Future Cinema

Meanwhile – An Interactive Comic Strip by Jason Shiga

Procrastination can sometimes be a wonderful thing. Take, for example, this interactive comic strip that I stumbled across while trying to avoid the large pile of books piled up next to my computer.

In a traditional (non-interactive) comic strip, the action of the story plays out within separate, discreet frames while the trajectory of the narrative (usually) moves from one frame to an adjacent frame. While the traditional visual presentation is maintained in Meanwhile, the movement from frame to frame is much different, providing the interactivity of the story. Following a series of “tubes”, the reader navigates the narrative, sometimes having to choose one “tube” over another. The tubes snake around the page, moving in and around the frames, and sometimes off the page completely. Since the movement from frame to frame is mediated by these “tubes”, the frames presented on a single page may be from different “strands” or “versions” of the story, providing the curious reader a glimpse into what may have been or what may be coming.

Meanwhile seems to successfully navigate that middle ground where traditional, linear narrative meets interactive fiction. In fact, having spent a good chunk of this morning “reading” Meanwhile, I have realized that the non-linearity inherent in comic strips lends itself well to interactive narrative experiments. Hmmm… sounds like an interesting thesis topic…

[ link ]

David H.

Login