Comic Structure

I've been thinking about my own comic in relation to McCloud's idea of the infinite canvas.
My comic treats the comic spaces as one that is split, each panel is treated as its own page. I think it would have been nice to have a continuous stream of content akin to the previous examples i have posted. But if I had done that it certainly would have made the sound elements more difficult, maybe even impossible to implement.

So, I've made this VERY simple mock up of a my comic in this style.

E-Merl and Pup 15

Two examples of web comics that use McCloud's 'infinite canvas' idea.

http://e-merl.com/pocom.htm

http://www.drewweing.com/pup/13pup.html

Scott McCloud on comics

http://www.ted.com/talks/scott_mccloud_on_comics.html

McCloud talks about the evolution of comics from print media to a digital media.

He mentions Marshall McLuhan, who states that the medium will influence the form, but McCloud argues that with comics this doesn't happen and instead you will often get a traditional print style comic that just so happens to be on the internet. these comics are not influenced by their medium and are instead rigidly bound by previous craft practices.

He also mentions the spacial connection between comic panels and the ways in which tradtion print comics will often break their connection to the previous panel. McCloud suggests that the solution lies in ancient forms of sequential art, namely tapestries, ancient hieroglyphics and so on. He claims that the reader should be following an imaginary line, one that is unbroken, through the comic. With print media with becomes difficult as their are limitations of size and shape due to the need to conform to spaces with books and newspapers.

He brings up the monitor too, as limited as a page in some ways. But McCloud rather than think of the monitor as a static page see's it more as a window. He says that the monitor could potentially be an infinite canvas.

Dead On Arrival

An interactive comic I found.

Seems pretty cool. I like its use of Noire Imagery and real 'actors'.

This comic also allows the user to influence the story rather than simple presenting an unchanging series of events. I want to do something similar in my project on that front.

Link: http://www.dead-on-arrival.co.uk/

Scott McCloud Web-comics

A Web comic by Scott McCloud about web comics

 http://scottmccloud.com/1-webcomics/icst/icst-1/icst-1.html

The ideas are quite dated. But I feel some of what he says is still relevant today.
He is basically emphasising the difference between traditional print media and digital practises. I find it interesting that so few comics hosted online take advantage of their medium, which is extremely versatile.

More Pixel Art

Here is two more examples of simple pixel art.
When your working with art work that is 25 pixel across you have to think carefully about each individual pixel as it can dramatically change the final product.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

I've been looking at various games recently and this one caught my eye.

 What I found most striking about this game is its use of extremely simple pixel art for its character designs. It reminds me of the images I posted earlier in the first semester which used pixel art to recreate scenes or characters from films. I really like the simplicity of the art, most characters are probably less than 100 pixels each and yet they are full of personality.

The game also combines other forms of media into its design. the game encourages you to link your twitter account and tweet your achievements as you complete them in the game. also, character within the game will display their thoughts or disposition in a social network style interface.

Also, here's a dancing bear.