Category: Creat Writ: Lesson 16

A Turbomedia Webcomics by CommArts Students

On By Nicolas VerstappenIn Comics by CommArts Students, Creat Writ: Lesson 16, Faculty of Communication Arts (Chulalongkorn University), Turbomedia Technique, WebcomicsLeave a comment

“Multiverse Love” (2023), a Turbomedia webcomics composed for the lessons on ‘Innovative Webcomics’ for the course “Creative Writing: Experimental Graphic Narratives” at the International Program of the Faculty of Communication Arts, Chulalongkorn University (TH). Written by Napatsa, Prima & Hariswan; art by Phubet; script by Chayada; under the supervision of lecturer Nicolas Verstappen.

CHECK THIS SLIDE-SHOW:

The Turbomedia is a form of webcomics close to the slide-show where the reader remains in control of her/his reading rhythm (see Côme Martin (2017), “With, Against or Beyond Print? Digital Comics in Search of a Specific Status”, The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship 7, 13). The Turbomedia technique allows to play with new forms of composition such as superimposing panels, or “by fragmenting them and progressively revealing one new panel (or part of it) at a time when users click or tap on the image” (see Giorgio Busi Rizzi (2023), “Digital Comics: An Old/New Form“, in: Maaheen Ahmed (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Comics, Cambridge University Press, p. 116).

Innovative/Notable Webcomics (II): Sound of Silence

On By Nicolas VerstappenIn Animation/GIF, BOULET, Creat Writ: Lesson 16, ESPINASSE, Emmanuel, Infinite Canvas, Lebanon, MEZHER, Fouad, Silent (or almost), WebcomicsLeave a comment

FRAGILE by Fouad Mezher

With Fragile (link), Lebanese cartoonist and illustrator Fouad Mezher signs a stunning wordless graphic narrative about envy, need for recognition and the frailty of human nature & existence. Courtesy of Risha Project which aims to connect and mutually inspire cultural realities of north-African, Middle-Eastern and European graphic artists. Published on September 10, 2014.

SUPER PIXEL QUEST by Emmanuel Espinasse

With Super Pixel Quest (link), French cartoonist and designer Emmanuel Espinasse proposes an innovative and highly enjoyable webcomics where the reader discovers, along with the main character, the various creepy corners and hidden doors of a ‘house of horrors’. The pixelated design, reminiscent of early action-platformer video games such as the 1987 NES Castelvania, is such a thrill! Clever use of animation and of the infinite canvas! [Note: The character moves either forward or backwards into new panels that appear in the browser as you click on either arrow]. Published in July 2014.

HEAVY LIGHTS OF JANUARY by Boulet

If light were a liquid (in January in a temperate country, though)… Heavy Lights of January (link) is a beautiful take on Magic Realism by merging comics panels and GIFs by French cartoonist Boulet.

« This fabulous adventure was the result of a frivolous remark I made while taking part in a seminar on the poetry of household objects. Toto asked me why the light went on with just a touch of a switch, and I did not have the courage to think about it twice. “Light is like water,” I answered. “You turn the tap and out it comes.” » in: Gabriel García Márquez’ short story “Light is Like Water”, 1978.

Innovative/Notable Webcomics (I): Memory Lane

On By Nicolas VerstappenIn AesComm Theo, Animation/GIF, CARRÉ, Lilli, Creat Writ: Lesson 16, Infinite Canvas, NILSEN, Anders, On Comics Legitimation, Self-referential, Through Space Through Time, WARE, Chris, WebcomicsLeave a comment

THE BLOODY FOOTPRINT by Lilli Carré

In The Bloody Footprint (link) published by The New York Times on February 5, 2015, American multidisciplinary artist, illustrator and cartoonist Lilli Carré explores a personal memory yet later reclaimed by one of her childhood friends. Who experienced the event and who made its recollection her own? An intimate and effective take on the blurred contours of memory through a clever blend of prose, comics and GIF animation.

MIRROR by Chris Ware & John Kuramoto

More animated film than webcomics (yet using comics features), Mirror (link) is the result of a collaboration between The New Yorker and the radio program This American Life.  Through a cover for The New Yorker and its expansion as a short animated feature, extraordinary American cartoonist Chris Ware – with the assistance of John Kuramoto -revisits a radio interview (and an interesting reflection) of writer Hanna Rosin and her daugther about parenting, makeup and teenage self-awareness. Published by The New Yorker on November 30, 2015.

ME AND THE UNIVERSE by Anders Nilsen

In Me and the Universe (link), American cartoonist Anders Nilsen cleverly combines diagrammatic storytelling and the infinite canvas feature to explore his place in the Universe, from ancestral past to more-or-less present and distant future. Published by the New York Times on September 24, 2014.

WHY I LOVE COMICS by Chris Ware

Echoing Anders Nilsen‘s Me and the Universe, Chris Ware‘s Why I Love Comics (link) also depicts an artist’s lifetime on Earth. Playing with iconic solidarity and text spatialisation, the first word of each rounded panel spells out an acrostic hidden message. Published by The New York Times on October 16, 2015. Note also the epigraph:

“Cartooning is the art of turning time back into space.” Art Spiegelman.