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Eric: A llama. A tree. A cornucopia.
(From Alpha Shade. Click on the thumbnail to be brought to the low res version of the site. Once there, go to page 110. Then, you shall have the full sized thingy! Of course, you're going to need to go to the high res site for the point of this...
You know what? Just keep reading. There'll be instructions as we go along.)
So. The question was raised, following the last snark, of whether or not I was properly giving Alpha Shade's Flash interface its due. I said, in that snark, that there was no reason for it to be rendered the way that it was. It was called to my attention that there were, in fact, two reasons for the flash heavy interface:
1. The comic is actually drawn in Flash, and so it's presented in its native format in the high res area.
2. There are "easter eggs" and details not visible on the low res JPG. The Flash interface allows for quick and easy zoom, and the Flash nature of the interface means everything's drawn in vector art, which means it's nice and crisp.
So, that means my last comment was at least unfair, and I apologize for that.
The question is, is it enough?
None of this, I should preface this commentary, bears on the quality of Alpha Shade itself. Let me make no bones about it -- I am a big, big fan of Alpha Shade, now. It's beautiful art, for one -- I mean, gorgeous. And it's intriguing. It's hard to do a story where the reader doesn't understand anything that's going on, and make them care about characters they don't know in the process. The Brudlos brothers deserve tons of credit for this.
So.
The comic is available through two different methods: the Flash interface, and the low-res jpeg site. The latter is driven through javascript calls to a database, which has the unfortunate side-effect of not rendering a URL-based call. This means I can't link the specific page I'm looking at in either site. (I can link to the jpeg, but by policy I don't do that.) So, if you want to follow along at home, you'll want to navigate to the pages, and then make your way to page 110. Got it? Good.
On the low res site, the page is well rendered and interesting. Certainly, there's nothing there that would necessitate any kind of overhead. However, the Flash site allows the user to Zoom. Using Safari, I clicked on the page zoom to concentrate on page 110 (the interface defaults to a comic-bookish two page display), and then control-clicked to get a menu that let me zoom in further. (Actually, using my trusty Logitech mouse, I right-clicked, but it confuses people when you tell them you right clicked with your Mac, so we'll do it the old fashioned way.) That lets you zoom in many times, with no loss of crisp vector quality.
I did this, in my case, to get a better look at the contents of that mysterious crate that seems to be the focus of some anxiety. And in so doing, I was able to find a crest of arms. In fact, I was able to zoom in closely enough that I could identify three elements to it. A llama. A tree. A cornucopia.
What does it mean? I have no idea. Cornucopias are symbols of bounty. Trees grow in Brooklyn, I'm told, and Llamas bring Drama with them, according to the Gospel According to D.J. Coffman. I'm not sure what the common connection is, but I'm willing to bet there is a common connection.
Naturally, I'm assuming this isn't the most interesting Easter Egg or clue to be found worked into very small size on the Flash art. But, I have to confess it has me interested. This is the kind of thing that has obsessive fans of the X-Files/Firefly/Babylon 5 variety (in other words... Cloudmakers like me) drooling.
But at the same time, these things are value added. They're not integral to the story. Which means the folks reading the low res version aren't missing out on anything they need to have fun.
So. Given that, am I still maintaining the Baby Jesus is crying?
Yeah. A little, anyway.
For my money (and bear in mind, this is all personal taste. Your Milage May Vary), the two interfaces don't do their jobs quite well enough. Other commenters on my last post noted how hard it was to find the comic in the flash interface. I agree. The comic should be the most intuitive button on the screen. It's why people are going, after all. Further, while I understand the value of making the html version database driven as opposed to creating static pages, I really, really, really wish there'd be an obvious permalink or URL based entry into that database. Not just because it makes the life of a critic like me easier, but because one of the key strengths of the web is the ability to send your friends a link to something cool. "Dude!" you can type. "Check out the hot commander doing tumbling in a leotard!" And you include a link. This then gets put up on your friend's Livejournal, and his LJ's readers distribute it along the way. Word of mouth builds. People start coming more often to your strip.
That can't be done elegantly when you have to tell them what page to scroll to.
Were it up to me -- and we're all glad it's not -- I'd redesign the front page into the portal to the site. Make it HTML (there's no need for Flash for a pile of links). Give people two dramatic ways into the comic, with the advantages of each made overt. Add a dynamically generated permalink to the low res version, so people can easily bookmark or link individual pages. Make it very, very clear how the zoom functions work on the flash side.
