|
Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
Digital Media Tree this blog's archive OVVLvverk Lorna Mills: Artworks / Persona Volare / contact Sally McKay: GIFS / cv and contact |
View current page
...more recent posts
My Obsession With Chess by Scott McCloud is a mini graphic novelette from the late 20th century which is designed to be viewed on a classic web browser...
Virtually anyone interested in understanding the basic techniques of sequential graphic narratives (comics) has heard of Scott McCloud's famous 1993 book, Understanding Comics. He published a sequel in 2000, Reinventing Comics, where he anticipated many issues about adapting the comics form for these modern internets.
My Obsession with Chess was presented online in 1999. In his introduction, he said: "My fourth online comic seemed to strike a chord with many readers, despite requiring side-scrolling as well as down-scrolling (which I'll admit, can be pretty annoying)."
The side-scrolling & down-scrolling-ness root this piece in a specific place in history, which might make it feel dated if we think that 13 years ago is either too recent or not recent enough for our contemporary tastes. But the significant thing is that these side-scrolling and down-scrolling interactions required of the reader actually emulate the process of physically interacting with a chessboard, which is conceptually rather elegant.