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Last week, IGN.com reported that Valiant Entertainment, formerly comic book publisher Valiant Comics, announced a partnership with Madefire to release motion books featuring some of Valiant’s best-known characters including Unity, Rai and X-O Manowar. What’s a motion book? Motion books are the latest innovation for digital comic books.
Madefire’s motion books aim to redefine the digital comic book experience by, “using space, time, motion and sound to control how the story unfolds on-screen.” It’s basically an interactive comic book that uses sound effects, motion and control to enhance the comic book reading experience. It’s almost an animated movie that the viewer can control. Check out the IGN.com article page for a chance to preview an upcoming unity motion book.
Photo credit: Valiant Comics/Media Fire
Digital comic books, like e-books, are a growing industry among digital storytellers. Just ask Amazon, who earlier this year, acquired digital comic book app, Comixology. “Madefire’s growth has been substantial since its inception in 2011, adding not only DC Comics to its library but also Archie, Arcana, and Dark Horse, among many others,” according to IGN.com.
That being said, perhaps the next important innovation in digital comic books is not for the reader, but for the comic book creator. Madefire offers a Motion Book Tool that allows comic creators to, “to break free from the conventional structures of sequential art,” and craft interactive, episodic stories layered by motion and sound.
But Madefire aren’t the only ones who are hoping to make it easier for comic book artists and writers get in on the digital comic game. Alan Moore, famed comic book writer known for his popular graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Batman: The Killing Joke, is launching a new open-source tool to help writers create their own digital comics according to a report from TheGuardian.com. To build the tool, Moore is relying on work from his digital company, Electricomics.
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Moore hopes that the tool will allow, “young writing talent an alternative route to signing up for endless superhero sequels with DC and Marvel.” Additionally, Moore has gone out of his way to make sure the designers at Electricomics keep the design of the tool simple, and the app is expect to launch sometime in early 2015.
As comic book films have conquered Hollywood and will continue to do so for the next few years, is the digital comic book the next big craze among hardcore and casual fans alike? Have you ever read a digital comic book? How was the experience compared to reading a normal, printed comic?
References
Banerjee, S. (2014). Alan Moore leading digital comics to open-source future. Retrieved June 24, 2014, Retrieved from http://ift.tt/Sg1lmh
Child, B. (2014). Warner bros to take on marvel studios with slate of comic-book superhero films. Retrieved June 24, 2014, Retrieved from http://ift.tt/1kSNDkY
Gilbert, B. (2014). Amazon buys popular comic book app platform comixology. Retrieved June 24, 2014, Retrieved from http://ift.tt/1geh3r4
Yehl, J. (2014). Valiant entertainment and Madefire team to make unity motion books. Retrieved June 24, 2014, Retrieved from http://ift.tt/1oq4lLU
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