NMConnect: Site-specific Comics

nmconnect

On Sunday at 2 and 3pm, on the NMC Campus in Second Life, I hosted several chats on the topic of "Site-Specific Comics."

Site-specific comics are comics designed to exist IN a certain place. The artist may take that place into account while composing the piece and the comic may therefore in some way affect that place or space. Think airplane emergency instructions. Or the comic hung in a classroom that tells you how to perform the Heimlich manuever.

For NMConnect, the largest symposium of artists in Second Life to date, I created a site-specific comic entitled "Hello n00b", inspired by my 2005 digital image "I'm still a n00b." In this comic, seen in the previous post here on the blog, the big yellow entity named "n00b" begins to emerge from the 2D image into the virtual 3D world of Second Life. I, in my virtual avatar, come face to face with an entity of my imagination and realize... this is just the begining.

We are just beginning to understand the potential of the comics medium for communication of information and how it will add to the history of art. We are also at the dawn of virtual worlds and digital social networking. The possibility that these two mediums may cross again and create even more exciting artforms in digital storytelling is extremely high.

One of the outcomes of the chat was an idea for a HUD, or heads up display (a window of sorts seen in your Second Life client), made up of screenshot comics that is an easy and helpful tutorial for Second Life. Perhaps this is something that is automatically attached or 'worn' at first birth into the game or something that can be picked up at the welcome center. Either way it would be an easy and understandable way to learn the basics of the virtual environment without having to sit through a video. Afterall, comics are read at your own pace rather than determined by creator, as in a video.

I have also been toying with the idea of uploading THE DOGS into Second Life once I publish. A copy would cost around $5 US dollars, the same it would be for a downloadable version, about $1000 Linden dollars. It would also work as a HUD where each page was clicked to turn. I'm still in the planning stages, but I'd be very happy to hear from any Second Lifer who has either purchased, published, or would be interested in a graphic novel in world.