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Right. Not exactly anime, I know.

Perhaps I’ve been overly influenced by the fact that a new comics store opened only three blocks away from me recently, but I’ve been on a tear through Transmetropolitan, DMZ, and The Walking Dead these last few weeks. And by tear my inference is that entire days, nay, whole weekends at a time have succumbed to their inky goodness.

Needless to say, my wallet hates me.

Then again, it probably hates you too. But that’s inconsequential. You’re not chained to the thing.

For me at least though, I enjoy the sheer physicality of holding a trade collection, or a book for that matter,  down to the smell of the ink and even paper cuts. Antiquated, I know. But coming across a recent tweet announcing that Joss Whedon’s X-men was going all moving picturish on Hulu put me in mind of this. It’s a remarkable example of the successful convergence of forms. A moving comic. Not animated mind you, simply moving. And frankly, the outcome is really pretty stunning.

As much as I love the comic form, my burning (and sometimes itching, I should have that looked at) desire for animation makes this in many ways the best of both worlds. There’s actually something quite effective in the limited range of motion offered by the style. Though infrequently used (at least to my knowledge) in its current incarnation, I can see the form eventually becoming the standard for a digital comic distribution. Fantastic artwork and storytelling, combined with a wee bit of Flash, and immediately available to the world at large. There’s a certain restraint involved in not attempting create a fully animated piece, each cut and choice of movement become more necessary and valuable to the impact of the story.

So what say you? Do you remain a purist to the physical form, as many have done with Ellis’s free offerings of Freakangels? Or would you rather see an intertwining of existing forms into something entirely, enticingly else?

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Tags: Aesthetiophilia, Pictoriphilia, Videophilia // Add Comment »