Digital Comics

So, last entry, I did comics in computers, now, it's computers in comics.

And, I don't mean paper scanned in for online display, or for Photoshop tweaking to print back out, or to send off to the publisher, I mean digital from the ground up.

Yep, this was a phase with a teensy window, that being '88 and '90 respectively...


Iron Man: CRASH

The tech-

Mostly lineal bitmaps.
Some polygon renderings for vehicles, hover-camera-bots, cyberspace-probes, etc.
And...whatever it's called that makes smooth layered clipart type pictures (like the cover).
Then, all of that run through a software that makes panels and balloons.

The story-

Sorta "The Dark Knight Returns", of Iron Man.
...meets "Bladerunner", meets "Ghost In The Shell".

It's the future, Tony is older, but preserving himself with an addictive youth drug, he's retiring, and selling off the Iron Man armor designs to a Japanese firm, which pisses off SHIELD, and...there's some espionage subplot, and brain-plugging-cult subplot, but neither are adequately fleshed out.

The whole thing ends confusingly, with an Iron Man backup android that helps Tony in the final fight, then contracts a virus that makes him sentient, and then he flies off to carry on the legacy, while Tony retires, and ages gracefully.

 "Why?"-

One, they had the toys, and they could.

Two, the creator forsaw a time when computers would remove the grunt-work from comics.
Hasn't exactly happened.
Shit, my cheapo little Harry doodlings were a bitch to hammer out.
Easier, my ass.

Three, hey, it was the 80's, we thought the future was coming faster than it did.
All that Reagan optimism, I dunno.

"Is it any good?"-

Ehhh...s'okay.

The aforementioned "Bladerunner", and "Ghost In The Shell", are vastly superior stories.
But, this thing only clocks in at about 60 pages.

The graphics look like utter shit now, but, it's impressive considering what they had to work with.

Worth a look as a piece of history.

The history-

So, what's happened in the intervening 24 years?

Well, artists still hand draw.
They do however, scan, and use computer coloring, and photo effects.
Motion blurs, and the like.

The panel/balloon/caption software is an industry standard.

Some artists, even the dude what does Axe Cop, hand draw it right into the computer with a stylus/pad rig.
Those cost a pretty penny though.

Comics, no matter how they're drawn, have gone online.
Legally, or illegally.

And, the Iron Man movie makes all of this look like fingerpaints.

So...CRASH...was a peek at a future that wasn't....and in some ways was.
Well, as all science fiction, good or bad, is....


Batman: Digital Justice

The tech-

Um....remember Windows 95 3-D screensavers?
Remember the internet of '97, and those shittily paint-edited "Superman Ate My Balls", cartoons?
Take those, and add a couple impressive effects, but that we can all do now, like swirl blur.
Yeah, about on that level.

I'm sure it looked amazing in '90....but now...ouch...

The story-

It's the end of the 21st century, Gotham is Bladerunner-y (natch) the original Batman is dead, a sentient Joker virus starts fucking over the 'net, and the grandson of Jim Gordon becomes the new Batman to kick its ass.

"Why?"-

To rip-off and one-up Marvel's Iron Man thing.
On the latter count, they failed.

"Is it any good?"-

Not really.
Some good ideas there, execution is poor.
Big points get taken off for it not aging well in the face of advancing tech.
Which, goes to show, it relied too much on the tech.
Like a lot of today's shitty movies.

Kids playing with their toys.
...like, a lot of today's shitty movies.

The history-

So, what's happened in the intervening 22 years?
Well, ditto everything in "CRASH".

This sort of predicted "Batman Beyond", though, what with the scenario of a cyber-enhanced future Batman carrying the mantle, and all.

Shit, even down to the Joker passing his consciousness/persona along digitally, and even seeking a new body as seen in "BB: Return of the Joker".

And...look how beautiful that movie was without CG bells and whistles.
And that was a whole decade after "Digital Justice".

Course, we don't even need this crappy comic to see Batman in CG, we can play him in "Arkham Asylum", or "Arkham City".

And, that's the classic Batman in the digital world.
So, that's a reversal.

And, that's something there, video games and the internet have blown both of these books out of the water, both in the tech that spawned them, and in their future predictions.

"CRASH", happens some 20 years or so into Tony's future, so theoretically 2008, and that was way off....and "Digital Justice", is like in the 2090's or so...and...we've surpassed their shit now.

Hell, a Joker virus would fall to a Norton scan, and Batman can freely frolic through the web via "DC Universe Online".

All that paranoiac William Gibson shit looks laughable today.
Fuck Gibson anyway, he was just Phil Dick's coattail rider.
There, it's finally been said.

And hey...whatever happened to Pepe Moreno?? Hmm...

So, yeah, those are two nifty little windows into the future-past for ya if you can track 'em down.

I had fun looking back on 'em.


Up next, The Return Of Crossovers!!!