Digital corporate comics
What is a digital comic? How does it stand out from normal comics? And how can you use digital comics for your business?
The comic book culture has exploded in popularity in recent years and has moved from being a genre that was primarily catered to younger male readers – to being a successful genre that appeals to all ages, genders, nationalities and backgrounds.
Digital comics
Digital comics are created and coded for reading and experiencing on screen.
Ie. the comics are created so they run smoothly on different devices – with sound effects, music and animation – exactly like an animated film.
The comic runs in the tempo controlled by clicks, scrolls, and interaction.
In that way, digital comics are now a sort of gamification of your company’s core messages.
Benefits of a comic book
Recent brain research shows that cartoons speak to the brain. And the companies’ communication departments have also noticed this – especially abroad.
In visual communication, we talk a lot about appeal, comprehension and retention.
In order for your recipient to want to listen to your story or your core message, it must be appealing to look at and easy to understand. Only then your recipient can remember AND retell it.
COMICS - in a historical light
Historically, what we know today as comics dates back to the United States of the 1930s.
In the beginning, comics were a kind of humorous stripes in the newspapers, such as. Blondie and Popeye.
But the genre quickly became popular and in 1938 Superman made his debut in “Action Comics #1”.
The popularity of comics is not entirely foreign to us humans.
Visual communication is our “natural” way of communicating!
Research shows that humans have been communicating visually for more than approx. 30,000 (think of cave paintings, among other things). In contrast, the various written languages are “only” about 3,700 years old.
Reading - brain overload
You know it! It takes the brain longer to process text-based or verbal information compared to visual information.
In fact the brain decodes visual messages 60,000 times faster than text based information.
This is because each letter is interpreted as a learned (arbitrary) symbol, which then in turn is interpreted by itself AND within its’ context.
That’s why your brain is actually on overload when you read text exclusively.
And that’s exactly why comics as a format and media continue to be a success for corporate communications. Because it significantly facilitates the reading process. And at the same time, it allows you to dive deeper into complex topics without making it harder to understand.
TRAIN YOUR BI-LATERATE BRAIN
New research shows that our brains change because we don’t read that much on paper anymore. In order not to lose our capacity for depth reading, we must train our brains to be “bi-literate” so we can control when to skim and when to deep read a text.
And Bill Kartalopoules (American comics guru) points out that comic books is a media that trains bi-literacy. Because comics are created in such a way that they activate the part of the brain that reads up and down – and the part that jumps from branch to branch.
how is a digital comic made?
The process of making digital graphic novels is a little different than creating a printed version. We build the panels in different layers for us to control and animate all aspects of the panel and illustrations.
At the same time, the comic is made as a cross between a movie and a game. This means that we storyboard the whole process, to know how the different transitions should be – and which clicks go where. And what the different scrolls and clicks should trigger. Then everything is coded by our coders.
At the same time, different versions of the cartoon must be made depending on which mobile device the cartoon is played on and read on.
Finally, the various versions of the cartoon are uploaded and stored via FTP server or similar on the customer’s website. That way, they can control how much analysis needs to be done on the cartoon.
Wish to know more about digital comics?
If you have questions about how to get your own digital corporate comic, give us a call or send us an email.
We’re ready to talk to you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- What is a digital comic?
A digital comic is drawn and coded to be specifically displayed on screen.
So it is clickable, has a scroll-bar, and you can interact with it.
That way, your user can choose where in the cartoon you want to click.
- The price for a digital comic?
The price for a digital comic starts at DKK 75,000 (+ VAT) for a 12 panel comic.
Pricing depends on the length of the cartoon (the number of panels), the complexity, sound effects, interaction and so on.
Usually digital comic are created within a budget of between 75,000 DKK - 250,000 DKK (+moms).
- Digital comics on the phone?
We can make digital comics so that they can be read on the phone.
Both so they are built into an app and so they work in a browser.
Often there is a considerable cost associated with a mobile browser version of your comic, as it requires constantly keeping track of new browser updates.
But it's still cheaper than having to make an app to read your cartoon. And browser versions are usually the most user-friendly.
- How long does it take to create?
It takes between 4-8 weeks to make a good solid cartoon, where images and coding go up in a higher unit - and where the final product is tested through for errors on different units.