Submission + - Online Graphic Novel for the ipod
Michael Regina writes: "From forbiddenplanet.co.uk: Howard Webster, the man behind the upcoming Jonas Moore mixed-media webcomic I mentioned a couple of days ago, has been in touch to say that a new 3 minute preview trailer is up on the official site, with Bond movie star Colin Salmon strutting his stuff as the eponymous hero, an online computer game character who becomes self aware only to find himself targetted for deletion by the system, forcing him to move through different game scenarios to escape — games that look very much like our own worlds real history. The system oversees a massive international gaming system which keeps the population docile and controlled in the real world, where the British Empire is still running the show; the whole thing has a bit of a Mike Moorcock multiverse feel to it with touches of the Matrix and Luther Arkwright too.
When I spoke to Howard he was quite excited by the fact they had managed to secure an actor like Colin Salmon to star in Jonas Moore — as he pointed out, there isnt a big tradition of black action heroes in the UK, so it was especially nice to have Colin in this lead role (and Im sure he is pretty easy on the eye for the ladies, and some of the men too no doubt). And he had some strong opinions on PR and ad agencies, who seem to be less inclined to help publicise the work and more interested in seeing if there were ideas they could pinch to use to sell their wares to folks online and seemed to harbour a grudge because the guys at Editor Factory were prepared to use new media to get out there and publicise it themselves (creators doing their own thing online is part of their ethos for the whole project, with a call for fans to use it to make their own offshoot material). When one PR flunky condescended to comment that they thought some it looked like it was put together in a coffee shop, Howard grinningly informed him that actually they did edit some of it together sitting in a Starbucks! Go new media empowerment! Besides, putting together a new story in a coffee shop seemed to work for J K Rowling
Im really looking forward to seeing how this unfolds, especially the use of mixed media to make the webcomic more than art panels on a screen, which makes sense to me, since the web offers more far options than that — after all, as new media blurs the lines between movies, TV and the web, we should expect it to do so with some comics too. Meantime, as well as the new preview, the official site is stuffed with material to check out and Howard has also been busy uploading to YouTube — not only a story introduction, but a couple of shorts which are less than complimentary to the media agencies (and we know what Bill Hicks said of those things). Online comics makers are doing it for themselves — go and have a good look around the goodies on offer and give a little support to an interesting Brit comics independent endeavour."
When I spoke to Howard he was quite excited by the fact they had managed to secure an actor like Colin Salmon to star in Jonas Moore — as he pointed out, there isnt a big tradition of black action heroes in the UK, so it was especially nice to have Colin in this lead role (and Im sure he is pretty easy on the eye for the ladies, and some of the men too no doubt). And he had some strong opinions on PR and ad agencies, who seem to be less inclined to help publicise the work and more interested in seeing if there were ideas they could pinch to use to sell their wares to folks online and seemed to harbour a grudge because the guys at Editor Factory were prepared to use new media to get out there and publicise it themselves (creators doing their own thing online is part of their ethos for the whole project, with a call for fans to use it to make their own offshoot material). When one PR flunky condescended to comment that they thought some it looked like it was put together in a coffee shop, Howard grinningly informed him that actually they did edit some of it together sitting in a Starbucks! Go new media empowerment! Besides, putting together a new story in a coffee shop seemed to work for J K Rowling
Im really looking forward to seeing how this unfolds, especially the use of mixed media to make the webcomic more than art panels on a screen, which makes sense to me, since the web offers more far options than that — after all, as new media blurs the lines between movies, TV and the web, we should expect it to do so with some comics too. Meantime, as well as the new preview, the official site is stuffed with material to check out and Howard has also been busy uploading to YouTube — not only a story introduction, but a couple of shorts which are less than complimentary to the media agencies (and we know what Bill Hicks said of those things). Online comics makers are doing it for themselves — go and have a good look around the goodies on offer and give a little support to an interesting Brit comics independent endeavour."
