TUAW @SXSW: The "comics on handhelds" panel

Chances are, if you're reading TUAW, you most likely love all things Apple and Mac. You may also be an iPhone or iPod touch user. And, like many Apple lovers (including myself), you may also be a fan of comic books. If so, what if you want to take your comics on the road with you and don't want to lug around a huge stack of titles? Instead of having to take paper comics, what if you could digitize them and read them on your handheld?

Well, those are just the type of questions I hoped to have answered by attending the Comics on Handhelds panel at South by Southwest Interactive last week. On the panel were Douglas Edwards, CEO of UCLICK, Molly Crabapple of Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, Dave Bort, a Google/Android Engineer, Rantz Hoseley, CEO of the LongBox Group and Richard Stevens of "Diesel Sweeties" fame. The panel was moderated by comics creator and mobile comics proponent Dan Goldman.

First off, Goldman started with a definition of what comics are: stories told with words and pictures. He explained that comics can be in any form and do not have to be on paper in order to be considered "comics."

With that out of the way and hoping to provide a "common starting place," Goldman next went into a discussion of formatting comics for mobile devices and alternative delivery methods, using Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's "FreakAngels" as an example; it works well on a mobile device despite being made originally for the printed page.

"Change in platform demands change in format," Goldman said.He elaborated that one of the main issues is "panels or pages" because of the way in which mobile devices, such as the iPhone or iPod touch, display comics. Due to the size of the screen and the available resolution, comics panels have to be displayed in such a way that readers get only one or two panels at a time instead of entire pages.

This is also the case due to lettering, which cannot be read comfortably if the entire comic book page is shown on a small mobile device screen.

Goldman then threw out a few more examples of comics that have been formatted for mobile devices including an R. Crumb comic and "High Moon" from Zuda Comics, where the lettering was small and hard to see.

At that, Goldman turned to his panelists and the audience to brainstorm ideas on how to solve some of these issues. How can lettering become easier to read on phones both dumb and smart?

"What we need to concentrate on is making the comic an enjoyable experience for the reader and not just a compromise that people are willing to make just so they can read comics on the iPhone," offered Hosley.

Edwards agreed, saying, "The new media transforms the artistic expression. The form is sacred. The longer term experience is that artists will create content specifically for this format."

"You have to wonder if we've actually seen the first comic made for the mobile platform," added Hoseley.

One of the panelists then made the point that he doesn't see devices like the iPhone getting much bigger, physically, so the screen size will stay the same. Therefore, comics will have to work on that size screen or something very close to it. Many of the panelists agreed this was the case, with Goldman providing one caveat: "What's best for the device isn't always what's best for the storytelling."

He added that with devices such as Amazon's Kindle, we could see "A full-color device with that kind of size that could display comics. It isn't necessarily limited to iPhone-sized devices."

"Right now, two good sized pages can be put on the Kindle and be readable, " offered Stevens. "I've tried it."

"It makes sense to potentially get your content that way. You already trust Apple and you already trust Amazon," agreed Bort. "So why not?"

Goldman then took a few questions from the audience:

A woman asked about solving the small lettering problem by allowing the text to be read out-loud to the reader by the device. This was met with quite a bit of criticism from the panelists, who argued that would not be comics because, as summarized by Edwards, "Comics are a graphical visual form so that simply doesn't work. If you do that, add sound, then it's not a comic."

Hoseley agreed, "A simplistic solution is not always the best solution. If you add sound or something like movement, then you've got an animatic or a bad movie but not a comic."

Another question asked was whether creators were "wedded to the dimensions of the page" and if that was a factor in why it was sometimes difficult to create, or more to the point, format comics for handhelds. The panelists agreed that this was also an issue because creators often try to alter the traditional comics paradigm but do not meet with success when they do.

To illustrate, Crabapple offered an example of Kyle Baker's "Why I hate Saturn," where he "put the word underneath the panels instead of in them. But it never really caught on. But maybe that's ideal for mobile handhelds. Although, the text is really just too small."

"Maybe the bubbles could get bigger and smaller if you click on them?" chimed Bort.

"You could have different proportions depending on size of the screen in use. It could adjust automatically," agreed Goldman.

Another audience member asked if adding more resolution or more "dots" would help? "No, adding more detail isn't the way to go," said Bort. "Once the resolution gets higher, at a certain point you don't get much benefit from it with text."

"You could zoom in and you get the benefit but it doesn't really matter at that point because then you're back to reading a few panels at a time," offered Edwards.

At this point, the panelist agreed that there were many questions and the issues of comics on handhelds still needs more discussion.

Bort added that it's "important to get people to try and get things out for mobile devices. But that doesn't mean they don't work for other platforms."

"It's about planning," said Edwards. "Its just getting through to people that you can make money on iTunes and maybe you want to try and make things for that."

"It's a fertile field for exploration," agreed Crabapple.

There were many issues raised during the panel and although very few definitive solutions were offered for the problems with comics on mobile devices, the panel definitely helped enhance the conversation and provided clear direction towards the answers that will inevitably be found.

If you've got any thoughts about comics on the iPhone and/or iPod touch, hit us up in the comments.

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foljs

sorry, i still don't get the comic book thing. i've tried, and the best of it is certainly better than the NYT best seller list is today. way better! but, that being said .... i enjoy a long, thick, heavy book without any pictures first.

it just seems like cartoons and comics are taking over our generation's literary expectations and aspirations. maybe i'm missing the current zietgiest, i don't know. maybe i'm missing everything.

Since you are all for "literature" you probably know that sentences begin with a capital letter.

It's, also, "zeitgeist", not zietgiest.

