COMIC BOOKS – 3 Reasons to Read MEANWHILE an Interactive Print Comic Book

Want to try reading an interactive “Choose Your Own Adventure type comic books? Meanwhile is the book for you.

Today I’ll tell you my experience with it.

As a comic creator I, like many other artists, have contemplated making a “Choose your own Adventure” like interactive comic. I know the reason I haven’t done it is because it’s WAY too much work. At least, that’s what I thought.  More on that later.

That didn’t stop Jason Shiga from creating one.

I became aware of the comic and Jason Shiga when listening to an episode of the Comics Are Great podcast. I don’t remember exactly which episode it was where I first heard about it, but that was where I was made aware of it.

I went to Jason Shiga‘s site and found some other of his experiments (which are no longer there) as well as his bio.

I was intrigued by the concept of the book and put it on my Amazon Wish List until it was the right time to purchase it.

Well, I bought the book recently and loved it.  Here’s the three reasons why I think you will too:

It’s a “Choose Your Own Adventure” Type Comic

This it THE reason to get the book.  It’s so clever.  You start with a basic choice between vanilla and chocolate ice cream and next thing you know you’re traveling through time or causing the end of the world.

It’s so much fun to read.  The clever way the story branches around using “tubes” is ingenious.

The story splits and splints. And when you think you’re just going around in circles you find that you’re really not.

Which bring me to…

It’s Deep

The comic is much deeper than it appears at first.  There’s codes in the game that allow you to access “secret pages.” The trick is to go through the branches of the story and MEMORIZE them once you come across them.

Once you get to the the right page that allows you use the code, you can follow the tube to the correct story path.

It’s pretty cool.  I haven’t been able to do it yet.

It’s a Great for Kids

Even though the book is a bit deeper than they can understand, my kids LOVE it.  They think it’s hilarious.   It’s also good for their vocabulary.

They love the decisions and the branching paths.

The art is cartoony and accessible.  It’s also fun and funny.  The story can be a little dark sometimes but generally it’s lighthearted.

Get It

I absolutely love this book.  It blows my mind that it even exists and that it’s as cool as it is.

Go get Meanwhile.

Creating Interactive Comics with Jason Shiga

As I’ve stated before, I’ve thought about making interactive print comics before but I thought it would be WAY too complicated.

Well, I was wrong.  It CAN be complicated, but it can also be very simple.

While doing research for links to Jason Shiga’s comics, not only did I find examples of much simpler interactive comics he’d made like this one:

But I also found a video where Jason Shiga shows you how to make a very cool one.He’re the videos:

I so want to make some now.

Interview with Jason Shiga

And here’s an interview with Jason Shiga if you’re curious about him.

And this last video is Jason Shiga showing you the different kinds of interactive comics he’s come up with.