Something interestingly new in ways of presenting webcomics

[Phalanx]

I was writing the latest blurb for Webcomic Finds, when this recent CG webcomic I reviewed was so strikingly different in how it conveyed dialogue and text I had to share it:
http://webcomicfinds.blogspot.com/2009/ ... -hero.html

Personally, I really like the interactivity of the method "Hero" uses, but I'm curious in the opinion of others... If it was you reading the comic, would you find the hovertext technique innovative or tedious?

[Mercury Hat]

It is an interesting way of avoiding covering up the art, but I can't see the advantage this would have over text at the bottom of the panel/page or a traditional narration box.

For me, having to mouse over to find the text takes me out of the immersion of reading the comic. Especially since I'm of the school of thought that your lettering should be as much a part of the art as the pretty pictures are.

[Warofwinds]

I love HERO so much! I even spoke about it in my thesis and another presentation on comics. I think it's wonderful, and I'd love to find out how the hovertext is done. I just wish the hovertext itself could have more formatting.

[Mercury Hat]

If you look at the source, it's javascript trickery. If you search for javascript tooltips you can find various scripts for it, and you can format it with different colors, fonts, sizes, and so on, it looks like.

[MrThreeve]

It's certainly an interesting concept, but I agree that the formatting of the text itself is sort of off-putting. Plus, and I don't know if this would ever be the artist's intent, but a print collection of this stuff would be impossible to reproduce correctly.

[Warofwinds]

Plus, and I don't know if this would ever be the artist's intent, but a print collection of this stuff would be impossible to reproduce correctly.

Ah, but that's the point, I think. Like my comic, it's meant to only be read over the internet. To put it in print would ruin it. A true webcomic if I've ever read one.

[Metruis]

Hero's a beautiful comic, but my goodness but I hated reading it. I don't mind easter egg hover text, like on a few comics... sort of like a footnote lolz... but Hero, I couldn't read because of the presentation method. It took away the flow of reading I would normally fall into while doing a readthrough of the archive. Kez mentions that her comic is also not meant for print... but at least War of Winds is an easy read in its medium. The internet consists of many lazy people and gimicky things like Hero does, with the hover text, simply doesn't reach out to the laziness of everyone online.

Personally... it irritated me to read. Partially because it felt to me like he was using alt text to cram in more words and wall of text which would have never fit over the art... and I also feel that comics should be succient... but I think most of all it annoyed me because to me, part of the art form of comics is the words. I find comic typography beautiful.

Hero is BEAUTIFUL... but reading it aggrevated me to a point that I wouldn't add it to a regular reading list if only because I'd have to be in the right mood to sit down and go through it. It certainly is an interesting way to use the web for a medium but I'd rather not see it done in a lot of other comics.

[McDuffies]

I haven't read it, but at the first look I'm surprised that text is not as distracting as I assumed it would be.
It seems like something that was inevitable to happen, like, we have all tools and all and now that I look at it, it's surprising someone didn't come up with it before - specially considering how much some people have problems to make baloons fit in with panels.
I hope it won't get too popular though, many webcomic authors can actually do with some restrains, there's such thing as excessive freedom. While it's interesting possibility to experiment with it, I don't think replacing traditional baloons with these just for the heck of it would be a good thing. Most of comics have fairly enough space in upper room of panels or elsewhere, that putting baloons in there doesn't ruin the page the least, and actually solves the problem of unused, lingering space. I think that most of comics wouldn't benefit anything from replacing their baloons with floating text, really. Making a comic that does benefit would be a challenge, though.

One impression is interesting, I guess I'm so used to baloons and I'm instantly "reading" them as conversations, that when I look at these pages, I see them as wordless panels, with more somber atmosphere than intended, as if I'm really reading silent comic, and when I read "bubbles", it seems more like I'm hearing the narration that comes from the off, than as sounds that actually come from the scene.

[Rkolter]

I find myself spending more time moving the mouse around the picture for the hovertext, worried I missed some text than I did actually enjoying the presentation itself. It's a very interesting concept, and I could probably get used to it, but I'm not sure I want to get used to it.

[Koad]

I find myself spending more time moving the mouse around the picture for the hovertext, worried I missed some text than I did actually enjoying the presentation itself.

This. Not a fan of hovertext.

[Terotrous]

I found that it seems to take a bit more effort to read it that way, you have to mouse over every panel to see if it contains text.

[Bustertheclown]

I used to read a comic written in a language that was not English, Stolle Bengtsson, I believe, which put English translations on mouseover. That was handy. However, on the whole, I'm not one for "interactive" webcomics, and I do feel that a page designed with speech bubbles and lettering in the work itself is one of the pieces of the comic aesthetic I enjoy most.

[Mattias]

Cool.

But good comicking is about getting your point across in the most effective way. The reader has to get it instantly and with ease. While this is an interesting idea, it isn't as effective or easy as normal speech bubbles, is it?

[Phalanx]

Well that's the interesting thing. I agree it wouldn't suit all types of comics (this technique would fail miserably for mine for example), but for the purpose of THIS comic, I think it works because the entire story is exploratory in nature. You start out knowing nothing (kind of like the protagonist) and slowly discover more and more as you go. So the "interactivity" is rather apt in a way.

