PoCom-UK-001

Abstract

PoCom began as a collaboration between eighteen cartoonists to create a hypercomic for the wall of the Institute Of Contemporary art as part of the inaugural ComICA festival in 2003. The original piece measured seventeen meters long and, in terms of scope and complexity, was one of the most ambitious hypercomic projects that had thus far been attempted. My initial role in the piece was to contribute one section of the comic, assist cartoonist Tom Gauld in the planning of the piece and to curate an associated exhibition of webcomics at the ICA as part of the festival. I was also given the difficult task of adapting a version of the comic for consumption via the web. To achieve this I built on my existing work in digital comics and used Flash to create a zooming Infinite Canvas delivery system that I dubbed The Tarquin Engine. The digital version of PoCom has gone on to become one of the main showcases for commentators and practitioners wishing to demonstrate the potential of the medium. The work has been shown in multiple comics exhibitions around the world and was demonstrated by McCloud as part of his TED talk on the comics form in 2005.