In 2012, writer Skip Brittenham and artist Brian Haberlin took sci-fi comics into a different realm by not only publishing the book Anomaly with a cinematic horizontal landscape format, but by also including interactive elements and an App to show how the comic was made. It’s territory they’re exploring again with Anomaly The Rubicon (hardcover), a sequel that not only utilizes the same format and behind-the-scenes interactivity, but a pinball game as well.
When done right, a novel creates a vivid world that jumps off the pages. But in their fantasy novel Between Worlds (hardcover, digital), writer Skip Brittenham and artists Brian Haberlin, Jay Anacleto, and Doug Siros don’t just do this with words and full color illustrations. The thirteen images in the book actually interact with a free app for iOS and Android, turning the cover and the illustrations into 3D images you can interact with, as well as use for magic training so you can learn to battle Monga. It’s rather trippy how well it works. Though as I learned when I spoke to Skip and Brian about the book, the illustrations, and the interactivity, call the latter two elements an augmentation of the former isn’t quite right.