Marvel is following suit with DC and others as an attempt to update the idea of a comic book by adding voice narratives and soundtracks with their first outing in SPIDERWOMAN. Isn’t the idea of a comic book supposed to allow you to use your mind and imagination? The cool art already creates the visuals for us, do we really need more?

-James DonVito

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Marvel’s a bit late to the motion comics game. Last year, Warner Bros. and DC Comics rolled out motion comics for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, as well as Batman and Superman titles. From television’s Heroes to Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts to Stephen King’s short story N, the motion comic has rumbled to life as digital distribution has provided a platform to spread comics to laptops and iPhones.

But the emphasis of this brave new digital iteration is on movement, as the Spider-Woman trailer above illustrates nicely. Motion comics can pulse into life more quickly than their pulp counterparts, which is one benefit of the medium. Another plus? A lighter carbon footprint. They’re also cheaper: Most major motion comics top out on iTunes at around $2, while the pamphlet versions still run twice that. (Spider-Woman will cost just $1 during a two-week introductory period. Then the price rises to $2 a pop.)

The emerging digital model is still experiencing birth pangs, but it would seem fair to stop using the term motion comics and instead call them what they are, which is animation. For decades, comics have functioned as elaborate storyboards for possible movies, but have existed in a space apart from cinema. Moore and Gibbons’ Watchmen was a great example of that: Its ambitious layouts took readers’ eyeballs on tangential journeys from one space to another in ways that films simply cannot match. Ever since the comics series arrived in 1986, nearly everyone asked when it was going to be turned into a film. (2009 was the answer to that question.)

But old-school fans of eye-popping art and labyrinthine narratives will be hard-pressed to give up their paper copies for Flash animations with sweeping scores. Part of comics’ inherent charm was the soundtrack, voiceover or extra-textual material they inspired in readers’ heads. By doing that job for them, motion comics could alienate as many readers as they excite.

What’s your take on the trend? Are you a die-hard fan of the old-school printed comics? Do you think motion comics are a fad, or the future of comics in the digital age? Let us know in the comments section.

Article by wired.com

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