At that point? Bob's your Uncle. All advantages, no disadvantages.
I've heard a number of folks say that Alpha Shade is one of the best comics of the year, and I can see why. It's got a great balance of decompressed time and frenetic action (the war scenes from the first section are some of the best I've seen on the web), and the mystery's absolutely hooked me. And, I can at least see why they've made the interface choices they have. However, at this stage I can but hope they'll go the rest of the way with those choices. As it is, the comic's quality is what convinces a person to make it through the interface, and as several people have noted, it's no guarantee that they'll do that.
Oh, I read all of Applegeeks. Fun strip, pretty funny, Cerebus chaser. Too much cute girl imagry in brain from last two series read. Brain shutting dowwww.....
Posted by Eric Burns-White at December 29, 2005 4:36 PM
Comments
Comment from: Bo Lindbergh posted at December 29, 2005 5:43 PM
The latter is driven through javascript calls to a database, which has the unfortunate side-effect of not rendering a URL-based call. This means I can't link the specific page I'm looking at in either site.
... and also that they can't jump on the Oh No Robot bandwagon. And Alpha Shade is shaping up to be the kind of story that needs the ability to search for who said what to whom when.
Comment from: jbrudlos posted at December 29, 2005 5:54 PM
Actually I've been meaning to redesign the site for a while. It just seems I never have the time. The html version of the site was an afterthought, and I've never been happy with it.
My plan is to make one site where you can choose to either see the flash version of the pages or the jpg version. You will probably get to the flash version of the page by clicking the jpg version. That way only people who are interested in the zooming in aspect will have to work about the flash pages. I'm not sure when I will get to that completely redesigning a site can be time consuming and I want to make sure that it is done right when I do it. ;)
Comment from: Dave Van Domelen posted at December 29, 2005 5:56 PM
The webcomic Pastel Defender Heliotrope (pasteldefender.com) also uses digitally painted art with sometimes obsessive levels of detail and easter eggs. The creator simply has a page where she puts closeups of any bits she thinks are worth zooming in on (or that readers ask for closesups of). No complicated code needed. And you don't need to be an easter egg hunter (which, once the novelty wears off for a medium, is a royal pain in the ass...I just want to see the stuff on the DVD I bought, man, not spend all evening on every single menu looking for hidden things) to get the additional content. At the same time, if you don't want to zoom in, you don't have to go to the closeups page.
Comment from: trpeal posted at December 29, 2005 6:42 PM
A llama. A tree. A cornucopia.What does it mean? I have no idea. Cornucopias are symbols of bounty. Trees grow in Brooklyn, I'm told, and Llamas bring Drama with them, according to the Gospel According to D.J. Coffman. I'm not sure what the common connection is, but I'm willing to bet there is a common connection.
There is. It's the Peruvian coat of arms. What that has to do with the story, though, I couldn't tell you.
For the life of me, I don't know what's going on in this section of Alpha Shade, but like you said, I continue reading it because it's so damned PRETTY! The war section, I got. This part, with the gymnasts, and the gangsters? Not so much.
Comment from: Brudlos posted at December 29, 2005 6:50 PM
"For the life of me, I don't know what's going on in this section of Alpha Shade, but like you said, I continue reading it because it's so damned PRETTY! The war section, I got. This part, with the gymnasts, and the gangsters? Not so much."
It ties in with pages 89-90 set in Peru.
CB
Comment from: trpeal posted at December 29, 2005 6:52 PM
"It ties in with pages 89-90 set in Peru."
Hm. Perhaps a re-read is in order, then?
Thanks!
Comment from: quiller posted at December 29, 2005 7:29 PM
Looks like it is tying in with the whole why the heck are cats running around with magic powers bit.
Comment from: Montykins posted at December 29, 2005 7:36 PM
"A llama. A tree. A cornucopia" sounds like the beginning of a palindrome. Unfortunately, it would have to be something like "A llama. A tree. A cornucopia. A ipocunroc. A eerta. A malla," which doesn't make a lot of sense.
