Creating a Comic Book App - We find out more about The DEC

by Startacus Admin

Pardon the pun - but who said that drawing Zombies for a living was a dead industry?

Northern Ireland based media studio Uproar Comics aim to breathe new life into the comic book industry with an innovative app, called the DEC (Digital Experience Comic), which launched yesterday in the App Store.

Uproar Comics was launched back in 2011 by Derry locals and lifelong comic book fans Kevin Logue and Danny McLaughlin and is probably best known for its Irish Zombie themed publication, ‘Zombies HI’. It’s great to see two hard working (and self made) self starters developing an idea into a fully fledged business, and rolling with it and all it entails, night and day too.

We had a little chat with the Uproar guys about their innovative Application, how it differs from the traditional comic book experience and also what’s next for the deadly Uproar team...

You claim that you are creating a new interactive experience for comics. What can someone expect to see if they were using the DEC for the first time and how is this different from the traditional comic book experience?

There's loads of features in our first publication "Not Dead Yet" for the DEC- first and foremost is the readability of the comic! The comic will read like any other comic but there are far more dynamic panel arrangements as the panels move around and in place - this helps build tone and style which is a big advantage. No more opening a book and getting the right hand page spoiled visually if you're reading the left page. But that's just the reading of the comic. You will also hear audio, environmental sounds, ambient sounds and sound effects - but still staying close to home with the comic book style "BANG"s and "BOOM"s because we love comics and stand by our motto: We.Make.Comics!

But we want to improve digital comics. With availability of much more world building content! There are other short featurette stories, hidden unlockable features, Bio's and histories of the main characters to collect and explore in a 3D environment. As you read the comic all of this will be updated in your "Geek Room"! There's so much more going on than in your average 20 odd page comic that to answer how it’s different is that its exactly what a traditional comic should be but with a wider experience.

In terms of the technicals, how easy did you find it to pick up the terminology and the technological know-how behind transferring the comic book into a digital format?

Well, to be honest we're always learning. We all come from different backgrounds into a new industry plus the software on which the comic is built is new so it’s probably easy enough to say we're making it up as we go along to some degree! Learning on the job! We wanted 'this to do this' so we found a way - that’s not to say it was easy but because the whole concept of the DEC is new there was a lot of creative fun going into to it that it was enjoyable. Now we're all so excited to get it out there. It’s been a long haul for the first issue but it was worth it and we're primed for more!

What are your next plans regarding developing The DEC? And shameless plugs are permitted here - how can our members purchase your first product?

Exciting stuff has been a-rumbling at the Uproar HQ!  The DEC launched in the AppStore yesterday (Wednesday 31st July!) We will be releasing Issue 2 through an in-app update very soon!

Also we will be launching a new DEC Exclusive Comics Pilot Initiative where the users get to choose what they want to see made on the DEC with so much more capability - but that's all a little hush hush ;)

But you can see some little sneak peeks and everything else we have been working on over at http://www.uproarcomics.co.uk/. Awesome things happening at Uproar! Stay Tuned!

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Published on: 1st August 2013