Illustrated Stories?

[Daphne]

We're considering doing illustrated stories (which, for our purposes, are stories which include pictures, but are driven by prose rather than being traditional comics). What do you think?

[master]

What a clever idea...wish i thought of it.

Seriously, let me reiterate my thought: any chance you'd present your audiobook scripts? They're already done, and could provide members who haven't experienced them before a taste of what the illustrated stories could bring to the table.

Also...since there has been a tendency (so far) by the Poser artists to go one panel per page far too often, how different would an illustrated story be from what we're currently getting?

[Daphne]

What a clever idea...wish i thought of it.

Oh, you.

Seriously, let me reiterate my thought: any chance you'd present your audiobook scripts? They're already done, and could provide members who haven't experienced them before a taste of what the illustrated stories could bring to the table.

Right now, we want to keep those exclusive to people who have sprung for the audiobook.

Also...since there has been a tendency (so far) by the Poser artists to go one panel per page far too often, how different would an illustrated story be from what we're currently getting?

Some similarity, although the illustrated books could include drawn work as well.

[jmundt29]

Perhaps crossovers could be a possibility though.  Perhaps a follow-up to something like Field Test or The Collar could make its way into the comics or the illustrated story format?  Or a C-Ducer tie-in?  This sounds like a very interesting idea.  The Martian Harem series seems to be giving us something of a taste of this already with the diary/epistlary novel format.  It's a great idea and I'd be very interested in such stories.

[ossicle]

I chose option #3, but it'd really depend on the specifics, i.e., the artwork and what the drawings depicted.  Conceivably I could love such a story, or dislike it.

[tods1976]

I think it would be great, frankly - I'm sure from a writing standpoint, it would run more smoothly. I'd think a key would to make sure there is a picture visible at all times once the story picks up, whether through doing an image page facing a story page or a half-page of text with a half-page image. I really liked Excerpts from a Found Travel Guide, which was in this vein, with one exception: I would avoid that style of artwork. With no colors and a bit of visual clutter, it takes enough effort to process the image that I found it distracting rather than exciting, though its obviously a high-quality drawing.

For what its worth, Daphne, since there seem to be a lot of comments on the artwork, might as well throw my two cents in, since they're different than most of the comments I see:

So far, I prefer the computerized art - and I hate the computerized art at mccomix, so that should be worth something. Bearing Gifts is bar none the best comic here, and the preview of it is why I joined, though the story of the Hidden Knowledge is a bit better. I generally like the hand-drawn art a lot, but the slobber and flecks of cum are a bit of a turnoff for me (other than a one panel cumshot), and they lose me a bit in the sex scenes. Seven different sex acts on a panel - or nine panels on a page - are too cluttered, and I feel like the artwork suffered a bit: Janice looks smoking hot with that purple bra on, but suddenly seems a lot less attractive when she's sucking Daffyd's cock.

[jafar]

I don't have anything against the idea. It just seems a little redundant. You do already have the EMCSA, after all.
But it might be worthwhile as a means of being able to produce updates more often. An already-written story needing five or eight illustrations can be churned out quicker than an entire issue of "Forbidden Knowledge" I imagine. So as long as you do it to supplement, not replace the actual comic work, I say go for it.

[hypnoime]

I;m on it, love the idea, good idea think an experiment would be nice!!

[Luke345]

In a couple places, Daphne has mentioned that the MCC is experimenting in drawn vs computer-generated graphics.  What I have noted is that I prefer the hand-drawn stories of the CG stories.  I noticed this as a result of the fact that the stories I enjoyed (The Green Sign, Forbidden Knowledge, Travel Guide... all hand drawn) were updated far less often than the ones I did not enjoy (Martian Harem, Cuckoo, and Lost Colony... note all three are CG). 

What surprises me is that this correlation between being hand drawn and liking the story exists at all, because I DON'T CARE if the story is drawn by hand or if it is drawn by a computer.  Seriously, I'm not the least bit concerned with the merely VISUAL aspect of the story.  So, if I am reacting only to the non-visual aspects of the story, the writing, why would the comic being hand-drawn or not be such a good predictor of whether I like the story or not?      After careful analysis, I think it has to do with the apparent fact that the hand-drawn comics are slower/harder to produce.  Consequently, there is probably a stronger emphasis upon getting the most out of every frame of the comic if it is hand-drawn.  This means that the plot moves faster, and the material is simultaneously more dense and content rich in hand-drawn comics.  Or to describe it from the CG side, because adding another frame of the CG comics is less work, there is less incentive to ask, "Does this frame really have to be there?" leading to a lower story quality in general.

Therefore, Illustrated Stories are a Great Idea, because the story quality and story presentation will not be held hostage to the graphics work-flow or difficulty. 

--Luke345

[vortingan]

I think anything illustrated is a big thumbs up!  Though I think I would still prefer comics over illustrated stories because I appreciate the blow-by-blow art vs. a picture of one or two prominent scenes.

I would also like to weigh in on the hand-drawn vs. computerized art with my two cents (and also realize that is it also just my preferences).

Don't get me wrong, I love a good story regardless.  I would say my favorite after Hidden Knowledge and The Green Sign is probably Terror in the Lost Colony.  The difference for me is often in the details.  Oftentimes, hand-drawn illustration just 'reads' better to me than 3D art.  Sometimes it is as simple as the tussle of hand-drawn hair, a loose strand here or there to illustrate a character's recent hypnotized escapade, something that is often overlooked when using a preset 3D model of a character's hair.  The same thing often applies to the eyes, where a hand-drawn character accentuates things like someone's pupils dilating or contracting by way of being stylized, adding to the visual language that she's being controlled.  Usually in 3D, unless it is a close up of the eyes, you might never notice these details because of the light reflection simulation built into the rendering software.  Poses and clothes too, seem more natural in hand-drawn vs. 3D.  For instance, drawing clothing falling off an illustrated character or hugging a character's figure vs. the stiff now-it's-on-now-its-off 3D model.  In hand-drawn, an artist can simply draw a pose or clothes how they think it should look, whereas a 3D artist might have to deal with character-rig controls, clothing models being rigid and inflexible, preset poses, or even camera and lighting...at the end of the day it simply does not seem as natural.

Something I've noticed about myself is that I find my imagination has an easier time filling in when it is an illustrated comic, because drawn images already seem so stylized and I guess my mind is used to taking that material and running with it.  3D comics, due to the rendering software rather than the artist's actual skill, feel almost plastic to me.  Details like the lighting sim, shadows, glossy skin textures etc., create this weird disconnect in my head where something is being rendered with one step too much realism, that it calls out some of the missing detail I get from my imagination running with hand-drawn comics.

Anyway, hopefully I've called out some of the visual or subconscious differences between the two, but I guess looking at these two styles long enough I start to notice these things.

Cheers!
-Vort