Flatwood (pictured below) uses Flash graphics occasionally to enhance an already effectively freaky atmosphere. The Flash is evident when you first access the site, but not necessarily included in every single update, as seen in the most recent additions to the story.

By the way, the story is so uncannily creepy, it probably doesn’t need the Flash to begin with. Picture a modern day Dante’s Inferno of literally post-Apocalyptic proportions done to the tune of The Evil Dead and The Shining and you’ll have a reasonable facsimile for Flatwood. Flash does well to add movement and presence to the strip’s ever-consuming sense of darkness. The only problem with this very occasional use of Flash is it’s hard to know when the Flash sequences are over or if some strips even have them to begin with.

My interest in the topic of Flash comics was further peaked by another such webcomic – Lizzy. This webcomic also uses Flash to the extreme in comparison to the starkly minimalistic Flatwood. While the latter has occasional Flash activated from the moment the reader accesses a site, Lizzy’s interface is much more interactive. Readers click every panel to begin movement, ranging from the appearance of word of bubbles to a massive spaceship coming out of cloaking mode.

Lizzy is complete with sound effects and even occasional music, and like Flatwood, the merging of Flash motion elements and static art is successful because the motion is used to enhance and supplement engaging artistic vision instead of replacing it altogether. But the presentation isn’t without flaws. Lizzy is the first webcomic I’ve ever seen where the strip itself is more accessible than its parent website, which contains too much Flash for my taste.

I remember Marvel first trying to use partially-animated webcomics quite a few years ago, when internet presence was just coming into fruition. The entire thing was far too gimmicky for my tastes. After all, who cares if you can hear Wolverine’s trademark claws or see Spidey’s web-shooters if you don’t care about the story you’re reading? However, I think Lizzy and Flatwood are examples of Flash-involved ventures done right, because there are real pathos and mythos at their core instead of cheap gimmicks.

Both are genuinely risky ventures – Lizzy has extremely mature content and a surprisingly unconventional heroine, while Flatwood mixes religious overtones with bizarrely surreal imagery. But such risks add dimension and weight to the creative toils of both webcomics. Even Flatwood, which hasn’t updated much due to creator Zachary Parker’s new book deal, has developed a loyal fan-base in its stead. Storytelling through Flash animation is certainly a risk in and of itself, but like Marvel’s example all those years back, I think the results speak for themselves and give a wholly different answer this time around.