Webcomics — Wiscostorm

On what’s currently occurring to established forms of storytelling within the digital age.

Part of the difficulty in figuring out the place fiction will go from here is to determine whether current forms shall be improved or whether new types will be invented. The novel was not a huge departure from its predecessors. It was merely an extended story. So it’s actually more of an enhancement of earlier fiction somewhat than a whole revolution, like movie.

What is going to happen from right here on out, although? Will we maintain current types of fictional tales and adapt them to the online, or will we come up with basically alternative ways of delivering narrative? That’s the question.

In a speak he has given a number of instances, Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine explains that when web content was starting to take off within the 90s, the powers that be thought it can be like «TV, solely better.» But it surely surprised them because a) it wasn’t at all like Tv, and b) it ended up producing content no one could have predicted.

I have no illusions here: I don’t claim to know what is going to occur with the future of storytelling. But we are able to take a look at what has happened already within the relatively short time period that digital media has thrived. And today, I’d like to examine how already-established types of storytelling are faring in this new media atmosphere.

I wish to first mention the novel, even though I do know I’ve already mentioned fairly a bit about it. The Kindle, and various different book readers, have been developed for one primary goal: to maintain the novel alive. Or, if not the novel, then not less than novel-size books. That’s one of the reasons I don’t see the novel dying any time quickly. It’s a precedence for our society still. We’re creating know-how for it.

Then again, I don’t see the novel faring effectively online with our present web interfaces. For all the explanations I said earlier, I believe shorter chunks are the key to the current digital media surroundings. So what about serialized novels, you ask. Good question.

I don’t suppose they’re doing too well either. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of them. There are. They go by the name «webserials.» And yow will discover loads of them at webfictionguide.com. But for now, they remain a kind of comparatively obscure niches on the net, principally populated by aspiring authors.For webserials to actually achieve success, they’re going to have to be featured on sites that attract readers. This has been accomplished, too. Sites like Salon, boingboing, and Slate have published serialized fiction. But they have some problems. The Salon one, in accordance to 1 reader, just form of light into obscurity by the 35th installment (I can’t confirm that). The boingboing one linked to a pdf file, so that you were basically just downloading one chapter per week of a e book that had already been published, thus robbing the serial of its a lot-wanted sense of what’s-going-to-occur-next-? And the Slate one I can’t even get to load.

Finally, although, serials simply haven’t ever gotten again the recognition they enjoyed within the Victorian period, despite some notable exceptions here and there. As one informative piece on serialization factors out, although, serials by no means really died; they simply modified form.

Two such types have carried out well on the web. One is the comedian. Webcomics are low-cost to put collectively and a few get pleasure from as extensive a readership as print comics. Xkcd is my personal favourite, though it, like Bizarro (my different favourite comedian), doesn’t have an ongoing narrative (with a couple notable exceptions right here and here: 1, Тень и Кость 2 сезон 1 серия, 3, 4, & 5). Others, like Penny Arcade and Weregeek are pretty common, and there are some very clever ones that have engaging interfaces, making them fairly interactive. The best Quantity and 9 Planets with out Intelligent Life are my favorites.

Beyond webcomics, video series, or webisodes, have performed alright, too. A top quality webisode usually requires a big financial funding, although. Which is why some really good ones, like 72nd to Canal and The Remnants, have simply fizzled out. However Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Weblog, Chad Vader, Lonelygirl15, Quarterlife, Red vs. Blue, and a number of other others have gotten a significant viewership.

With the event of non-public media devices like the iPod, and with the addition of 3G internet entry to sophisticated cell phones, I feel the video format of storytelling is adapting nicely to new media. They don’t even have to be in serial form. Some of my recent finds embody wonderful tales like Evol, Ida’s Luck (Part 1 & Part 2), and Glory at Sea.

Ultimately, video on the web is both higher than and quite inferior to tv. There’s certainly sufficient high quality on the market to rival conventional Television. But finding it’s a little more difficult. Fledgling programs like Miro and joost and hulu have had some success, however miro is the only one of many three that is pure internet tv and that i just haven’t found many channels worth subscribing to.

So even video, I’d argue, hasn’t achieved its optimum type of propagation by the internet tubes. There remain problems with accessibility and consolidation. Clearly the internet won’t kill video (like video killed the radio star), nor will it kill comics or novels. But I’d say video is in transition. May it be headed towards one thing with extra interaction?

That’s what I’ll have a look at next time. Video + interplay = _______. Fill within the clean.