The DC (Digital Comics) evolution

• By PATRICK RILLS
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Nov 24, 2009

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For comic books, crossing over inter-dimensional boundaries and exploring strange new territory may seem built into their creative DNA. However, comics and graphic novels haven't made as smooth of a transition into the digital realm as traditional books. Very few have found success in a digital market that for several years has been more experimental than practical.

Today, companies are still trying to find the most user-friendly mode of consumption and more importantly, the right business model. Digital comics, or Web comics as they have become known, have been highly successful for many independent creators with comic strips, but have not been much more than a glorified marketing gimmick to the major players in the industry.

That was until recently when both Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics both launched digital comic initiatives.

DC Comics' approach is vastly different from Marvel's. While Marvel is offering back issues in a subscription-based, digital format, DC is connecting with creators over the Web to create entirely new content through a Web project called Zuda Comics (http://www.zudacomics.com). Ron Perazza, vice president of creative services for DC and editor of Zuda Comics, shines a Batsignal-sized light into DC's plans for Zuda Comics and the future of Web comics.

"DC Comics has a long tradition of branching out, actively looking for ways to expand our audience and work with new creators to tell the best possible stories we can tell,” Perazza said. “So in a lot of ways, Zuda Comics is a natural extension of that thinking. We thought about what we could bring to the table and how we could best work with those creators."

The largest barrier blocking comics' entry into the Web has been formatting them for digital consumption. Because comics are a blend of art and the written word, models of digital consumption followed by novels, music or movies do not work well for comics.

"Transitioning a comic from print to a fully digital experience is more than just "save as" a different file type," Perazza explained. "Listening to music on a record player or cassette, CD or MP3 is essentially the same experience but for quality and delivery method. While that's still true for a comic you're also fundamentally altering the way the media is experienced. It's a unique challenge and often requires unique solutions."

Comics require a large viewing surface to fully appreciate the art and still be legible. This for the most part has kept them off the most popular portable digital reading devices that do not feature color screens, such as Amazon's Kindle. A vast number of comics can be found on the color, touch screens of smart phones such as Apple's iPhone, but the screen size has been artistically constricting, usually limiting the view to one panel at a time. Those that see success have resorted to posting comics on Web sites, even if traditional page layouts are not oriented for a computer screen's shape.

"A computer monitor is not a printed page. It's horizontal not vertical, it displays color differently, the user 'turns the page' differently, and so on,” Perazza said. “The experience is radically different than that of reading in print and the creator needs to keep that in mind in order to effectively tell his story."

This has forced DC Comics to rethink how they have traditionally done comics. Instead of trying to jam the square peg of the standard comic book format into the round hole of the Web platform, Zuda comics has embraced the differences of the medium.

"With Zuda, one of the first things we decided to do was get away from the ‘standard size’ comic book page and go with a horizontal format that better fits the computer monitor,” Perazza said. “It was a relatively small decision that had enormous impact in how we tell stories and how people on site read them. There's nothing like clicking that ‘full screen’ button and seeing the entire page all at once on your monitor."

Perazza said Zuda also realize that overcoming technical challenges is only one aspect of success. Great content might even be more essential than user experience to building and retaining readership.

"Our goals are simple--tell great stories. If you tell great stories, stories that resonate with the audience and that create connections that comic readers are passionate about, then other successes will follow," Perazza said