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Reconsidering the Shape of Comics?

Yesterday brought more information on Apple’s imminent multi-touch device, which looks to be aimed squarely at the print world.

Most of today’s comics publishers are likely to jump into the pool with their clothes on—print-style pages intact. But if Apple’s gadget is anything like what’s being described, we could see a shift over time from point-and-click fragmented delivery, like what we have on the Web today, to more continuous spatial metaphors of the sort a lot of us turn-of-the-century mad scientists were playing with. Should be interesting.

[Via Heidi and Gizmodo]


Discussion (12)¬

  1. Just having a device that size that supports both portrait and landscape pages is gonna make for some good mad science.

  2. laura says:

    “The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static.”

    One step closer to a Harry Potter world!

  3. John says:

    Wow, remember in the movie 2001, the guy on the space plane had one of these. He was reading his newspaper in the tablet.

  4. dirk says:

    Now, if we can only draw on it!

  5. John says:

    Looks cool, but will we be owning our media content, or just renting it till we stop making payments on it?
    Miss a payment, and your entire comic collection evaporates?
    Buy a independent comic but Marvel sues and the comic is ruled to be in violation of Marvel and it evaporates?

    • From the looks of it, the thing will be DRMed up the wazoo. Which means you’ll be renting content for a limited time.

      Great for trees. Lousy for your wallet.

      • Blue John says:

        That can be good or bad. Be great if the little guy, (IE: you and I) could get a payment for their comic, be pointless if the DRM costs so much that you cannot afford to sell the art at a price point low enough that people can afford to purchase the content.

  6. John says:

    Looks cool, but will we be owning our media content, or just renting it till we stop making payments on it?
    Miss a payment, and your entire comic collection evaporates?
    Buy a independent comic but Marvel sues and the comic is ruled to be in violation of Marvel and it evaporates?
    Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!

  7. […] “Most of today’s comics publishers are likely to jump into the pool with their clothes on—print-style pages intact. But if Apple’s gadget is anything like what’s being described, we could see a shift over time from point-and-click fragmented delivery, like what we have on the Web today, to more continuous spatial metaphors of the sort a lot of us turn-of-the-century mad scientists were playing with. Should be interesting.” – Scott McCloud […]

  8. […] McCloud comments on the potential for such a device to change comics: “Most of today’s comics publishers are likely to jump into the pool with their clothes […]

  9. HE says:

    That can be good or bad. Be great if the little guy, (IE: you and I) could get a payment for their comic, be pointless if the DRM costs so much that you cannot afford to sell the art at a price point low enough that people can afford to purchase the content.

  10. I… just peed on myself. It is always a good thing to look at technology releases with a cynical eye (I mean, they ARE for profit after all) but Apple’s Device-for-the-Masses History solidified with the iPhone. It does seem as though they care… as much as you can say a huge corporation “cares”. I, for one, am optimistic on the cultural implications for this product.