And in the sentence "but, that being said .... i enjoy a long, thick, heavy book without any pictures first.", apart from the obvious syntactic issues, "first" serves no useful purpose.

Literature? You better go back to that "hungry caterpillar" picture book.

March 24 2009 at 6:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

required

There are a lot of comics for the PSP. Some of them probably work on the iphonepodtouch as well. Here's a few to try:

http://www.nyc2123.com/
http://www.hitless.com/shell.html
http://www.gomanga.com/pspmanga/

March 24 2009 at 1:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

studangerous

The iPod Touch and iPhone offer a number of different apps for reading comics on both jailed and jailbroken devices, the most popular three being iComic, ComicZeal and myComics.

If you want more details or to chat or discuss any of these apps or comic viewing on the iPod Touch or iPhone in general then you may want to check out the thread below:

http://www.ipodtouchfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23759

March 24 2009 at 1:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pelorus

@brian - coolio - will be keeping an eye out for that.

Infurious' system is going to be more for the independent publisher who wants a way to distribute their content using their own servers or indeed using our own InfuriousRepublic servers. We're on the cusp of announcing our big release which you'll find on the AppStore soon enough - involving big names. Suffice to say, our new product means you won't be downloading 20 apps to get 20 issues and you don't need to cut up full page artwork unless you really want to. Our system has been ratified by professional comic artists and also by big media as the best reading experience!

It's a different paradigm out there - but we support the existing one too :)

March 24 2009 at 12:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

GG Tyler

In converting the comic book page to an iPhone format you would need to creat "road maps" for each page. Generally American comics are read left to right in a Z formation. As in using iPhone's Maps function when traveling from point A to point B you see the whole picture, then press start and you zoom in to your starting point. you can manually advance along the page or you can click the Next button. I think this would work with a comics as well. However we still do run intot he the unreadable text issue.

March 24 2009 at 11:55 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

brian

Pelorus - wow, infurious is doing some cool stuff. Definitely better than most of the (admittedly few) comic apps I've checked out so far. Besides the extra stuff (like left/right+up/down nav for extra features) the bookmarking is something that every app should have. Anyone who wants to see the cool stuff they're doing should watch the short video here: http://www.infuriouscomics.com/digital-comics/

Am I astroturfing for Infurious? No! In fact, I'm actually here to pimp my own system: http://pixelcity.com/comic/ :-) Also coming out "real soon now."

I'm doing a browser-based system which has its own plusses and minuses. On the one hand, it bypasses the app store, so there's no need to pay to get an app in there or to wait for approval. On the other hand, that means there's no easy route to get paid, either. :-) Despite being browser-based, it *is* downloadable (how? magic!) and has some other cool features as well. The main benefit is speed to market and a few other cool things I won't go into here.

The iPhone/iPod is a great device with its own strengths and weaknesses compared to paper comics. Like any other new medium, the trick is not to try to force-fit old content into the new box but to build content that plays to the device's strengths. This means there WILL be iPhone-specific content created because a straight import of printed pages will never be that good. Just like any new medium where it takes people a while to figure out what works best and how to take advantage of the new capabilities, I think there will be a lot of neat content coming out in the very near future.

March 24 2009 at 11:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tomyfour

Another promising solution is Ave!Comics by Aquafadas. They use a special file format (AVE, will it be an open format ?) to create animations between cells or transitions. They already have a reader on the AppStore that does also the standard formats (PDF,CBR,CBZ): it's called myComics and works well for me. I met them at MacWorld'09 and they were demoing some comics using this new format. Quite impressive because there is no need to zoom, pan...it does it all for you. Sadly, most of the titles were in french...apparently english titles will follow soon. Their web site (www.ave-comics.com, only french as well ;-( ) is not saying when their comic store will open but they already seem to have some content...

March 24 2009 at 11:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

JimGramze

I'm on the ComicZeal bandwagon. The converter/sync program is necessary to get everything at a size that is as big as it can be and still be easy on the battery. I do find that zooming in and out on the little screen causes me to see things in the artwork that I would have missed otherwise.

I have the first issue of Bone, cropped into about 170 some screens to cover a single issue. It was Ok, but something was lacking because the artwork and panels were designed for a full page.

I do welcome comics designed for the small screen and I can see purchasing them on a regular basis within reason. A single panel per 480x320 pixel screen is an artificial limitation but so is a single or double-page spread. Amazing how every TV prime time drama lasts exactly one hour with commercials. Limits can also produce innovation and creativity can only be expressed within the limits of the given medium.

Until then, ComicZeal is my reader of choice. I'm a beta tester so I am most certainly biased. Double tap to get to the natural resolution? My idea. Things like that do tend to make one biased. Still I must insist that CZ is the current best solution for reading comics on the iPhone/Touch.

March 24 2009 at 10:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mooky

I've been using PullLists (dev's site http://www.pulllists.com )
I personally love the fact that it provides for me a complete end-to-end solution for my digital comics. iTunes like interface on the Mac & PC, organizes stores and allows me to read them simply enough... then allows me to send whatever i want off to my iPhone. The iPhone's interface is simple to use and is now very stable.

I'm looking forward to seeing what the developers have planned for this in the future!

March 24 2009 at 8:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

pelorus

No mention at all of InfuriousComics who, while not on the panel, were vocally in the audience and demonstrated

a) how they had solved the small text issue without having to cut up the comics
b) how they had produced multiple comics directly for the handheld market

Infurious are still the only folk doing this, as well as having support for the layers in a comic - something which interests the real fans.
I'm not some slick marketing guy - I'm one of the team behind Infurious - look out RealSoonNow for something new which will change the lives of every budding comic creator on the Internet.

March 24 2009 at 3:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply