So, in early August, an enterprising fan decided that the current Wolverine story arc by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven was so incredible that he scanned in the entire thing and reformatted it for computer monitors. He didn’t just take it and put together a nice, hi-res copy, though – he rejiggered the entire thing to play out on widescreen monitors, sometimes leaving only one panel per “page.” other times generating a sequence with a panel staying on screen for 2-3 pages while others appear.
It doesn’t sound very impressive when explained, and it’s not as though it’s an amazing bit of new coding, but the fresh application of some old ideas work really, really well, making reading a digital copy of Wolverine a very different experience than buying the physical comic or flipping through a regular scan. If this didn’t make the rounds in Marvel’s offices the week it came out, and hasn’t started some very serious and real discussions amongst both the suits and creatives at the comic book companies, then the industry really is in danger of missing out on a nice, large window of opportunity that’s still being presented even after years of half-assed and annoying digital comics initiatives being forced down fans’ throats.
From the remixer’s own description:
This is a version of Wolverine 067, part 2 of Old Man Logan, optimized for viewing on 16:10 widescreen monitors. No more switching between views or zooming in and out.
I cut up the original pages and relayed them out on a 1280×800 pixel space. The result: individual panels fill up the screen, allowing for a more cinematic reading experience and greater appreciation of the details and nuances of Steve McNiven’s beautiful artwork.
Steve, is there a link where we can see this?
It seems to be available through the various torrent trackers, but not straight-up online linkable/downloadable. Google “Wolverine widescreen” and it’ll pop up.
Nice Find SG! This is one of the things about the Net that is so amazing – 2 big comic companies couldn’t figure out what 1 kid – a hardcore fanboy with Photoshop – did because of his love for the book.
I think “mikinowa” just saved/created a whole new industry by him/herself.
Am I old fashioned if I like reading comics and book on actual paper? Damn kids. With your torrents and your digital comics. Kids today. Get off my lawn. – insert Simpsons newspaper article: old man shakes fist at cloud-
just read it. Awesome.
@xenos, I wouldn’t consider this an issue of digital vs printed. This is something that wouldn’t have been the same on actual paper.
this is a great argument on why digital comics is a viable medium. or if anything just a neat idea.