Hear I was thinking that I would be able to post an example of this for everyone but I’m starting to learn just how finicky artists really are. That’s what I get for thinking I had 6 and now I have 2. You’ll just have to wait for the proof of concept but at the very least I can tell you about my experiment.
So here is my Infinite Digital Strip. It expands upon the concept of the “Infinite Canvas” as proposed by Scott McCloud. My inspiration is the understanding that web pages are not infinite in the manner McCloud believes. Having infinite distance in two dimensions does not imply infinite space on the web as this concept is no different then an artist who starts painting on the ground, which is of infinite size, as the artist would never run out of ground during his lifetime.
Instead of infinite space in two dimensions the web provides infinite dimensions through links. There could potentially be an unlimited number of comics telling the same story from as many view points as there are artists to tell their versions. Each view point would be finite in length and told by a different artist then all the others. Once these are finished they are all intertwined into one place where they can all be read.
This isn’t anything special so the extra mile lies in the linking of each story to another story. That doesn’t make any sense so let’s take page 10 of story by the first artist. On this particular page there could be 7 other people on the page. The reader then can click on any of these other people and be linked to that characters story drawn by another artist. It could be the first page of a new story or hopefully any page somewhere in middle. Depending on just how ambitious the group of artists are there could potentially be an infinite number of stories involving anything from people to a plastic bag floating in the wind.
Now this can’t be such a new idea. I’ve talked to a few others but the closest was a comic called Sixth Gun or something but I can’t find it. What does everyone think? For the little POC I’m putting together I’ve already got two storyboards written and I’m looking for 3 more, but I’m done writing. The whole idea is to get different people to tell the same story. Any volunteers to write a 5-10 page story, then email us.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/
Scroll down for \”Six Gun\”
Better yet:
Here\’s a direct link
This, oddly enough, hits close to home.
While I don\’t know if it\’s been done much in Webcomics, I know that in film school there are/were a number of people doing experimental narrative in film like this. Hell, I even had an morbid story told via a video installation that showed a family dinner on monitors set up on a table, and as you wandered around the room you could watch what the rest of the family did that day leading up to the story\’s conclusion (which was playing looped on the table).
If I ever bite the bullet and go to Grad school, the plan was to continue that style of experimental narrative only through an interactive DVD menu instead of the pretentious Video installation thing.
But yeah, there are a lot of people in Experimental film doing stuff like this, but you don\’t hear a lot about it.
The main difference here is the fact that you\’re talking about a collaborative project instead of just one person weaving a variation of the choose-your-own-adventure theme.
I\’m interested, but I\’m unclear exactly what you\’re looking for, beyond that it should be ten pages long. I\’m not even sure how to gauge what length a script for a \”ten page comic\” would be.
-jared
PS: I totally hate you for mentioning this now. My character variating Non-Linear comic experiment has been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to sort out how to host it properly since Christmas. So, yes, I obviously think this is a good idea.
Correction: There are NOT a lot of people doing stuff like this in film because there really aren\’t a lot of people professionally doing, well, experimental film. There ARE a lot of people being taught about it in the realm of Experimental Film though. NYC\’s Ken Jacobs was a big advocate of it, particularly in the 1970\’s and taught a course focusing on non-linear narrative until about 2003 or so when he retired (again).
-jared