Once I get past my overall objection to the format, the interface itself is pretty usable, but I do think that the format itself is fundamentally flawed and in this case the interface is a clear case of function following form.
Now I do realize that this format may be a directive from Marvel to you rather than a design choice of your own, but the attempt to replicate in Flash the structure of a dead-tree comic book looks like a poor choice.
You are correct, the flipping pages is favorable among the powers that be, and at first I didn't like them but to be honest I kind of dig em now.
And yes, the biggest problem I encountered in creating the dotComics is that they were taken directly from the print version. As I have become intimately aware of, things that happen in print don't work well online.
First off the lettering at 100% is unreadable. Proof this is the CrossGen digital comics, where the lettering has to grow large enough to read. We increase the size of the lettering to 130% so that it is more readable. But the nice thing about flash is that the lettering is all vector and remains crisp at 100% or 300%, unlike bitmaps which pixelate as the are enlarged.
Second, the material wasn't really suited for this medium. Two page spreads don't translate well into the dotComic format, cause of the limited size.
The limited size is directly related to filesize, I attempted to keep the filesizes low and still have a good quality graphic.
Rather than being able to simply read and enjoy the story simply as a comic, we have to read is as a digital representation of a print comic. This means we have to "flip pages" and (most annoyingly) read the advertisements as they appear within the course of the story. Many of the advantages that other "pure" webcomics gain by being presented over the 'net are simply never going to be available within this format-the comics are locked within a box.
Yeah, ads are a pain but someone has to pay my salary... currently the dotComics are free, somehow the costs have to be recouped.
I think that it's because of this restrictive format that other problems arise, such as the need to use scrolling animations to display especially wide panels or to translate some of the wilder layout designs that work great on a page, but don't work as well when disassembled in order to be viewed one or two panels at a time.
Again, the problem lies is in the material, the material was developed for print, not for online.
A problem with the animation is that if I want to go back and re-read a panel, I have to view the animation again when all I wanted to do what read one word balloon. Sure it's a minor thing, but it displays a limitation to the interface, which is geared toward reading straight through- front to back- rather than in a more intuitive hypertext-y sort of way.
Actually if you click the "POP" button at the top right of the screen you can turn that auto-popping off... it still pops up the first panel or the ad... but after that you are good.
The ads, which I've already mentioned, can't be skipped- especially when they're on a left-hand page. Most irritating but, I suspect, nothing you can do about those. Do these ads go away with membership?
Again... costs have to be covered... I am working on making the ads less annoying.
Also, a Flash interface means no bookmarking- To find something again, I have to download the entire thing again and search for it (also using more bandwidth, a concern of your follow-up post).
Hmmm... what exactly do you want to bookmark?
There are some things that the interface does right- Resizing, as you've already mentioned, is a great feature and I like the way the word balloons are proportionately larger and less intrusive to the art than in the print versions of these comics.
Thanks
It's not all bad, as I said in the very first post of this topic ("they took some really smart steps here and developed their own approach to the medium"), but the attempt to translate an actual print comic more or less verbatim to the web is, I think, a flawed approach.
I have to agree... but since no standard existed... I had to develop one... I am curious to see how this format develops and I would gladly collaborate with a committee to develop a standard.[/quote]