Mavel Now! Augmented Really features.

[Colin YNWA]

Now there's a thing. I picked up my first Marvel floppie for an age after failing to resist Mile Allred's art on FF (glad to it was fun) BUT there thing that really got my attention was the AR features they've built into the comic. Now there's great potential for these to become faffy gimicks that serve no purpuse but to pull you out the story BUT at other times I thought they were really nice. Like the old editors notes but with added content (a great one) or cute additional panels that add a little something to the story.

So annoying gimick, or glimpse of the future?

Personally not sure yet but these have potential.

[Albion]

I got a free issue of Avengers V X-Men from somewhere so I downloaded the AR app to see what it was like.
So far I have only got it to work on the cover which gave a scene setting animation about the Pheonix Force.
I go with "annoying gimmick" so far. My opinion might change if I can get more pages to work but I think I would rather just read the stories as they are.

Slightly different but.....I also recently downloaded the digital version of the comic book adaptation of the Rush album 2112.
In that you can tap panels to see uncoloured inked versions and pencils of the panels. I found this to be better and far more interesting.

[Nubby mcstubbins]

I worked on those AR pieces quite a bit so I'm biased.

I think it's a neat concept but really we haven't seen the full evolution of it yet.  I like the idea of where it could go without breaking the fourth wall.  Think "deleted scenes" or "additional backstory."

Right now it's more like getting DVD extras in an issue.  Any value proposition to get more people to buy single issues as opposed to just stealing makes me happy.

But I can't wait to see where it leads for the industry.

Check out the new book Anamoly (I think it's called) to see another unique use.

[Steve Green]

Had a dabble with AR myself - I thought the best use I saw were some trading card games which battled AR characters against each other.

I'm not sure what could be done with them in a narrative beyond easter eggs, and also if the trend goes further towards digital then it makes it a bit redundant.

I wonder if any RPG makers have looked into utilising it? It could be a good way to sell figures - Mongoose (or whoever) stick AR codes on the web which display AR versions of their figures.

[Albion]

I've got it to work on all the AR pages now. Seems that a bit of daylight makes it work better. Some pages had audio from the editor and writer and others had pages building up from pencils to the finished page.
Interesting but not essential and if I got these comics, which I don't, I'm not sure if I would bother with it much.

[Nubby mcstubbins]

Like I said, if you are in a bookstore and get a chance to test that Anamoly hardcover that came out recently, I would recommend it.  More stuff that doesn't break the fourth wall and is content based as opposed to the marvel DVD extras approach.  It pushes the boundaries of the technology a bit more.

Was very fun working on the marvel stuff.  There are a few of those cover animations that I'm really in love with.  I would estimate you will see a totally different approach using the same technology in the years to come.  It's something that i think either will change or be abandoned, and I think enough people see the potential there for it to grow into something else for the industry.

[Nubby mcstubbins]

I'm not speaking specifically about marvels future use of it, to clarify.  I mean the industry at large.

[pauljholden]

I find them a bit of a pain. I can definitely see their value as easter eggs as part of a pure digital comic, but I think AR is something that the technology hasn't quite got to yet (and by this I mean, phones/tablets /anything that has to be held up to use the AR is too much of a pain, when we have google glasses/some other way of seeing AR without bulky hardware* it'll really kick off.)

-pj
(*ipads/iphones aren't particularly bulky, but I think the hardware has to practically disappear for the AR to really be anything other than a one-off "cor, look what my phone can do" novelty)

[sheldipez]

I own a ton of these AR enabled Marvel issues and I've yet to try one out, I just wish they could find a better way of indicating which page has it ebabled rather than bung a "AR" logo over the art. It's distracting and spoils the art IMO.

[Mattofthespurs]

Tottenham Hotspur use the AR facility in their matchday programmes.
Usually for the manager's press conference. You point your device at the pic of the manager and you get his thoughts on that days game.
Helps that Spurs are sponsored by Aurasma I suppose.

[Colin YNWA]

The thing I found annoying about the AR logo (its small enough for me to not spoil the art) is mainly to do with my ignorance. I was struggling to get anything to work, as I was using them like QR codes and trying to focus my phone on the logo. It only seemed to work when you captured the whole page, or near as damn it, on my view finder, then easy as. I found that counter intuitive and judging by the comments on teh Apps review so do others. Mind that'll sort itself in time.

The dilemma as I see it is they work great as 'Easter Eggs' as some have christened it. People often complain about needing to go to Wikipedia to understand what's going on (whether that's right is a different debate) and this resolves that by putting the content in the comic itself. As I say my favourite was one that was like an old editors note. Rather than simply saying "As seen in Fantastic Four (volume 1) 217" it presented a slide show of the relevant panels from that comic, giving me all the info I needed (well if I'd been able to read all the panels, sometimes the writing was too small to read on my phone, but the principal was nice).

The thing I don't see working, yet, is them adding to the story. You will always be pulled out of the story if you feel you need to get ya iPod out half way through a comic to get the full experience.

Stuff you go back to after you've done reading, I can see working, but is by definition a cute extra.

[Professor Bear]

Its presence seems rather at odds with what Marvel have been saying for years now about taking out third person narration and those little footnotes from "ever-lovin' Editors" or whoever because they take readers out of the fiction and remind them they are reading a comic rather than watching a film or tv show.

Personally, I find the AR logo obtrusive and distracting and wonder why it has to be plastered over the artwork like one of those "push red button now!" icons - that came up at points in films during playback of some of the earliest interactive dvds back in the 1990s - instead of going in the gutters or on the edges of the page.  I wouldn't stop reading anything because of it's presence, but it just screams "GIMMICK!" to me.