The Mr. Nile Experiment

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 5:37 am

http://e-merl.com/mrnile

E-merl.com's first daily strip is now three days old. My brain is fo far holding up well under the strain. Check out today's episode to see what Mr. Nile has to say about the use of animation in webcomics. It's a bit of a different approach to the way the subject has been tackled elsewhere...

Wikkit · Post by **Wikkit** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 3:23 pm

Looks to be interesting.

Why dark gray text on black, though? Without gamma turned up, I doubt it's even visible.

Ben

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Mon Feb 03, 2003 5:55 pm

Looks good. Color me curious.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 7:38 pm

> Looks good. Color me curious.

Thanks. By the by, the bit in this:

http://e-merl.com/mrnile/day5.htm

Was first put in my head years ago by this:

http://www.zwol.org/forum/viewtopic.php ... nant+pause

So thanks again.

> Why dark gray text on black, though? Without gamma turned up, I
> doubt it's even visible.

I dunno - it's been quite visible on all the machines I've tested it on. Although they have all been PCs. I'll look at it on some Macs tomorrow.

As to why - Nile wanted to appear "almost not there at all" when outside of the panels. Guess he's just funny that way.

Alexander D. · Post by **Alexander D.** » Wed Feb 05, 2003 11:28 pm

It troubles me that one of the most frighteningly creepy tones I have ever seen accomplished in comics is found in the context of a non-fiction piece ostensibly about meta-comic theory.

I've always found your work fascinating, Merlin, but this is the first time I've found it truly engrossing. To my mind, you've advanced yet another level in your experiments. Have you considered pitching something along these lines to Serializer.net? It would certainly fit the art-comic theme, and I think that's a site that would be well-served by the inclusion of comic specifically on comics theory.

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Thu Feb 06, 2003 11:37 am

Mr. Nile rocks. I admit, though, that the text outside the panels is almost too dark for my monitor as well, but I thought it was intentional, so didn't mention it. Due to the nature of the comic, I think it works fine like that- people who notice it can read it and those who don't, well, won't.

Merlin · Post by **Merlin** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 5:26 am

> I thought it was intentional, so didn't mention it. Due to the nature of the
> comic, I think it works fine like that- people who notice it can read it and
> those who don't, well, won't.

I'm going to upgrade this to being the official answer to the question and "What I Was Deliberately Trying To Do In The First Place, Honest."

> Have you considered pitching something along these lines to Serializer?

I think by the time Nile's 28 days are up, I will have covered most of what I have to say on the subject. For a little while, anyway. Plus, one of the things driving me is knowing that when this month is up I'll finally be able to get a proper night's sleep. I can't believe some people manage doing daily strips everyday for, you know, ever. Madness!

Appreciate the positive feedback, though. I do have work promised to Joe Zable for Modern Tales Longplay in the future. Don't tell Joe, but I now actually know what work this is going to be and plan to make a proper start to it once my Nile and Vicous Souvinears commitments are taken care of. It'll be something a bit different to Nile, but hopefully folks will get a kick out of it.

(Um, Joe, if you're reading this, I owe you e-mail)

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 12:39 pm

"Burning your map" is awesome.

Here's a thought, based on that comic- A puzzle comic. You know those sliding-block puzzles where the user ("user"? I've been dealing with computers too long...) moves the blocks around to unscramble a picture? Well, what if each block was one panel in a comic? Then the "user" becomes both the "reader" and the "author" (for a time). It would be fiendishly difficult to make one that would make much sense in any order, but I'd like to see somebody pull it off.

Alexander D. · Post by **Alexander D.** » Tue Feb 11, 2003 4:40 pm

Merlin wrote:Plus, one of the things driving me is knowing that when this month is up I'll finally be able to get a proper night's sleep. I can't believe some people manage doing daily strips everyday for, you know, ever. Madness!

Yeah, absoutely -- I was assuming that if you did make it an ongoing thing that you'd cut back to weekly at most.

Appreciate the positive feedback, though. I do have work promised to Joe Zable for Modern Tales Longplay in the future.

Cool! I look forward to seeing it.

losttoy · Post by **losttoy** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 7:17 pm

My review, (which can be quoted for your book cover if they ever go digital):

Wow! Mr. Niles is kind of like a Scott McCloud in depth look of the comics form, but only with motion and destruction. It is both educational and entertaining ... ah yes, infotainment! But really folks, this is some really good writing and experiementation of the web comic form. Merlin here has really made me think more about the form and the boundries that he pushes. Good work!