The Future is Here

Well sort of… unless you live under a rock you should have noticed a couple (thousand) ads about the iPad.  It comes out this weekend.  First, I just have to say, iPad, really? Pad? All the smart people at Apple & that is the name we went with? Did not half the office snicker the first time they heard that?

Anyway, the previews and reviews are mostly stellar about this thing and big news for us–what company has been featured predominately in lots of the reviews? Marvel Comics.  After acting like they’ve never heard of the iPad or the interwebs they come out big & first with lots of titles available.

I have to admit I’m a little intrigued.  I didn’t think I would like it at all, seems like it does things that I already have a laptop for and I’m more than capable of holding a book in my hand, but… it IS really pretty and I like the way the pages turn and there are already 60,000 books available! Come on that is just cool!  Ok, I’ve probably already read like 25,000 of those books and don’t want to read about 15,000 more but still, pretty cool.

The Nook is also out there for the Barnes & Noble fans.  I tried to play with one at B&N but it wouldn’t work–is that a sign or had some kids just been there before me?  Based on the info I’ve seen it doesn’t look as pretty as the iPad (even-though it has a MUCH cooler name.)

We’ve already talked about the Kindle–it bores me and makes me a bit seasick turning/scrolling the pages.  When it comes in color I might be more impressed.

The thing that really matters for us comic folks is how will our medium transfer to these new devices?  Well the Marvel stuff looked quite cool on the iPad I must say.  [However, one fatal flaw with the iPad (& the iPhone for that matter) is the lack of Flash ability, come on how hard can that be?  I’m sick of seeing a little blue box with a question mark on my phone when I go to websites and stuff.]  I’m not really sure how comics are going to transfer to the Nook or to the Kindle–certainly they will have to be in color for them to work.

We just finished coloring a WWE (yes that WWE–wrestling) comic for the iPhone, it turned out really cool, especially the way they laid it out.  You scroll across to turn the pages but up & down shows you the lineart with and without the color.

http://wwecomics.com/the-story-begins-on-iphone/832/

Many of our clients are now requesting our final files be available in formats for print AND for digital media.  (There is a difference by the way but that’s another story.)

My biggest question, with the progress of the iPad, is will this change the format of my beloved books?  The iPad is all splashy and video-y, and graphic-heavy.  Now are my slutty romance novels going to have pictures?  Are we going to try and turn everything into a graphic novel?  I mean from a business standpoint, ok that would be good, more coloring work for Hi-Fi but from a reader’s standpoint that will really piss me off.  Part of the beauty of the written word is that YOU envision what you want to see in your head.  Mr. Tall, Dark, & Handsome looks like YOU want him to not what a penciller decides he should look like or worse yet what some actor looks like.

Have we gone too far in the visual age?  Are we all just kids with ADD and have to have everything shown to us in pictures so we don’t have to read?

I’m seriously torn here, on one hand I am an early adopter of technology.  I always want the newest, coolest gadget and the iPad looks to be it. BUT I don’t want it at the cost of another passion of mine, the written word.

Kristy Miller

VP, Development

Hi-Fi Design