The Future Of Comics

Behold! I have seen ze future of comics and it fits in the palm of your hand!

At BICS I saw two innovative uses of comics that, inspired me and made me feel good to be a fan and avid supporter of such medium. The first of which, yes, I really believe will be the future of comics! Don't believe me?





Meet my fantastic camera work and the many moods of the brilliant and damn nice guy, Paul J Holden. The creator of the excellent Eyecandy childrens comic. A comic purchasable for the iphone/ipod touch from the itunes store for just 99c, about 50p! This isn't just some boring ebook with pictures though, this is a full colour, excellently clear childrens comic with a fair few tricks up its sleeve. The iphone and ipod touch works with a touch sensitive screen and as such sliding your finger across the screen flicks through the pages with no more licking of thumbs and sliding your finger down the screen allows you to phase the comic from full colour, to inks and to the original pencils. Taking the colour out of the comic down to the inks, with a couple of clicks brings up a pallet to allow children to colour in their own comic with their finger as the brush and no paint on the walls!

To move forward, you must learn from your past...sounds like something someone would say, but it's fairly true. When I was young one of the appeals of comics like Beano and Dandy to me was sweets on the front cover, or even better...a toy! PJ Holden seems to have learnt this little trick well, as every copy of Eyecandy comes with a free toy, be it a horse with googling eyes that wobble as you shake the iphone/ipod touch while neighing at you, or being able to shave a guys head with your finger tip as the screen buzzes and vibrates beneath you!

I keep mentioning children, but to be quite honest, I want one. The comic, I'm completely sold on, I want to see how it's draw with the original sketch and dammit I want my toy. I want it so much, I want to save for an iphone so I can download it. Speaking for myself is one thing, but watching people crowd around to get a look, giggling with glee at a horse with googly eyes and flicking back and forth between pencils, inks, pencils, inks, colours and so on. This is the future of comics and I want it in my hand.

Links:

The link to the itunes store for Eyecandy #1.
PJ Holden on Twitter.
Still don't believe me? Watch for yourself!