Invisible Forces

[avram]

Wow. I’ve just seen an amazing new presentation concept for web comics — Invisible Forces. Just one chapter so far, barely the beginning of a story, but it’s pretty impressive. It seems to run off of JavaScript, which means I don’t know if it’ll work in every browser, but it’s fine in Safari.

It’s by Tom Stackpole, who also does The Bone Dancer.

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Presentation...urm...

Well, so far, it annoys me, to be honest.

[stormsweeper.livejournal.com]

It works in Mozilla, but is sloooow to the point of seeming unresponsive. He's using the Dreamweaver preload images script to load all the iamges for each "page" of the comic, and thus download times are a hog.

Funnily enough, he could have done the same thing in Flash easier, and with better UI performance.

[avram]

Well, yes. Better you get that lag at the beginning of the page than before each image. It’s generally recommended that you preload images when doing a rollover (and he’s basically doing a variation on a rollover).

I didn’t find it a problem; each page downloaded within a few seconds. I’ve got a DSL connection, though. Are you using dialup?

Could he have done it in Flash without shelling out $500 for a Flash developer kit? (OK, I suppose maybe by pirating one.)

Re:

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Safari is noticeably faster than just about any other browser. Jane's been testing her Wiscon web pages, and gets reports from someone using Safari.

This doesn't eliminate your questions, of course.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

"Viewing this 'webcomic' is no simple matter."

Lost me right there.

I kind of like the feel of it, but I don't think there's enough substance there for me to have to chase the little dot around. I don't even use a clunky mouse -- I use a stylus -- and it pissed me off. I'm not sure why a "click on the picture" interface wouldn't have worked just as well.

[fredfred.livejournal.com]

I like it. Very entertaining technique; it works best for me not when it's being used to display panel-to-panel transitions (sequential), but when it's making a metacomment on part-whole transitions. That is, when we only see a 'window' on a scene, seeing the whole scene changes the way we perceived previous windows (like the gang around the bicycle rack), and that's fun and engaging. When it's just to do panels, it's like, 'why didn't you just do panels'?

Re:

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I agree. And since it's mostly panel-to-panel, it's mostly annoying. Especially that damn introduction.

Re:

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

it works best for me not when it's being used to display panel-to-panel transitions (sequential), but when it's making a metacomment on part-whole transitions

Yuh huh.

Re:

[avram]

That bit with the bike was my second-favorite page. The guy swinging the words was first.

The bit I liked least was the title page, which was tedious. He’d have been better off doing it in just two steps, one for each word, rather than one for each letter.

[stormsweeper.livejournal.com]

A. (may I use your full name?), you may appreciate this site (it's Flash-based)

http://fablegame.com/

It's a promotional site for an X-Box game made by Pete Molyneaux.