There's always something happening at the Blackstone Academy now that August and Grant are freshmen on campus in The Adventures of August Winter! And I had the honor of appearing as a guest character a couple of weeks back in this strip covering the Coed Wool Sock Skating Competition! This interactive webcomic operates as the reader clicks the right side of the strip to 'turn the page'. Sprinkled throughout the story are animations, choose your own adventures, (I love those) and the occasional sound effect. There are even a couple of fully animated entries! I cannot press upon you enough what a delightful read it is, my personal favorite involves a paper plane and can be found here.
Seriously, I cannot get over those animations. It's hard enough to me to plot out 3-4 still panels of Swan Eaters. To add animation to a comic and to add it so fluidly--It's just so cool!
My friend Chris Robadue is the author and artist behind the Adventures of August Winter. We became fast allies in college, as we were both focused on storytelling and children's illustrations. During critiques filled with surrealists and pop artists pushing envelopes, I would be the one tacking up a hedgehog playing croquet and he would be the one presenting a short film with pencil sketches of adorable forest creatures. The surrealists and pop artists liked our work well enough, and we liked theirs, but ours was certainly different from the tortured soul pieces they were showing. There was a great comfort in having another storyteller in the room whenever it came time for me to present a painting of a fortune telling cat or a swashing buckling pig. It's not easy going after someone whose print represents a time they considered suicide and opening cold with, "So this ferret loves to juggle, and ah, his parents don't know how they feel about the circus, but--"
As far as I know, neither of us took courses on webcomics (are there such things yet?) but after college we've both added webcomics to our project lists. It makes a lot of sense, really. Webcomics are a fantastic medium to share a story visually. Just as it was nice to have another storyteller to present to in college, it's a delight to have a friend who understands just what goes into putting together a story each week and pinning it up on the Internet for the world to see.
You can find more information about Chris and his films over at Wave Garden Arts, check him out! And read The Adventures of August Winter every Friday. I found once I started reading I could not stop. The interactive questions to answer, the animations to find--heck, even turning the pages, kept me clicking until I realized I had read the entire comic. Now I have to wait for Friday to see what happens next!
Seriously, I cannot get over those animations. It's hard enough to me to plot out 3-4 still panels of Swan Eaters. To add animation to a comic and to add it so fluidly--It's just so cool!
My friend Chris Robadue is the author and artist behind the Adventures of August Winter. We became fast allies in college, as we were both focused on storytelling and children's illustrations. During critiques filled with surrealists and pop artists pushing envelopes, I would be the one tacking up a hedgehog playing croquet and he would be the one presenting a short film with pencil sketches of adorable forest creatures. The surrealists and pop artists liked our work well enough, and we liked theirs, but ours was certainly different from the tortured soul pieces they were showing. There was a great comfort in having another storyteller in the room whenever it came time for me to present a painting of a fortune telling cat or a swashing buckling pig. It's not easy going after someone whose print represents a time they considered suicide and opening cold with, "So this ferret loves to juggle, and ah, his parents don't know how they feel about the circus, but--"
As far as I know, neither of us took courses on webcomics (are there such things yet?) but after college we've both added webcomics to our project lists. It makes a lot of sense, really. Webcomics are a fantastic medium to share a story visually. Just as it was nice to have another storyteller to present to in college, it's a delight to have a friend who understands just what goes into putting together a story each week and pinning it up on the Internet for the world to see.
You can find more information about Chris and his films over at Wave Garden Arts, check him out! And read The Adventures of August Winter every Friday. I found once I started reading I could not stop. The interactive questions to answer, the animations to find--heck, even turning the pages, kept me clicking until I realized I had read the entire comic. Now I have to wait for Friday to see what happens next!
Georgia!
ReplyDelete"So this ferret loves to juggle, and ah, his parents don't know how they feel about the circus, but--" Haha, ah the rite of passage for the young artist that is the art school critique! Was such a wide spectrum of medium, styles, and skills in our senior seminar classes particularly. Thank goodness you were there creating narrative pieces and doing illustrations too! Otherwise I might have lost my mind and ended up making cloud photo collages or a series of mixed media prints about isolation in the workplace or something! What you wrote about following up some tortured soul had me nodding my head in agreement and remembering the whole experience. Now I'm having crazy flashbacks :) Too awesome!
Want to thank you so much for the props and for digging the current happenings at Blackstone Academy! Seeing your webcomics over the years has really been inspiring to me. As the quote book is absolute gold as far as I'm concerned! And I think we might have to start a petition to ensure that The Swan Eaters becomes a published book as I want a copy of that on my bookshelf!
If there was a meter for measuring creativity like the PKE Meter in Ghostbusters measures Psychokinetic Energy. I would hazard a guess that the readings of your and Ryan's apartment would be off the charts! (For creativity, not ghosts, haha. Although I don't want to rule anything out as living in a haunted place could be awesome!). Keep the creative fires burning over there you two, I know it inspires me in my work, and thank you again for encouraging me to keep going with The Adventures of August Winter!
Cheers from the East Coast! Happy painting!
~ Chris
Thank you so much Chris! (Oh man, may I confess I would kinda love living in a haunted place? Provided the ghosts were friendly...). Creativity is one of those things that grows as it's shared, I feel very blessed to be surrounded by so many creative folks! And I'm looking forward to August's adventure this Friday!!
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