What Works & What Doesn't

By | Tuesday, July 27, 2010 Leave a Comment
One of the things that I pride myself on is coming up with creative solutions within the confines of existing parameters. This morning, for example, someone was looking for an application that would cycle through a showcase of different websites. To which I promptly responded to just create an iFrame page with a Javascript that refreshes an embedded URL. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but certainly an expedient and effective one that seemed to catch the questioner off-guard.

In any event, I also enjoy seeing other people use the same type of resourcefulness when cramped up against whatever limitations they might have. That's one of the reasons I enjoy the old school Dr. Who episodes -- they're always on a tight budget and timeline, and you can see where they're able to cleverly work around their limitations. No, you're not going to get Hollywood level effects, but you tend to get something that's more original.

So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Champion City Comics was using Scribd as their comic delivery mechanism. It's not really how Scribd was designed to be used, but that's what I found clever about it. Take a look at Naira: Encounter in A-1166...
Naira

Now I still see some issues with what they've done. Two of their comics use Comic Sans for lettering and the others are not-entirely-elegantly hand-lettered. All of them are formatted for print publication instead of online viewing. Although I haven't explored it much yet, bookmarking your place partway through a series looks to be problematic, if it's even possible. Regardless of the quality of the comics, it doesn't present them, I think, in the best light possible. At least on the web via a desktop. Probably not great on a phone either. They might come across better on iPad, but no one has yet given me a free one that I might be able to explore that notion more fully.

That said, however, I'm still pleasantly surprised at the Scribd solution they came to for delivery. Not ideal, perhaps, but I do think it's a clever route to go. After all, it did get me to embed one of their comics on my blog!
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