Interactive comic lets readers call the shots

A new digital comic strip called FRAMED enables readers to switch the panels around to alter the outcome of the scene.

The interactivity of digital platforms is bringing new dimensions to existing artforms — for example, we’ve recently seen how Switzerland’s IDNA — Spatial Storytelling project has brought dynamism to film by enabling viewers to control the camera focus in order to determine the plot. Now a new digital comic strip called FRAMED is ploughing similar ground, allowing readers to switch the panels around to alter the outcome of the scene.

Created by Australia’s Loveshack Entertainment, the strip has a crime/mystery setting and features no dialogue, while each of the characters is rendered in faceless silhouette. The reader is initially presented with a static comicbook page, but once they have rearranged the panels to their liking, the strip comes to life with animation that lets the viewer know the outcome of their decisions. For example, a frame featuring a ladder could help a criminal escape or the protagonist get to safety, depending on its location in the flow. The strip has been created so that frames can be placed next to any other in the sequence, offering a multitude of different paths readers can create. The video below offers a demonstration of the comic:

The innovation is an example of how digital technologies are blurring the lines between different artforms — with FRAMED straddling the boundaries between comicbooks, film and video games. Are there other ways to give readers new ways to interact with traditionally static narratives?

Spotted by Murray Orange, written by Springwise