Comment from: Arachnid posted at December 29, 2005 7:44 PM
Personally, I'd make a single site - HTML based navigation (because, as people have already pointed out, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages), with flash tags with embedded images. Doing it thus, people who have flash (nearly everyone) will get the flash page, and for those that don't, the browser automatically loads the jpeg instead. Ideally, there'd also be an option to turn off flash altogether for those that don't like it full-stop.
Comment from: Brudlos posted at December 29, 2005 7:51 PM
Only about 30% of our readers use the HTML version of the site.
CB
Alpha Shade
Comment from: bartles69 posted at December 29, 2005 7:54 PM
At that point? Bob's your Uncle. All advantages, no disadvantages.This may seem like a stupid question, but where exactly does the phrase "Bob's your Uncle" come from?
Comment from: Arachnid posted at December 29, 2005 8:09 PM
Only about 30% of our readers use the HTML version of the site.But how much of that is because it has all the disadvantages (not bookmarkable) of the Flash site, with none of the advantages (no zooming)? It could easily be made to do both.
Comment from: Andrew Lin posted at December 29, 2005 9:06 PM
Possible "Bob's your uncle" etymology
Comment from: Robert Hutchinson posted at December 29, 2005 9:06 PM
Only about 30% of our readers use the HTML version of the site.
Um ... that number, free of context, isn't very illustrative. How many readers simply avoid the site entirely because they think it requires Flash? How many don't know the HTML version might be a better navigation option, because its link reads "low bandwidth" and they are not in that category, and so never check out the HTML at all?
I don't mean to beat up on your site design, by the way. I do give some points for coolness, too. I just think it's worth hashing out these issues, and so do all of my moldy, dust-gathering web design books.
Comment from: miyaa posted at December 29, 2005 11:57 PM
One lama, he's a priest
Two llama, he's a beast
And I'll bet my silk pajamas
there isn't a three lllama.
Comment from: Aerin posted at December 30, 2005 12:04 AM
Now I really want to read this, but unfortunately I'm staying at a friend's and doing all my computing through RDC, and I'm afraid all the Flash would be painful at best over this connection. That, and work has been eating my LIFE lately (eight consecutive days of crowd control! Why, God? Why?), so I've gotten waaaay behind on webcomics. *sob* Ah well, I shall look forward to it once I get back to school.
Comment from: Tangent posted at December 30, 2005 12:10 AM
Amusingly enough, I'm a part of that 30%, because while zooming into stuff is fun, it's easier to scroll through the update with the html page. In fact, I tend to use both. I use the Flash to see how much progress is made on the update, the HTML for the initial view of the update, and the Flash to look for easter eggs and extra detail afterward.
Rob H.
Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at December 30, 2005 12:30 AM
One lama, he's a priest
Two llama, he's a beast
And I'll bet my silk pajamas
there isn't a three lllama.
In the edition of Ogden Nash's works where I read this one, there was a footnote on it which read:
The author's attention has been brought to the existence of something called a "three-alarmer". Pooh.
Comment from: equiluren posted at December 30, 2005 12:36 AM
The peruvian coat of arms in a webcomic? Who would've thought? Yay for Peru! By the way, that's not a llama, it's a vicuna. A llama has a lot more wool. Next to a llama, a vicuna looks much small and skinner. The tree is called quina. At least, it's suposed to be a quina tree, but I'm not sure the way it's depicted in the coat of arms is accurate. The vicuna, the quina and the cornucopia are used to represent the animal, vegetal and mineral kingdoms of Peru. Hope that helps!
Comment from: miyaa posted at December 30, 2005 12:38 AM
I liked how the first chapter of Alpha Shade went. I didn't like how there was virtually no transistion between chapter one and chapter two except that chapter two took place 18 months ago. It almost felt like a very disconjoined part without some sort of narrative or character thought text saying something like "Wow, I can't believe I would be doing this even a year ago..." or something like that.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to aggro some llamas.
Comment from: Rakishi posted at December 30, 2005 12:49 AM
When I first used the flash interface way back when I found the responsiveness of it to be like molasses, after a nice treatment of liquid nitrogen. It seems better now or maybe my computer is better however it still lags (scroll bars for example).
