Interactive Fiction and the Comic.
Statement
My interests lie in storytelling, more specifically communal or collective storytelling. Storytelling has been around for centuries and served as a way of record keeping (even long before written methods were used) and sharing stories. From cave paintings to Internet web comics, sequential art is one of the oldest and most endearing methods of visual storytelling. However, the use of sequential art in creating interactive comics or fiction is a fairly new trend and not as common as we think partly (a lot less popular then static comic strips) because of several components; story structure, content and interactivity. Constructing a successful and fluid story can create several challenges for an author. What approaches can be taken to multi-path interaction fiction. How do we engage users/readers in a way that allows them to share, append, and manipulate images and text to continually share or update a successful story?
Background
Interactive storytelling in the oral tradition dates back to ancient times. One of the many examples includes the West African “call-and-response” storytelling traditions. In this form of storytelling, the primary storyteller begins a tale (a call) and prompts a verbal reaction from the audience (a response) that can either be predetermined by the ritual or free formed. The storyteller and audience adapt the story to meet the demands of the audience. Contemporary interactive fiction works in a similar way and refers to a work where the author comes up with a several plot pieces and provides the reader with multiple ways to connect or tell alternate stories. The story structure is a branching scheme mapping out possible connections between plot pieces. The Reader/User creates a thread by making choices at certain decision points within the story. Interactive Fiction, Multi-path interactive fiction and Multi-path fiction all refer to works that utilize these conventions. The story structure within a multi-path fictional narrative is a branching scheme, which has been used by authors of interactive fiction to map out several possible plot pieces. Authors can come up with many plots or “what-if” scenarios, while users are actively involved and guide the story with the different choices available to them. The principles of interactive fiction have been used in a variety of mediums such as arcade games, DVD’s, books, digital texts and DVD’s. Digital and Print text have also been very successful in the past years such as the popular “Lone Wolf” and “Choose Your Own Adventure” children’s game book series. The author would usually provide the reader with several options with corresponding page numbers. For example, the main character’s phone rings, the author might present such options as “proceed to page 10 to answer the phone” or “proceed to page 25 to walk into the hallway.”
Comic refers to static sequential art also commonly known as the “comic book” or “comic strip.” Artist and Theorist Scott McCloud uses the term “flow” in describing the ideal multi-path fictional narrative as being visually uninterrupted. McCloud views a strong sense of flow as crucial to a successful comic reading process. Unlike video and animations, comics allow its readers to process visual information at their own pace.
