The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Howard Webster shares some good news this morning as he has just learned that the innovative, mixed-media webcomic The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore is in competition for an award: “We are delighted to inform you that your project The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore has been Nominated for this year’s final competition of the MIPCOM Mobile and Internet TV Awards- Best Short Form Entertainment, Drama category, taking place in Cannes, France. Last week, nine industry experts of the Pre-Selection Jury worked diligently for two full days to select the 32 Nominated Entries and the 3 Projects for Special Mention.”

The MIPCOM awards, now in their third year, are aimed at encouraging and rewarding “creative excellence for short form audiovisual entertainment content and services for Mobile and Internet media.” As the MICPOM site comments, audio-visual material is continuing to expand into new areas of mobile and web-based technology; we’re all probably pretty familiar with webcomics already and I’m guessing many of us enjoy them regularly, but with comics and cartoons pushing into mobile devices and creators using the web to allow for more than just comics panels repeated on a screen by incorporating animation, effects, video and music this is an area which is still evolving.

(actor Colin Salmon looking cooler than a polar bear in a snowball fight in Jonas Moore, which uses a combination of live action actors, comic art, video and music)

I’m fascinated by where some of these developments will go in the next few years – I don’t see them replacing more traditionally styled webcomics, nor would I want them to as those are very accessible and offer a good way to get new readers to explore new material. But I can see mixed-media online/mobile comics supplementing existing webcomics and offering new space and new tools for creators to mix up ideas to produce new styles, new stories and new methods of telling those stories – since we are in a mutli-channel, visually rich digital environment it makes sense that some form of comics will embrace this and try to use these new forms to create something a bit different and that can be healthy for creators and readers alike rather than a threat. Especially since the use of web and mobile technology and software means not only that creations like Jonas Moore can use a variety of media to tell a story – and crucially to publicise it without a big marketing budget – it can allow that magical thing, interaction.

We all love our comics and books here and we have a limited form of interaction already – look how popular the letters pages were when introduced to many comics years ago, from kid’s comics to the often extremely erudite observations from academics writing letters to the Sandman back in the 90s. Now we also discuss them online as we do here on the blog, more readers comment and discuss on the blog posts or take up discussions in forums, leave reviews of works on webstores and crucially pass on that interest to friends. It creates word of mouth on interesting material which can be a lifeline for independent creators and publishers but it also serves to make the reader feel more involved, that a title is ‘their’s', which can’t be a bad thing either. And with these new mixed-media forms of comic storytelling a new form of interaction with fans is generated with creators offering fans the chance to take the material – artwork, video, music, animation – and remix it themselves into new forms; again Jonas Moore has impressed me on this with several musicians taking Howard at his word and remixing material to their own music, which in turn ends up on YouTube and thus increasing awareness of the original work (this is another aspect of the new forms of storytelling which the MIPCOM also encourages, I’m pleased to say). I’d imagine this also would appeal to people who might not normally read comics, so it is also a potential chance to lure new readers in.

(a sample page from the Many Worlds of Jonas Moore)

Reading comics and books is, in my opinion, an interactive experience to begin with; we don’t just read words and looks at pictures, our minds, our imaginations are engaged and the writers and artists create a scenario whereby the reader will take their work and their imagination fills in the gaps between words and images to make a whole story in their head. Now this kind of work can offer a greater level of interaction and who knows, perhaps this this might be where some future innovative creator first gets that creative spark? And with different forms of communication and entertainment mediums and technologies continuing to converge – comics written by novelists and screenwriters, movies that look like comics, webcomics that move, phones that also play video, music and cartoons – this is an area which is going to continue to evolve.

Besides there is also something almost Punk in the growth of this medium which appeals to me, the way that accessible new technology and software can make it possible for independent creators to live that punk ethos of doing it for themselves then share it with friends and hopefully, eventually, a wider audience (Sheena is a punk rocker, Sheena is a comics blogger, Sheena is a mutlimedia webcomic creator now…). Punks printed fanzines in bedrooms, Howard has directed much of Jonas Moore from a laptop in a coffee shop; that appeals to me – bookstores often have coffee shops in them where readers sit with their books and a latte, now someone is sitting in a coffee shop cooking up new ideas for storytelling.

And perhaps some of that innovation will also feed back into more traditional comics too, reinvigorating them – arguably that kind of approach has helped create a more varied and diverse music scene, why not for comics too? I’m sure there are also many potential downsides to this too, which I haven’t touched on, but you know what? I’m in the mood for a positive, optimistic article today. I think we deserve a little optimism sometimes – yes, we have worries about reaching new readers, declining circulations and other concerns, but on the other hand we have new developments to look forward to. So well done to Howard, to Colin and everyone else involved in Jonas Moore for gaining this sort of recognition and kudos also to the MIPCOM organisers for encouraging innovations in using new media to to that oldest of human creative acts, the telling of stories. Perhaps the future will be so bright we’ll need to wear virtual shades…