I mean why reinvent the web browser when your users already have one, and IĖm not obsessive enough to care about Easter eggs and the like. My general pet peeves at why I dislike flash/java script (and some html designs):
-Zooming: I have firefox, I have the image zoom extension. Right click on image+ mouse wheel == zoom for me. Flash and some html (Questionable Content and Real Life for example) either prevents me from doing this or messes it up. I can zoom in as much as I want, smoothly and with my current mouse I can even scroll horizontally. Granted, the image is not-smooth however I donĖt really notice it anymore.
-Bookmarks: As has been mentioned by others. I donĖt read your 300 page web comics in one go, I bookmark where I stop and continue reading later. More likely than not if my bookmark doesnĖt go to where I stopped, I wonĖt finish reading your comic.
-Tabs: I use firefox, I open links in new tabs with a middle click. Flash doesnĖt. Nuff said.
I wish to also say one note to Flash and Javascript people: you have Flash and Javascript at your disposal, use them to their full potential. If IĖm reading through your archives the next pages should load up in the background while I read the previous page. If I click back a few times, do the same in reverse. Same goes for those using html: let me view 20 pages at once (ie: like some Graphic Smash and Modern Tales comics do). Load times are not fun, and removing them makes me that much more likely to continue reading your comic.
On that note, html has tags for the previous and next pages in a sequences and I hope people making web comic websites donĖt forget about them. They donĖt do much now (do they?) however they will in theory let the next page be pre-loaded (with a supporting web browser) in the background to cut down on load times.
Comment from: Tangent posted at December 30, 2005 1:46 AM
Okay. For those who didn't quite figure out... Chapter 1 of Alpha Shade takes place 18 months AFTER Chapter 2. Or in other words, Chapter 1 was a teaser giving people a glimpse at what was to come, and Chapter 2 goes back to the beginning of the story. Think of it as one of those prologue thingies that give you a glimpse of what's to come. ;)
Rob H.
Comment from: Arachnid posted at December 30, 2005 3:14 AM
-Zooming: I have firefox, I have the image zoom extension. Right click on image+ mouse wheel == zoom for me. Flash and some html (Questionable Content and Real Life for example) either prevents me from doing this or messes it up. I can zoom in as much as I want, smoothly and with my current mouse I can even scroll horizontally. Granted, the image is not-smooth however I donĖt really notice it anymore.That doesn't work for this, however, because the art is vector-based, and the only web vector-based format is SVG, which isn't widely supported (Firefox 1.5 has built in support now, but it's a while before we'll be seeing it in wide-scale use).
Comment from: Tangent posted at December 30, 2005 10:40 AM
By the way, Eric, did you check out the animated trailer that the Brudlos Bros. did for Alpha Shade? I mean... dude... they've got an animated trailer! How cool is that? :)
Rob H.
Comment from: kamagurka posted at December 30, 2005 1:39 PM
It also seems to be down. Wee.
Comment from: Brudlos posted at December 30, 2005 3:03 PM
"It also seems to be down. Wee."
LOL Nothing is down...
Comment from: Arachnid posted at December 30, 2005 4:33 PM
What I'd like to see is an RSS feed. Increasingly, I'll find a comic, usually thanks to Eric or Weds, find it interesting, read the archives, then, if it doesn't have an RSS feed, I'll forget about it and unfortunately never see it again. If it has an RSS feed, however, I add it to google reader, and bingo, you've got another persistent reader.
Comment from: Rakishi posted at December 30, 2005 5:18 PM
ÏThat doesn't work for this, however, because the art is vector-based, and the only web vector-based format is SVG, which isn't widely supported (Firefox 1.5 has built in support now, but it's a while before we'll be seeing it in wide-scale use).Ó
I know that, and my point is that the advantage of vector art isnĖt worth the hassle of having to deal with flash. This includes zooming; I canĖt zoom in on a jpeg and have it look nice, it doesnĖt matter to me. It is still better than dealing with flash and I donĖt really notice the nicer zoom quality (or lack thereof).
Comment from: Arachnid posted at December 30, 2005 6:36 PM
I know that, and my point is that the advantage of vector art isnĖt worth the hassle of having to deal with flash. This includes zooming; I canĖt zoom in on a jpeg and have it look nice, it doesnĖt matter to me. It is still better than dealing with flash and I donĖt really notice the nicer zoom quality (or lack thereof).Take a look at the examples. There's another good one at the end of chapter 1, with text on a computer monitor. The only way to provide that much zoomable detail with a JPEG would be to make it _enormous_, and that's not practical.
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