Reinventing Comics on the iPhone OS

Comics aficionados can now enjoy a handful of new applications available at the iTunes App Store.

L’homme de Washington is the latest edition from the popular French/Belgian comic series Lucky Luke. For those not familiar with the character, Lucky Luke is the creation of cartoonist Maurice De Bevere (aka ‘Morris’) and writer René Goscinny, who also collaborated on the Asterix graphic novels. Lucky Luke is a perpetually smoking, Clint Eastwood-esque cowboy who has adventures involving famous historical characters of the American West including Billy the Kid, the Dalton Brothers, among others.

The application itself was developed by Ave!Comics, a French design firm. The UI controls have been translated into English and French, although the comic text itself is only in French at this time. Features include full support of multi-touch gestures and the 47-page comic is viewable in portrait or landscape mode. Ave!Comics has created an innovative approach to viewing comics by mobile and this application will likely serve as a new bench mark for interactive comics.

Another interesting comic now available for the iPhone is Jeff Smith’s six-volume series Bone published by UClick. Hailed by Time Magazine as one of the Top Ten Graphic Novels of All Time, the series can be roughly described as something in between Walt Disney and J.R.R. Tolkien. Features include screens and panels optimized for the iPhone and easy-to-use gestural controls. Other notables include Scott Meyers’ Basic Instructions, and Richard Starkings’ Elephantmen, also published by UClick.

The iPhone and various emerging netbook platforms are particularly well-suited for downloading and reading interactive comics, and some of the potential for comics afforded by new media that comics theorist Scott McCloud has been talking about for some time may finally be realized. In Reinventing Comics, the sequel to Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art, McCloud proposed that new media would lead to a renaissance for the fledgling medium. It will be interesting to see how this new platform catches on with comics creators and their fans, particularly as social networking, messaging, and maybe even location-awareness get thrown in the mix. [Via Textually, iTunes Apps Store]

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