There are pros and cons, and the cons are like a few have mentioned, I'm sometimes anxious that I missed some text and I can't read the comic. And it may be hard for readers to adjust to in the beginning. Although when you do get used to it you actually get attached to it for some reason.

On the other hand I do like having to slow down to read the comic. I've been noticing more and more that I have had a tendency to read through a page too fast and I miss out on a lot of details. This on the other hand gives a different experience. Like I mentioned in my write up it feels more like a picture book, and I feel more inclined to enjoy it at a slow, relaxed pace instead of rushing through the daily comic offerings.

The other thing that has been disturbing me recently is how the art and text in a comic is constantly fighting for eye attention. Yes I know it' an art to lay out your speech bubbles and text in a way it does not disrupt the flow, but more often that not even the best of artists slip up from time to time, and I end up reading the text bubble I shouldn't have read before seeing the picture. I found that this syndrome effectively disappeared when the text and art were separated.

Presuming one was to try adopting a hovertext approach, how would you improve the current implementation of hovertext if you could?

[Phalanx]

Cool.

But good comicking is about getting your point across in the most effective way. The reader has to get it instantly and with ease. While this is an interesting idea, it isn't as effective or easy as normal speech bubbles, is it?

Not necessarily. I would say that it depends on what is the intention of the comic in the first place. Some comics deliberately make their message and point difficult to understand to challenge the reader to think, so that when the reader does connect the dots and get it, the getting it is more rewarding than if it had been plainly presented in the first place.

I do agree striking a balance between "stimulating' and "frustrating" is quite difficult however.

In one of the later chapters the creator switches to conventional text. I found it I didn't like it and started to lose interest. Maybe I'd already gotten used to it by then, but without the hovertext the comic felt like it had lost something.

In the end I think it boils down to variety in comics. Sometimes you want something fast and simple you can read in ten seconds, sometimes you want something you can print out and stick somewhere to cheer you up, and sometimes you want something different to immerse yourself in for a few hours. If all comics followed the same rules things would be boring I think.

[McDuffies]

There are pros and cons, and the cons are like a few have mentioned, I'm sometimes anxious that I missed some text and I can't read the comic. And it may be hard for readers to adjust to in the beginning. Although when you do get used to it you actually get attached to it for some reason.

It's sort of similar to reading manga right-to-left. Awkward at the first moment, but you get used to it quicker than you thought.

On the other hand I do like having to slow down to read the comic. I've been noticing more and more that I have had a tendency to read through a page too fast and I miss out on a lot of details. This on the other hand gives a different experience. Like I mentioned in my write up it feels more like a picture book, and I feel more inclined to enjoy it at a slow, relaxed pace instead of rushing through the daily comic offerings.

I had the same thought.

Presuming one was to try adopting a hovertext approach, how would you improve the current implementation of hovertext if you could?

I would try to make it an element of the story. To me, using it just so you could get away from nuisance of arranging speech baloons isn't a reason enough. But there are other possibilities, like for instance if the intention was to actually seek for bubbles, like hidden bubbles or something, or if you wanted to add something that might be irrelevant but you still want it around.
Then, if you feel it's important that a reader first sees the entire page, processes it, and only then read text. Like, seeing the entire scene in mute, and then filling in the particular details later.
Like I said, to me the impression is as if that text doesn't exactly belong to the scene. I think it would be a good solution for if you wanted a silent comic that is being narrated from outside, like earliest Japanese films that had a live narrator in the room.

[Herschel Dirtwater]

My thoughts:

I agree that over time, the viewing public might get used to it, but at first glance, I am not a fan at all.

IMO the rollover text could be effectively used for non-dialogue text but I just can't get around the distraction of moving the mouse around looking for text that I missed. I would welcome a comic using a combination of bubbles for dialogue and hover-text for scene setting etc.

HD

[Jpac]

I'm a fan of speech bubbles myself, but as a personal touch to heros, this seems all right.

I did have the fear that I was missing something when I first got on. I wasn't even prepared for the hover text. I found myself scanning the pages a couple times to make sure I'd gotten everything.

To use it in more places, I'd appreciate some type of pattern. Maybe putting the mouse over an individual or some cross-hatched pattern, or something that indicates the speech will be in a certain spot. That's how I'd implement it myself.

Regardless, I give kudos for such a novel idea.

[Phalanx]

I'm a fan of speech bubbles myself, but as a personal touch to heros, this seems all right.

I did have the fear that I was missing something when I first got on. I wasn't even prepared for the hover text. I found myself scanning the pages a couple times to make sure I'd gotten everything.

To use it in more places, I'd appreciate some type of pattern. Maybe putting the mouse over an individual or some cross-hatched pattern, or something that indicates the speech will be in a certain spot. That's how I'd implement it myself.

Regardless, I give kudos for such a novel idea.

That's an idea! Imagine if you had it so that a speech bubble only has a symbol or a picture, (which doesn't take up much space) and when you hover over the speech bubble the text appears. That way the problem of worrying about missing text no longer becomes an issue. Hm.

[Phact0rri]

Presuming one was to try adopting a hovertext approach, how would you improve the current implementation of hovertext if you could?

I'd do an image swap. mouse hovers over the textless and you get the word balloons version.