Marvel Motion Comics?

Jafin

Got my usual email from Marvel today, was intrigued by this new Motion Comic thing their launching. There was a link to a trailer for Spider-Woman: Agent of S.W.O.R.D. Episode 1, watched it and Im intrigued. There was also an Astonishing X-Men Motion Comic trailer aswell. Anyone ese know much about these? Will all the Motion Comics be old-ish issues of comics slightly animated with voices added in for the characters instead of speech bubbles?

Anybody with more info appreciated, info such as will they be available for free to watch online or anything.

shenanigans1982

I remember I used to have a dvd with two episode of these on it. One was the Hulks first appearance/issue and the other was the first Avengers appearrance/issue. Both of them scared the crap outta me.

Watched the first chapter of the Watchmen one recently( its an extra on the black Freighter dvd) and it was terrible...one voice for the whole thing and no life in the performance at all.

Jafin

shenanigans1982 wrote: »

I remember I used to have a dvd with two episode of these on it. One was the Hulks first appearance/issue and the other was the first Avengers appearrance/issue. Both of them scared the crap outta me.

Watched the first chapter of the Watchmen one recently( its an extra on the black Freighter dvd) and it was terrible...one voice for the whole thing and no life in the performance at all.

Well I wasnt all that impressed with the Spider-Woman trailer, but the X-Men one was impressive, the faces could turn and everything. I know it doesnt sound like much but since its all taken from original comic panels I think it is impressive. Aside from the horrible horrible voices *shudder*

shenanigans1982

Jafin wrote: »

Well I wasnt all that impressed with the Spider-Woman trailer, but the X-Men one was impressive, the faces could turn and everything. I know it doesnt sound like much but since its all taken from original comic panels I think it is impressive. Aside from the horrible horrible voices *shudder*

Could you post a link to the X-men one....I'd be interested to see what it was like.

Jafin

shenanigans1982 wrote: »

Could you post a link to the X-men one....I'd be interested to see what it was like.

No problem

http://marvel.com/motion_comics

Gambler

Have to say, it looks good but when it comes down to it I like comics as comics and cartoons as cartoons.. I don't need my comics to move and I enjoy watching my cartoons as they are (proper full animation with proper production).

What I would much rather see is proper cartoon versions of the comics that I love to read

Fysh

I can see "motion comics" as a sort of "flash cartoon" platform for mobile devices like the PSP, iPhone etc. I'm not convinced that motion comics are a better idea than just adapting comics to being viewed on mobile devices (but yes, comics that rely on layout as part of their visual storytelling will suffer in the transition), but I'm guessing that publishers believe there's an audience for motion comics that is separate from the audience for comics as a whole. Either that or they're being complete morons and hope to somehow use digitally delivered content to drive people to buy expensive physical content...

Gambler

I have to say I do think there's an element of "We can do it so we should do it" rather than a real creative push from the writers and illustrators to do this.

It strikes me that someone was sitting in a meeting brain-storming ideas for generating new revenue streams and this was one of the ideas..

subedei

For me its early days, I like the look of them and they seem interesting, like the art, like the voice work and how they are animated, I want to see where they can go with it, they could potentially use them in interesting ways not done in other formats. Dont think they will replace comics or anything, but could end up with something great in the future.

Jafin

Well Im gonna guess that all the motion comics are just gonna be adaptations of existig comics, its an exciting prospect....as long as we dont have to shell out money to watch them.

ztoical

Gambler wrote: »

I like comics as comics and cartoons as cartoons.. I don't need my comics to move and I enjoy watching my cartoons as they are (proper full animation with proper production).

+ 1 The trailer posted looks like cheap half assed animation and it begs the questions why bother? To me once you start animating the actual drawings and adding in lip synchs it becomes animated and therefore not a 'motion comic'

Comics are a combination of words and art and while I don't mind someone reading the text out loud I think removing the balloons takes away from the art. Also moving the characters rather then using composition, line, panels and gutters to control the speed and direct the eye just makes it not a comic in my view.

livingtargets

I don`t see what the point is.
One of the reasons I like reading comics is that it requires a wee bit of imagination and its interactive on some level,at least.

When a character in the book is talking,in my head I give the character a voice and a certain way of speaking.And when they move I imagine them moving in a certain way(sounds silly,I know,but would Reservoir Dogs look so cool if all the characters had skipped everywhere?)and I know that the experience I get from it is in someway even slightly unique.

All this seems to do is drain all imagination and interactivity out of comics.:(

Jafin

livingtargets wrote: »

I don`t see what the point is.
One of the reasons I like reading comics is that it requires a wee bit of imagination and its interactive on some level,at least.

When a character in the book is talking,in my head I give the character a voice and a certain way of speaking.And when they move I imagine them moving in a certain way(sounds silly,I know,but would Reservoir Dogs look so cool if all the characters had skipped everywhere?)and I know that the experience I get from it is in someway even slightly unique.

All this seems to do is drain all imagination and interactivity out of comics.:(

I think everyone is like that, I always give people voices and a certain way of speaking in my head aswell. The only character I fail to find a correct voice for though is Emma Frost, I know she's English but I always give her an American accent.... lol

niall mc cann

Jafin wrote: »

I think everyone is like that, I always give people voices and a certain way of speaking in my head aswell. The only character I fail to find a correct voice for though is Emma Frost, I know she's English but I always give her an American accent.... lol

You're right to. She's from Boston (unless it's been retconned... been a while since I read X-Men).

I'm another notch on the "what's the point?" list... I don't know why they're doing this. For the money, I suppose, but is there really a market out there for this neither/nor halfbreed?

Jafin

WHAT? I've thought for years that she was English. Where the f**k did I get that from...
She seems like a better character as an Englush woman instead of American though in my mind.

derektrainwreck

woahhh

i love this

thanks for the info

subedei

They have the first episode of the spider woman motion comic available for free for a limited time if anyone would like to have a looksy: http://marvel.com/motion_comics

Jafin

Oh thank you thank you!
I was so p***ed off it wasnt on the irish iTunes, I even would have paid for it.
Thanks again.

subedei

Jafin wrote: »

Oh thank you thank you!
I was so p***ed off it wasnt on the irish iTunes, I even would have paid for it.
Thanks again.

Not a bother, I was the same, even emailed itunes about it, not sure when, if ever, it will be available here

Jafin

Well I dont mind if we never get it if they continue to post each new episode on marvel.com for us to watch.

Just finished watching it. Thought some dialogue was rushed and cant understand why Jessica Drew is English all of a sudden, but overall am happy with my first motion comic experience. Cant wait for Astonishing X-Men though, that looks really good.

subedei

Jafin wrote: »

Well I dont mind if we never get it if they continue to post each new episode on marvel.com for us to watch.

Just finished watching it. Thought some dialogue was rushed and cant understand why Jessica Drew is English all of a sudden, but overall am happy with my first motion comic experience. Cant wait for Astonishing X-Men though, that looks really good.

Dont think the others will be free, I have feeling this was just released free to raise awareness and get people hooked as the second one is about to be released I think. Googled Jessica drew and it seems she has always been english.

I quite liked it too, art was great, lots of darks, nice textures, emotions, poses well captured and realistic cloth and environments, so as I said great. Quite liked the subtlety of the motion too, wouldnt call it animation, think "motion" is accurate. Think Jessica Drew voice wasnt great though and not sure how much of the story you would get if you didnt know anything about skrulls or the invasion. Still looking forward to more.