Geek Speaks: The Future Of Comics

On the 23rd of October our Creative Director, Daniel Burwen, was a panelist at the Geek Speaks conference in LA. The conference covered topics including how new digital technologies have allowed comics to evolve into new forms, incorporating such features as motion, sound, or interactivity, and adopting new sizes, shapes, and topics.

Daniel spoke about how this tried and true format has evolved with technology making it more valuable, and he touched on the analog vs. digital debate.

Daniel created one of the first digital comic books, Operation Ajax, which chronicles the CIA overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected government in 1953. This is an award winning interactive graphic novel that transformed the landscape of digital publishing. Below is an interview with Daniel talking about the Geek Speaks conference and his experience with the interactive storytelling medium...

Britelite Immersive: What drew you to the comic world?

Daniel Burwen: I wanted to find a format to tell the story of Operation Ajax that would both fit my budget / resources, be more engaging than a text based book, and tell a narrative well. Console gaming in 2006 (where I had been working) didn’t really work for my criteria. But having rediscovered comics via the book Torso in 2000, the idea of a graphic novel made sense to me. And so, knowing virtually nothing about how to actually make comics, I set out to do just that.

Britelite Immersive: What changes to the comic book industry have you witnessed throughout the years?

Daniel Burwen: The digital revolution created a secondary market, but print has stayed relatively unchanged. In the states, the format is a niche, and that hasn’t changed much in the time I’ve been paying attention. On the digital side, the only real success story we have is Comixology, and that’s solely through the business lense. From an artistic standpoint, I would say we’ve seen relatively little evolution aside from small boutique projects like Ajax.

Britelite Immersive: What interactive technologies inspired you to convert the story - Ajax - into an interactive piece?

Daniel Burwen: Flash was a big influence. I used the software to build my first portfolio site in 2004, and learning the motion side of design stayed with me while I was trying to figure out how to bring Ajax to life on the iPad. The other major influence on the presentation was the Watchmen motion comic, strangely enough.

Britelite Immersive: For the inspiration of this event - Geek Speak - Which of McCloud's predictions came true, what surprising new twists and developments have emerged?

Daniel Burwen: Scott McCloud talks a lot about the infinite canvas, and to some degree we’ve seen that crop up here and there in small experiments. Like this one from XKCD: http://xkcd.com/1110/

Scott also talked about comics being created from the ground up to suite the new digital platforms, that you shouldn’t repurpose content.

I disagree with his argument about repurposing, for as a creator, especially with new IP, you need to get your content into as many channels as possible. Make it findable, easy to access. And doing what we did with Ajax, that is, to create something entirely for just one device (the iPad), in the end, while it was artistically very pure, it hurt our ability to get the content out to a wide audience, to create a sustainable business.

Britelite Immersive: Where might comics go in the next 15 years?

Daniel Burwen: Hard to say, as the industry is niche in the US and that fact alone will limit what is possible within the medium. I think there is a lot of potential in blending games and comics on tablets into new hybrid mediums, but it will require a lot of risk to see that evolve.

Britelite Immersive: Since the development of your interactive comic - Ajax - what have been the developments within your own career?

Daniel Burwen: Its been a wild ride. Ajax was picked up in many random places. It was optioned for an animated feature, and is now being considered for a live action film. Rachel Maddow mentioned it on her show on the 60th anniversary of the coup, and shortly thereafter the CIA took responsibility publicly for it. I’ve gotten to travel and speak at many different venues around the world, including SXSW and film festivals in Europe.

I think as an artist, I’ve gotten a lot of recognition, as Ajax has ended up a widely known influence for anyone looking to evolve the comics format with new digital tools. When someone I respect, like say Ryan Woodward who’s animation I adore, tells me that Ajax inspired him to create his own project, that feels amazing.

We are also about to get the book published in good old tangible paperback, and I think for me there will be some closure from that, as that was the original goal with the project when I started it back in 2008.

Operation Ajax iPad App Tour Video from Third Street Works on Vimeo.

Britelite Immersive: What interactive technologies do you envision over the next decade?

Daniel Burwen: There have been quite a few to emerge in the past 5 - 7 years alone. The mobile phone completely changed how we consume content, and our attention spans along with it. Wearables and IOT are now evolving out of that. I think we can already see what’s coming, but how it will be adopted socially and culturally is really the unknown part.

Personally, I’m very excited about the coming VR revolution, and what that means for all media. Again, there’s a cultural aspect to new tech that is virtually impossible to predict, but I do foresee a lot of change within our lifetimes.