Jason Shiga is the recursivelyenumerable of indie comics creators

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I spent like three hours last night reading/playing/solving "Meanwhile..." It's a non-linear CYA comic with multiple branching pathways, false starts and "unreachable" panels, and a structure of lines and panels intentionally designed to repeat and confuse readers to keep them from easily "gaming" the book.



His latest interactive comic, "Hello, World," is split into two sections and has an inventory system.



[youtube=425,350]4ImfSAo4h3o[/youtube]


It comes with a full refund if you solve it successfully and tell him how you did it.

He wrote a non-interactive comic about a man stuck in a phone booth called "Fleep" that's like 50% math problems.

I am both aroused and confused by these comics.

[Rman]

Wow.  That's bizarrely inventive.  It's available in most comic shops, right?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

no, I can't find any of these in shops or even online. :/

debaser got "Hello, World" at the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco this past weekend. I want to buy them alllll

[Madrun Badrun]

So it's a choose your own adventure comic book? 

[Reb]

It makes my head hurt.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

It's also worth noting that "Meanwhile..." is ultimately revealed to have an amazingly self-referential plot and structure based around branching universes and the idea that we are, effectively, immortal, because our perception is cut off from any universe in which we die. Robert Charles Wilson did a similar riff on this theme in "Divided by Infinity."

The story also touches on the fact that you, as a reader, are repeating the events continually in an attempt to "escape" the pathways and find an optimal conclusion, that you have knowledge of these other readings, and that there are certain pages and events you can never reach by "choosing."

So fucking meta.

[Debaser]

It's also worth noting that "Meanwhile..." is ultimately revealed to have an amazingly self-referential plot and structure based around branching universes and the idea that we are, effectively, immortal, because our perception is cut off from any universe in which we die. Robert Charles Wilson did a similar riff on this theme in "Divided by Infinity."

The story also touches on the fact that you, as a reader, are repeating the events continually in an attempt to "escape" the pathways and find an optimal conclusion, that you have knowledge of these other readings, and that there are certain pages and events you can never reach by "choosing."

So fucking meta.

That's the thing about Jason Shiga comics--not only are they incredibly formally complex but they also usually have seriously awesome thematic H-bombs somewhere in them. He's one of my favorite indie guys and I beeline to his table every APE.

(He also dabbles in rap (!?) but I did not buy his CD because the cover was a drawing of himself with a unicorn's horn emanating from his crotch.)