Paradigm Flux (2000)

Paradigm Flux was my first foray into interactive comics online. Written by Steve Casares with the idea of interactivity in mind, the story was a sci-fi adventure/espionage story with branching narrative threads. In his 2001 paper “An examination of webcomics using McLuhan’s four laws of media” comic scholar Daniel merlin Goodbrey wrote: Creators Steve Casares …

The Halcyon Years – “The Interaction” (2001)

It took a while to find all the loose files that make up this comic, originally published at the end of 2001. But now this quirky little parable is back online. I remember being influenced by Scott McCloud’s “trails,” used to great visual effect in his early comic Porphyria’s Lover. Many of the Halycon comics feature these same visual …

The Halcyon Years – “Dead Baby Army” (2002)

There was a subset of The Halcyon Years which tried to blend music and webomics. It was called “The Synesthesia Drive-In” and was a collaboration between myself and close friend Nichlaus Von Hulsebus, who is now the front man for our own Hang Dog Expression. “Dead Baby Army” was the last of these, and draws upon a narrative that was …

Directions “Up” – (2003)

“Up” is the final piece in Directions. Trying to get a webpage to scroll up is difficult, so I went the route of having the viewer position themselves on the page. Kind of a cheap trick when you think about it. But back then, I was no html expert! Funnily enough, the original page had plenty of …

Directions “Right” – (2003)

Probably the most absurdist Directions installment. I’m pretty sure I smashed together a dream and a joke my father in law once told me. And although the joke is great and the dream is unsettling, the narrative wasn’t the point. From a formal perspective, if you access all 3 of the interactive elements in the comic, you …

Directions – (2003)

So there used to be this thing called Bitpass. When it was originally launched, it focused pretty heavily on monetizing webcomics. I was invited to be a beta tester of their system and create content for sale. This was 2003 and although it seems somewhat silly now, there was very little movement in terms of an easy …

The Halcyon Years “No-Man’s Land” – (2001)

The Halcyon Years was a series of short infinite canvas comics, some of which included early experiments with interactive elements. This piece was the third installment in the series, from 2001. Some of the early Halcyons were based on dreams, this one included. You can read the comic here.

The Jerk – (2001)

This comic was first published sometime at the end of 2001. It gained some popularity at the time it was published and was the most ambitious hypercomic I had attempted. It’s an Infinite Canvas style scrolling narration with embedded interactive flash files that add depth to the narrative. The horizontal section of the comic features …