By Matthew Palmer
Electric Sheep is a site that effectively updates comics into the
digital realm. It features a variety of original strips designed for
the Internet. The first strip I looked at featured computer-generated
people and locations. The photo-realistic renderings were visually
stunning. Computer art seems to be an underdeveloped style in print
comics, relegated mostly to FOX Kids animation shows. The CG art also
allowed the illustrator to achieve some amazing and very unique
effects. Movie-style lighting effects were present throughout the
comic. Realistic smoke, breaking glass, and motion blurs also added
to
the story. The only complaint I had is that the only purpose of the
thin story (about a woman who drinks a cup of radioactive coffee and
has
a hallucination) is to allow such flashy effects.
However, the rest of the site showed that this was the exception,
not
the rule. It features several charming comics, in a variety of
styles. Some are traditionally hand-drawn. Others have mixed
hand-drawn characters with CG backgrounds. Also, short pieces of
animation is integrated into several of the strips. When a girl is
admiring the night sky, we see the stars above her twinkle. In the
coffee story above, there is an eye that changes colors. The limited
use of animation keeps the stories in the still comic category, but
extends it. It seemed natural to see some things move, and its use
helped to highlight that part of the story.
These new types of animation might very well find an audience with
adults. Electric Sheep says it's for "adults of all ages,"
a sharp
change from how most people thing of comic books as for "kids
of all
ages." The comics I read focused less on punch line humor or
superhero
adventure stories and more on short, dramatic stories. The clean,
attractive graphics are no longer just kid's stuff. Electric Sheep