Stu's+Wiki

 Table of Contents
 * **//Abstract//**
 * **//Statement of Interest//**
 * **//Competitors//**
 * **//Inspirations//**
 * **//User Personas//**
 * **//SSNIF//**
 * **//Competitive Matrix//**
 * **//Walkthroughs & Wireframes//**
 * **//Book Cover//**

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My thesis will be a mobile comic and comic companion app for the iphone and yet to be released iphone OS running apple tablet. The comics title will be “His Lexicon” and it will chronicle the life of a young man, now alone in the world and his process of writing a novel by cutting passages, words and punctuation from discarded and damaged books people have abandoned. While searching for the words to his story he has conversations with the very characters he’s writing as if they were right in front of him, in fact to him they are. Along the way he meets a shy and battered girl that he finds one day where he lives, which happens to be in the underbelly of a major metropolitan bridge. Over time she begins to open up and a relationship forms, one with many unexpected occurrences.======

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Along with the comic there will be a companion app housed within the main comic app. The companion app will be the interactive element to this project allowing users to build their own digital copy of the book the main character is writing. While reading the comic users will be able to look for the text clippings that the main character has cut out and by using the copy feature they will be able to paste them into the companion app. And along with copying text snippets users will be able to copy and paste the characters into the companion app creating a fully detailed bio and background along with special art illustrating the character. While the comic part of the app will tell the story of the characters lives, the companion app will tell the story behind the story and give readers a more in depth idea of who the characters are as well as a second story that is being written as they are reading. “His Lexicon” will be an interactive mobile comic full of everything comic readers, print and digital alike, will enjoy reading over and over again.====== 

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I have had a love affair with comics from the age of five. The illustrations were what caught my eye and as I aged the stories held my attention. In a similar way smart phones like the iphone have captured my imagination and started me thinking about what is now possible on the mobile platform. For my thesis I want to combine my love of the printed comic and the mobile platform to create a comic and comic companion app bridging the gap between the two sides of my imagination the two sides being story telling and technology.======

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Sadly comics have raised in price considerably to almost four dollars an issue in the recent years. And because of that thought I’ve had to cut back on the number I buy and read, thankfully I found digital comics on the Internet and more importantly on mobile devices that were either free or at the very most a dollar per issue. Since I discovered mobile comics I’ve been buying and following many of the titles available from publishers like Image, Boom Studios, and IDW Publishing and quite to the contrary of their printed titles their mobile comics are severely lacking in quality. To most publishers mobile comics are an afterthought and my thesis aims to prove that they can offer just as much if not more than their printed counterparts. I’m not aiming to create the next big comic app in the apple app store with features no one ever dreamed to be possible, I’m aiming to produce a comic with bullet proof writing, illustration and graphics that actively draws in the reader and allows them to participate within the story. With my thesis I intend to create a comic that will show exactly what comics can and should aspire be like on mobile devices. And most importantly my thesis allows me to work with subject matter that I’m passionate about.======

**Competitors **
iverse Media: iverse media or iverse comics is Comixology's biggest competitor. They share many of the same publishers but none of the same titles. iverse media offers only 15 publishers and 45 titles for readers to choose from but their selection carries with it major titles, such as Hexed, The Surrogates and Death Dealers, that bring readers with a sense of brand loyalty to them rather than ComiXology. Again their reader format is quite simple with no interactive features other that listing your favorite issues. But their reader is slightly more engaging that ComiXology's as it has a zoom feature and text bubble enlargement. Again I will have to rely on producing superior art, story lines and interactive elements if I hope to compete with iverse media. Marvel (Motion Comics):// //If ComiXology is the 800 pound gorilla of mobile comic publishing then Marvel is the heard of elephants that tramples over you while you sleep (nice metaphor right?). Marvel is one of the oldest and largest comic book publishers in the country/world. Their titles include greats such as The X-Men, Spiderman, and The Hulk. They're new endeavor is something they are dubbing motion comics. They are comic stills that are slightly animated and narrated and acted out by voice actors rather than speech bubbles. While Marvels motion comics aren't directly marketed as mobile comics users are still able to download them onto their iPhones making them a sort of mobile comic. Currently Marvels motion comics are being labeled as a sort of TV show in the iTunes store but it seems like mobile comic app would be the next logical step for them. While this form of comics don't entirely relate to what I'm attempting it does make me realize i need to keep an eye on what Marvel is doing. Ever since mobile comics have come out Major publishers like Marvel have opted not to create mobile comics but with their new offering it makes me think that Marvel may be joining the mobile comic arena sooner rather than later. //**
 * //ComiXology : ComiXology is the current leader in iPhone mobile comic publishing. They publish works from 22 different publishers and carry titles that number in the upper 70's. This company is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, as far as mobile comics are concerned, they dominate the market with only one other true competitor in regards to units sold and titles available. But their reader format is incredibly simple and they offer no social interactive features as of yet. In order for me to compete with them I will have to outshine their comics in story, art and most importantly user interactivity.

Again these comics have no social or interactive feature so for the time being thats where i'll have to stand out from them. I will still be trying to outshine them with original art and story lines but when you go up against a giant like Marvel its best to excel in areas that they haven't dominated for decades like illustration and writing

**//josh Middleton (Illustrator):// Middletons work has alway dropped my jaw. from the very first issue of Marvel's "NYX" I have been obsessed with his pastel/watercolor look and the soft lines that grace his characters features. I've always wanted to write and illustrate my own comic as i suppose many comic fans do but I was never serious about it until I laid my eyes on Middletons work. While I don't intend to blatently copy his style i do intend on borrowing the soft look and color scheme that he employs for my comic. @http://www.joshuamiddleton.com/ **


 * //Grant Morrison (Author): Grant Morrisons writing is gritty, unapologetic and raw. Currently he's working on the new incarnation of Batman and Robin where bruce wayne is dead and the original robin, dick greyson, is now batman while damien, bruce waynes son, is the new robin. This new situation enraged Batman lovers around the globe, I mean who has the balls to kill Batman? Grant Morrison does and he did it so well. His characters have a depth normaly only seen in full print novels and his mix of noir/slice of life is something only he can pull off. Morrisons work has been and will continue to be huge source of stylistic inspiration for me while i write my characters. @http://www.grant-morrison.com/

Nawlz (Web Comic): At first i wasn't going to include that much interactivity but after viewing this web comic and reading the suggestions my fellow classmates gave me I want to do something similar to Nawlz but on the mobile platform. Besides the hidden content i think i'll take a page from the book of Nawlz and use thumb or finger motions to allow the user to make different elements move in the frame and maybe trigger sound effects or loops. Nawlz is the perfect example of a wildly creative interactive web comic and they will be a constant reference point for my thesis and i strongly recommend that everyone in the class go to the website! http://www.nawlz.com/ //**

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SSNIF

Competitive Matrix

Walkthroughs & Wireframes media type="custom" key="4678349"

 Book Cover