Electricomics!

This post has been a long time coming.... Last year, on the 14th of October 2015, I attended The Comic Electric: A Digital Comics Symposium, which was held at The University of Hertfordshire in the UK.

Outside the University of Hertfordshire (c) Zak Waipara 2015

The Electricomics platform project was driven by renowned comic writers Leah (the Thrill Electric) and Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea), The Electricomics project was launched in May 2014, with funding from the UK's Digital R&D Fund for the Arts.

As the project neared the conclusion of its research and development stage, The Comic Electric symposium was held, led by Leah Moore and Daniel M. Goodbrey, to share findings, and expand discussion and debate around the field of digital comics research.  Leah's own digital comic project Sway is really quite impressive in taking advantage of the iPad's ability to detect the motion of the device and use it as a narrative component! Can't wait to see what else she might come up with...

Participants, including myself, presented papers across a wide range of topics that relate to comics scholarship and digital media. I presented my own research paper Otea: Transmission and Transmedia, based on my Masters research into transmedia comics and cultural transmission. Otea is a comic project for kids I have been working on for a while. Here's a nice concise summary of the talk itself, as reported by one of the attendees.

Leah Moore's post on Alan Moore's Facebook page

The Symposium was highly enjoyable and extremely informative. I won't attempt to cover the entirety of the proceedings but will mention briefly a few notable speakers.

My fellow panellists, Liz Dowthwaite and Vitor Blotta, covered Web Comic Communities and Comics as Journalism in Brazil, respectively. Liz's blog can be found here – she very kindly mentions my project. Her own topic is also her PhD research.

Matt Finch's presentation covered the possibilities offered by participatory style comic workshops working with different groups around the world, including time spent in Aotearoa NZ. It was great to see the contribution from a Christchurch librarian as well, never thought I would travel all that way to see te reo Maori comics in the UK...

Matt covered the Symposium on Twitter, with links to my slideshow.

Craig Smith, whose work on Motion Comics I quoted in my thesis, was the final speaker of the day and focused on Motion comics, including the Madefire platform pioneered by Dave Gibbons (of Watchmen fame). I chatted to Dave very briefly - it was cool to meet him in person.

I also had the chance to chat in person with Craig Smith on the 30 minute train ride back to London.

I went back to Hertfordshire Uni the next day to chat with Daniel M. Goodbrey (senior lecturer in Narrative and Interaction Design at the School of Creative Arts), to meet staff and talk about their teaching programmes, and to compare notes on our course back in NZ. Some of Daniel's interactive comic projects can be seen here –  he is really showing what can be done with the form.

It was seriously cool to fly to the UK and be part of a ground-breaking experience.