Augmented reality applied to the publishing world is not new: without going to touch little projects and remaining in the circle of big names, we can have a good example from Google and its patents for books with augmented contents.
Talking about this, there are some initiatives that are not linked just only to literature, but also to the world of comics; among these, surely stands out for originality and high technological level “Faster Than Light“, saga that, right in these days, is on the first pages of every AR magazine since a tv version has been officialized.
Faster Than Light is a sci-fi comic that talks about the first, thrilling adventures of humans around the stars: mankind finds a method to travel faster than light and explore space, but not everything goes as expected. Joining adventure and fun, the stories created by Brian Haberlin and Geirrod Vandykeare are not remaining tied to the bidimensional world, using theirselves a bit of sci-fi: thanks to the augmented reality app by Anomaly, characters and settings take life in front of the reader’s eayes. The comic is published by Image Comics, Shadowline, and received awards.
Now, since of the success of the saga, soon to its 6° and 7° volume, Skydance Television put their eyes on it and decided to make it even more real, this time not through augmented reality but filming it with real actors.
“The exhilarating sci-fi universe that Brian Haberlin has created in Faster Than Light features a living, breathing narrative that we believe is very well suited for television audiences and is precisely the kind of big, bold story we love to tell at Skydance,” said Marcy Ross, President of Skydance Television.
This is an almost predicted passage for a comic so avant-garde and unique in its genre.