CBR: When Words Collide - Aug 9, 2010

[CBR News]

This week, Tim Callahan returns from his family summer vacation with tales of bacon eating contests, digital comics and the overall state of the medium. Yes, he's finally faced the iPad and lived to tell about it.


Full article here (http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=27736).

[DarkBeast]

Good article.

I wouldn't have thought that the iPad screen would be too small, but I haven't used one yet, so... Maybe the companies will increase the font size just for the iPad.

You got an iPad to play with for free, and it's under the guise of seeing how it can help kids learn? I have to say, I think educational institutions are so clueless. I remember in the late '90s when there was a big hubbub about my school getting $200,000 worth of computers (I came from a very small school with like 200 kids), and all we ended up doing was taking a class on how to set up our own email addresses and look up websites about our favorite music. On the one hand, kids will figure out how to do these things and use new technology naturally, on their own. On the other hand, I can't possibly see the practical purpose of forcefully inserting new technologies into the curriculum (not saying that's what's going to happen in your situation, but I've seen it elsewhere). Usually, the students know the new technology better than the teachers, and the actual learning process suffers because the lesson plan goes out of its way to incorporate the new technology at the expense of natural learning and deep understanding on any level. (Instead you get results along the lines of "Oh, that's an interesting gut-reaction that you had to that. Oh, that's how you used the technology to react.") With all new technology, I think the real challenge is not "How to incorporate it?" but "How to deal with a technology that can easily become just another distraction?" Technology certainly CAN be a good learning tool, but when the technology is still new and when incorporating its use is at the forefront of the lesson, I think it can easily be a distraction. And in my experience the kids get bored with it fast because it becomes painfully obvious when the teachers are just trying to be cool. You probably know this.

Sorry for the rant.

Speaking of the topics of your article vis-a-vis education: A few days ago I listened to a podcast where some guy was talking about how he was getting one of his professor friends to teach Scott Pilgrim in college...because of its multicultural value in that it's set in Canada but Ramona is American. I like Scott Pilgrim (and I like the idea of the iPad) but this is just getting ridiculous. Whatever's new and popular and trendy has to be taught in "higher" education, I guess. The American-Canadian cultural relationship in Scott Pilgrim is literally an unrealistic joke--a funny one, but not a very important or thoughtful one, not even without the work itself, let along within the context of a college course on multiculturalism. Yet I guess it's going to be taught in college. When, really, a 16-year-old who picks up SP would just naturally get everything out of it anyway.

P.S. Sorry for the rant. I only made this post because I get credit for a class on message board posting that I'm taking at University. I entered it through a "Smart" phone that was given to me by my professor and it's a mandate that I use it twenty times a day and stay constantly plugged into pop culture trash media, baptizing my brain into this entertaining cesspool until all I can do is silently recite the Anti-Life Equation from Final Crisis and talk about the best way to consume the latest tv show.

[TuralyonW3]

Just playing with the comics apps on my new Iphone 4 makes me really want to read comics on and Ipad...but I agree with you on the screen size thing. I'm waiting until there's a slate that's at least as big as a single comic page...ideally as big as a double-page spread. Even with that, stuff like the 4-page spread in Blackest Night (how fucking genius was Johns for doing that as digital comics were taking off?) wouldn't show up properly.

[ntu150]

Full disclosure: I'm an Apple fanatic and am typing this on an iPad right now.

I think a distinction should be made in that the iPad is not ideal yet in screen size for American superhero format comics.

Ironically, if the author had read Scott Pilgrim on the iPad rather than on print, he would find that the iPad actually makes the pages and text bigger and easier to read. Comics like indies and manga done in digest size and whose lettering are sized for that format are perfect for the iPad.

I think it's quite a generalization to say the iPad isn't the right size for all comics by using only one comics format for reference. Superhero comics aren't all comics. And once digital becomes the main format, creators will size their fonts to fit screens, rather than the other way around. Same with pricing. I mean, who should be more flexible: Apple who has sold over 4 million iPads so far, or the superhero comics industry that has a readership base of about 200 thousand and isn't even representative of the entire comics industry (with web comics, manga and indies already being optimized for the iPad)?

[DestructionOfTheUniverse]

I think it's quite a generalization to say the iPad isn't the right size for all comics by using only one comics format for reference. Superhero comics aren't all comics. And once digital becomes the main format, creators will size their fonts to fit screens, rather than the other way around.
It's a CBR column, here Comics=Superherocomics. Just look at the forum structure. :smile:

Also I find normal comics size okay and think they should no way become smaller. iPads are smaller than a single comics page. I wouldn't wanna read splash pages at that small size.

[west3man]

While I will admit that a four-page gatefold isn't the ideal for iPad viewing, it also isn't very common. One- and two-page spreads look great on the iPad screen. If the idea turns you off, but I think a demonstration might change your mind. Check out your nearest Apple or Best Buy location (longshot) or, preferably, a friend's iPad.