I've just read several announcements such as DC Comics Brings Batman and Pals to iPad, PSP, saying that our superhero comic books have now gone digital. In addition to Wired.com, DC has issued it's own press release on this monumental event. With the launching of Kindle by Amazon some time ago, there was a collective groan among bibliophiles that the hard copy text book was dying and only the digital incarnation would remain. Now it seems this is happening in the comic book world as well.
You can already access comic books online such as the Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited collection. Free samples are even available from a wide span of Marvel comic history spanning the 1940s to the present. I find myself wondering how high the value of older hard copy comic books will be when they are no longer produced. But what does this have to do with films? Nothing and everything.
It's widely believed that the modern comic book hero was created in 1938 with the advent of Superman, although the world's first costumed hero actually appeared in the newspaper comics section two years earlier in the form of Lee Falk's brilliantly created legend The Phantom. While many other superpowered characters have been developed over the years, Superman, Batman, and Captain America, our earliest heroes, have always been at the forefront of the printed page and the silver screen. Generations have come and gone since their creation, but our classic heroes are immortal.
That's not to say the form in which they are presented remains the same. As I've mentioned, both DC and Marvel have entered the world of digital publishing and it's likely that by the time today's children become adults (and perhaps significantly sooner), reading comic books will be exclusive to tablet-like devices such as today's Kindle and iPad. What about films?
It's difficult to escape the incessant buzz of the IMAX/3D movie "craze". A more primitive form of 3D made it's debut in the 1950s but died a necessary death, as the techonlogy was not sustainable for the majority of films of that era. With the birth of digital film production, this has changed. The same basic technology that lets us read Superman's latest adventures on an iPad also will make it possible for us to see his next film in larger-than-life three dimensions.
I don't know that I'm very good at predicting long term trends, but consider this. How long will it be before the barrier between the static image on an iPad and the motion image on the movie screen/TV screen/computer monitor becomes blurred and even finally disappears? Today's books aren't just books anymore. A technical book, such as this one about GIMP soon to be published, isn't a book in the classic sense. It's an eBook, suitable for downloading onto a tablet device, but it's also more. Within the text are links to both screencasts and podcasts, augmenting the static text content of the book. You don't just read a book anymore, you watch small movies providing instructions and listen to audio sidebars, as well. How could we apply this concept to comic book superheroes?
The long awaited 3D Television seems not that far away now and how long will it be before we can have all of the experiences I just related served up to us on portable heads up displays (HUD)? The only thing better would be having everything fed to us in a Star Trek-like holodeck.
While entertainment and fantasy-philes might consider this paradise, the blurring of the lines between different medium and then serving that entertainment to us using a device we can wear and carry anywhere, also blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. Today, many people have some or most of their primary relationships online with other people they've never even met in person. The quality and character of what we call "human relationships" is already morphing into the realm of the virtual. Will our lived experiences also morph to the point where there's only a thin digital line between what we consider "real" and what we call "entertainment"?
Whether or not things go that far, it seems reasonably certain that the division lines between books, comic books, graphic novels, television, PlayStation, computers, and motion pictures will become increasingly thin within the next few years. It may be hard for older adults to assimilate how information is packaged and presented in the digital age, but to quote Marty McFly, " I guess you guys aren't ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it".
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