Comic Research

I have been looking at how other interactive comics are formatted, how the stories are told and what styles might be used. This blog is about the ones I have found that I did not like for a variety of reasons of which I will go into.

Dead on Arrival

The author has decide to use photos rather than drawings, this is something that I don't think works particularly well. This is due to the images being so realistic with speech bubbles giving too much of a contrast in my opinion. However the bigger problems with this interactive comic is the lack of interactivity, most of the time you are just clicking the bottom right corner to flick to the next two pages which feels rather like reading a paper comic. The section with the most interactivity was a bit of a let down as there are several characters who may be the killer. Each of them are shown on screen and you can pick any of them, each shows a different side of the story but if you pick the girlfriend then her story tells you she is the killer and then goes straight to the final scenes. This could have been thought out better with the chance to hear all of the characters stories and still leave some suspense as to who done it! Overall lack of interactivity meant that I did not find myself immersed in this interactive comic.

The Mallway

This comic transitions through dropping in another strip below the one just read. Although similar to a paper comic layout it does not feel very subtle for an interactive comic. There are choices to make throughout the story which makes it feel very interactive although these choices also cause it's biggest issue. These choices are not free flowing, if you make the wrong choice you are forced to go back to your last set of choices and choose again until you pick the right answer. This detracts greatly from this comic, I don't believe that most reader would like being told what choice they have to make in order to follow the story. If offering the reader choices then the story should be able to branch out and lead down differing paths (which may all lead towards the same ending) to give the reader the feeling that they are in control of the story or character. This allows for far more immersion if the reader feels involved in deciding what actually happens within a story.

Dracula

Not much to say about Dracula as I don't think I even lasted 30 seconds on it, this was due to the interactivity comprising of moving the mouse right to see the next image scroll by. There may be other more interesting aspects of this comic but the fact that I lost interest so quickly shows that this is not a method I would use to engage an audience as I am probably not the first person to switch it off so soon after opening and I don't imagine I'll be the last.