First of all, if you want to read this comic yourself, for free head over to Mark Waid’s web page  http://markwaid.com/

or go direct to the Luther article. http://markwaid.com/?p=695

Mark Waid is at the forefront of the digital evolution in comics.  By skipping the major publishers and distributors in order to release this comic on his own, Mark has placed himself in front.  He is either innovator or destroyer, depending on what blog you’re reading.  But none of those are answering the question, is the comic any good?

Luther is fantastic.  Accept a world in which a zombie apocalypse has taken place and start from there.  Luther is a look at a mentally handicapped man in this world.  Murphy narrates the tale and tells us all about Luther.  It is a heartwarming tale.  Don’t worry zombie lovers, there is some gore and violence.  But in the end it is a beautiful story.  Usually a zombie story shows the living as the real evil.  Here is a twist, the living as good.

Now the story is good, and the art is good, but that isn’t the star here.  The star is the innovative way to tell the tale.  If you have a tablet device of any kind I strongly recommend reading it on your iPad or whatever and not on the computer screen.  The computer still gets the point across, but without the ooh and aah that a tablet provides.

Instead of flipping pages to reveal the next twist, the panels change.  Only half an image is shown at times, then the rest.  Or an empty panel with text to be filled in later on.  It extends the comic in a new way.  Anytime a page is read the eye sees the whole image at once before focusing in on the first panel and reading from there.  If a dramatic scene takes place at the bottom of the page, your eye has already seen it.  Sure, you can stagger the panels so the big reveal will be on the left page and that is what has been done in comics for decades.  However this “tap for more” concept is revolutionary.

The concept allows for slow reveals, moments of thought, building tension, it provides more story telling opportunities than the page can.  Not to say that there is anything against the page.  But it is the next evolution of this classic panel:

This idea is now expanded.  Without extra pages, or ink, or work (well I suppose there is digital work, but you know what I mean) it becomes something more.  I love comics, Mark Waid loves comics.  He doesn’t want to see comic shops close.  Have you watched The Variants?  What he and I and many more want to see is comics evolve.  Why are the Avengers and the Dark Knight Rises about to make billions of dollars yet the comics only sell 100 to 200 thousand copies?  Because they need to evolve.  New audiences need to be brought in.  The ways of doing things need to be reevaluated and Luther is a brilliant first try in this new era of comics.