Fans of Invincible soon will be able to follow the adventures of Mark Grayson on iTunes, mobile phones, MTV2 and elsewhere.
The New York Times reports that MTV New Media is partnering with Gain Enterprises to produce the “digital cinematic comics.” That’s right, it’s not traditional animation:
The process starts with digital scans of the actual comic book pages. They are turned into an audio-visual experience through a process called Bomb-xx developed by Gain. In the end, the formerly two-dimensional comic book suddenly pulses with music, while word balloons pop up and fill in as actors recite the dialogue and panels zoom in and out and pivot in all directions. The frenetic energy is not unlike that of an MTV video.
Episodes 1 through 12 will cover the first four issues of the series, launched in 2003 by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Cory Walker (Ryan Ottley became penciler with Issue 8). The first six installments will be previewed next week at Comic-Con International, and then made more widely available beginning Aug. 22.
You can see a preview of the first episode here.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:12 am
This sounds similar to what’s been done with the ‘animated’ Dead Space comics (art by Ben Templesmith) available online and on the Playstation Network. Any connection?
July 14th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Yeah, that didn’t look all that impressive. That looked more like a video game cutscene rather than an entertaining show. I’ve never read Invincible before, but watching this makes me want to read it versus watch it.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:30 am
eh, format seems a little lame to me. Then again, I already own that issue, so maybe the whole experience is more exciting for first time readers. Hopefully, it will lead to an invincible movie.
July 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am
That was an absolutely awful experience. Horrible.
Make no mistake, I am a huge fan of Robert Kirkman’s books and an even HUGER fan of Invincible, but that little “3D Comic Webisode”, whatever you want to call it, gave me a ginormous headache. Quick-cut MTV-styled editing, shaky-cam presentation, blaring “Weakest Link”-styled sound effects, and mediocre voice acting combined into a nauseating experience for the viewer.
I want more and more people reading Invincible because it is such a great series. I don’t think this is the way to do it. If I had never read the book before, I’d be damn sure not to read it now.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Ack! My eyes!
July 14th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
The f*ck, man, just make some damn cartoons! Invincible is better than most of the crap they show on Saturday morning as is and it ain’t like the premise is all the complicated.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I, for one, REALLY didn’t like that. I was so stoked when I saw animated Invincible, and then that pile of crap pops up? I would have even enjoyed a low budget animated thing like they did with Battle Pope, but this is just lame. It’s like when Marvel tried to have comics on those little mini-CDs. Its lame. Stop wasting effort on small time crap like this and get to either a TV or movie screen!
July 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
“The frenetic energy is not unlike that of an MTV video.”
MTV has videos?
July 14th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Watching the intro of that preview clip felt like watching a Mountain Dew commercial.
“INVINCIBLE!!! IT’S X-TREME!!! WOO HOO HOO!!!”
July 14th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I love Invincible, but that was horrible. For the love of Pete, can’t they keep still? Shaking the panels and word balloons around is annoying, not edgy.
Just make an Invincible cartoon. It’ll cost more, sure, but it won’t be embarrassing, cheap-looking garbage like this “digital cinematic comics” stuff.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
FOX ATOMIC has a few up that are as good and this one was interesting. i haven’t read the book in a long time and forgot what its about…so the ending made no sense to me. maybe a bit of editing might help. overall an interesting cool thing, but i found the bouncing lettering distracting to the art.
i love the idea and think Robert’s work is perfect for this. its the first one so i bet anything they are going to get better as they go along. some nice visual movements using the natural beauty of the art…overall, impressed and excited.
Jimmy
July 14th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
That was terrible. Invincible deserves better than that. Those Digital Comics with Ultimate X-Men, and Voltron and stuff from a year or so back were way better than this.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Just watched the preview clip and holy crap, could that be any worse?
Apart from the annoying quick-cut editing and terrible pacing, the actors (and I’m using that term extremely loosely) sounded like people that were just randomly pulled off the street and asked to read straight from a script. And why does Mark’s mom sound younger than him?
July 14th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Ugh. Way to go, MTV. Only they could so royally screw up when handed a property as good as Invincible. Seriously, any yutz with Adobe Premier and a mic could’ve strung that together.
I tend to enjoy being the voice of optimism, but that was just pathetic. Even I can’t rationalize it. This kind of garbage might work with a youth oriented comic like JLU or a a Marvel Adventures title, but Invincible is clearly aimed at teens and up and this kind of lazy cash-grab is going to fly right under their heads.
Seriously, somebody get Timm and Dini or Yost and Kyle on the line. Either of them could salvage this into a respectable animation. Really, if someone just took this voiceover and threw it to a low budget animation studio it’d be a success.
July 14th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Ugh, that so crappy i wanted to cry. It was literally that crappy.
Just do a cartoon…this is…ugh…i don’t even know what the hell that was. But i know i dind’t like it.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
Well that was…. interesting.
(That’s how Mom Pulpy would put it… never a bad thing to say; it was always “Interesting”)
I didn’t hate it, maybe because I was surfin’ a wave of nostalgia for when Captain America threw his mighty shield and we crossed the rainbow bridge to Asgaard (where the bloomin’ heavens roared…)
It reminded me of the old Grantray-Lawrence Animation series… Art- fantastic (duh…), Animation- limited (and “Interesting”)
i
July 15th, 2008 at 6:08 am
made of pure fail
July 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I don’t expect this to go over all that well for folks who’re exposed to Invincible for the first time this way. It might even be detrimental by association both for the format of bringing comics to cell phones, as well as any titles that permit themselves to be affiliated with such endeavors. I’m furthermore baffled as to why there’s still people out there who are absolutely dead set in getting comics into cell phones for some reason, no matter how many companies fail to succeed with that format before them.
July 16th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
This was incredible. I loved it because for once a comic book experience remained in tact, but at the same time was transformed into an animated episode. Any Invincible fan should be stoked for all these episodes to be released, I know I am!
July 16th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
In my opinion you guys r being a bit harsh. I’m an Invincible fan and this would be something that I would watch on television. Settle down and wait until this actually develops, you havent even given it a chance.
July 17th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Ima go with kent and agree. so many people always judge stuff so quick without realizing how tight it can be. after watching this I think theres potential for it to blow up real big. specially for invincible fans.
July 18th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
lets do it! get it done gain! this is gona be huge ha. its lookin raw so far so do your thing!
July 20th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
yea. this is not what everybody expected. the musics dope and the animation is out of a comic book that alota people like. this should be pretty good.
July 21st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
i have to say i was satisfied with the first episode. with that said, i know that improvements should and will be made along the way of releasing more episodes. i will tune in for them.