Comic Books Come to Life with Augmented Reality

While prepping for New York Comic Con 2015, owner and chief content creator of DangerKatt Creative Studio, Daniel Corey decided to introduce Augmented Reality as a supplement to his new print comic, BLOODWORTH, and thus started using Blippar.

The following March, while Kickstarting an expansion of BLOODWORTH and preparing for the WonderCon 2016 comic convention, Corey decided to use our self-service AR creation tool, Blippbuilder, to expand the title’s AR capabilities. Now an entirely new AR experience is available to BLOODWORTH readers.

We had a chance to talk with Corey about his use of AR in BLOODWORTH. Here's the interview.

What is BLOODWORTH about?

BLOODWORTH is the name of our lead character: FBI Special Agent Brenda Bloodworth. Her story takes place in a not-so-distant future, where people can upload memories as a form of social networking.

People are sharing too much, and society has become pretty complaisant. Criminals have adapted to the new environment, and are using the new technology to further their game. That’s where Agent Bloodworth comes in: she and her team, known as the Ghost Squad, can enter memories—the ones people don’t want to share—to solve crimes.

The story has a lot to say about where we are going with Internet and social media, and how much we’re allowing corporations to invade our privacy. It’s a bit of a cautionary tale, you could say.

What made you want to use AR for this comic book?

It fits perfectly with the conceit of the book, in that AR expands the reality of what’s on the written page. The people of BLOODWORTH’s world are posting their memories up in busy city squares. There’s no separation between the images in their mind and the open world.

That’s certainly a scary concept, but in the realm of storytelling, we can have fun with it. AR gives us a taste of the entertaining aspects of this idea, in that we are able to pull enhanced animated and 3D content off the printed page and create an entirely new experience.

Tell us more about the partnership with Blippar.

Blippar has been essential in developing a new experience for the readers of BLOODWORTH. When I first started working on the comic with artist Chris Fenoglio—who is one of the best in the biz, by the way—I knew that I wanted to allow the audience to digitally interact with the print in some way, but wasn’t sure what the options were.

I’m very happy that the Blippar team has been supportive of my vision. They’ve given great advice, and I’m loving Blippbuilder. I find it very intuitive and easy to use. I mean, creators still have to generate the graphic, video and audio content, but if you’ve got a handle on that, projects can come together with relative ease in Blippbuilder.

As the team and I expand the BLOODWORTH series, I would also like to expand the AR capabilities. We’re currently on Kickstarter through March 31st, so I hope that folks will find us and pitch in.

What impact are you hoping the interactive experience will have on your readers?

I’m hoping to expand people’s ideas of what a reading experience can be. I would love for it to become commonplace for us to just pull images off a page while we read, and create and enjoy visual environments that are in the panels of a comic, or described in the written word.

I think the work that I’m doing with Blippar could possibly help set standards for new forms of entertainment in the future. Whatever is happening next in the world of comics, and in storytelling in general, I’m hoping to be there. And Blippar is helping me become an early adopter of what could be future standards for story publishing.

Find out more about BLOODWORTH and other DangerKatt comics at www.dangerkatt.com, and consider taking a moment to support BLOODWORTH on Kickstarter. When thought is commodity and secrets are deadly, Agent Bloodworth is on the case!