In the maze of a little-seen world

November 22nd, 2009

By Genesia Alves

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it the future? The trouble with discovering new worlds online is just that. It’s a tantalising tease to see creations that range from pure genius to nutty-professor that have niche of niche real world avatars that you don’t have access to. Still, until there’s a graphic novel cove in the corner of every alternative neighbourhood, the net will do fine because this week it’s thrown up Jason Shiga and his insane, brilliant mastermind take on graphic novels.
Is it a toy? Is it a comic? Is it a gimmick?
Shiga is an Asian American Mathematics major from the University of California at Berkeley. Despite some (self-fuelled) rumours of his suicide at a mental institution, this genius with a penchant for puzzles and mysteries loves playing with narrative formats.
His first ‘minicomic’ was called The Last Supper and featured a boy dealing with his last brussel sprout. The reader then chooses whether the boy eats it or hides it and the book that is folded and cut can open/unfold into four different endings. His book, The Date is a giant palindrome: two people, on a blind date begin talking but by the centre of the book, as the conversation is spelt backwards, the tone changes dramatically.
He also took seven Polaroids of different scenes on seven consecutive days. A free comic is promised to those who can put the pictures in the right sequence to tell a story. It’ll boggle your mind. Shiga released another CYOA (Create Your Own Adventure) book called Hello World which contains a secret code. If you figure the code out, he will refund the price you paid.
Meanwhile is interactive. There is no linear way to go through the book, rather, each page lets you click on one of several ‘tubes’ offered. To begin with, the main character must choose between a vanilla or chocolate cone. (Choose chocolate, plain vanilla takes your character home – the end.) It will take you a few hours of backing and forthing to uncover the story but when Time.com said the book was more like a toy, they got it right.
Shiga is worth getting into. His illustration is reminiscent of manga-artist Ito Kinko and he is very true to his style. He’s recently started to acquire fame and hopefully fortune will follow. In an interview, he said ruefully, “Charles Schultz, is one of my favourite cartoonists. In his later years he was like, completely insane, his comics didn’t make any sense, he’d gone off the deep end completely, and he syndicated. They put this mad man in this huge broad market. It takes about 30 years of building a loyal consumer base before you can go insane.”
Check out the Shiga site online. Bookhunter is rated as his best work so far.
But Meanwhile is just fantastic.