After months of waiting, the The D.E.C. or Digital Experience Comic, a new app from Uproar Comics, the team behind Northern Irish zombie anthology Zombies Hi, has finally hit the app store. Packed with over 30 pages of animated content and host of app-only extras this unique mix of digital comics and the undead is the brainchild of Derry based comic creators Danny McLaughlin and Kevin Logue. Keen to pick their brains like a zombie at meal time, we got in touch with Danny to find out more about this great project and to discover just what the Digital Experience Comic is really all about.  

Tell us a bit about the idea to create the Digital Experience Comic (D.E.C.) and how you went about building it? Are you developers yourself or did you have a handy coder available? 

DM: The idea came from imagining the possibilities that come with reading digital comics! There was a lot of phrases that began with “Wouldn’t it be cool if…”. We are, first and foremost, comicbook lovers and secondly we are creatives, we love creating our own stories, and being experimental. When these two factors collided with the dynamic abilities of digital we sought and found a way! No coders, just really passionate people willing to do anything to produce a high quality, interactive and innovative Digital Experience Comic… (The D.E.C.)

Why an app and not just a digital version via ComiXology etc.? Had you always intended to launch an app when you started doing Uproar Comics and Zombies Hi? And what are the advantages of doing it this way?

DM: Well, its an easy answer, they aren’t good enough! We have put so much added features with our first title “Not Dead Yet” that you couldn’t possibly even compare the two formats! With the new capabilities at hand no one has seemed to take that leap to create a wide ranging experience within the comic storytelling format- We just wanted to see what we could do, and lo and behold we found we could actually build our dream comic that was never intentional planned! The advantages are simply that the experience in reading The D.E.C. is unprecedented and getting a product like that to the customer is, in theory, less demanding than physical print copies not to mention how fun it is to experiment and come up with cool new concepts for a new platform.

Tell us about some of the great features you’ve included in the app that we can check out?

DM: Where to start? well, there are loads of special little fun features sprinkled throughout the D.E.C.…

But here’s some of the major features included:

• The first 30 page installment of the animated interactive motion comic Not Dead Yet by Uproar Comics.
• Find and collect 8 additional side stories hidden throughout the pages of Not Dead Yet, a total 63 pages of extra content!
• Unlock 5 complete character biographies including individual back stories as the characters are introduced.
• In App access to some amazing music from the Not Dead Yet universe, featuring Droids and Triggermen.
• And more to come with each update!!

Tell us a bit about the process of creating the D.E.C.? I assume you’ve taken comic pages from Zombies Hi and turned them into interactive pages, was that a difficult process and did you have to change and redo any artwork to make things fit the new format? How did you decide what each page would do?

DM: Okay, from the outset we had traditional black and white print ready comics that needed to be coloured, a lot of polishing for final digital out-puting and also the isolating of the art to create depth and movement. It’s a long haul in the art preparation department even with half the comic completed before the get go which gave our team time to accustom themselves with building the app and animating it and pulling all the features from concept stages. It is a difficult process, but we’ve already learned so much more but we are always trying to “up the anti”, and to do that we would sit around with the team and brainstorm every possible idea from the routine to the utterly crazy, but the pages would kind of tell you what they needed once you got into the mindset. but its also keeping in mind the audio that will sit nicely to set the right tones! Difficult but worth it for the final product.

You’ve introduced some 3D elements it seems, tell us a bit about that and what they bring to the app?

DM: In Not Dead Yet you can collect the Bio’s and unlock the Histories of each of the main characters that is introduced in the first issue. With even a Zombie in their too. When you open the character profiles you can play their “flavours”. But that is only a stepping stone to what we have planned for the next venture on the D.E.C. as we now can utilise the 3D models to produce strong animations, and 2d renders to make the 3D models look as if they are 2D artwork which will be a huge benefit coming to create scenes etc.

Which stories will we see available in the app and will there be in app purchases for other titles?

DM: The plan, as you will see on the the D.E.C. website more clearly, is to use a voting system for the users to have a say in the creation and development of our future titles. We have plenty more storylines lined up for the D.E.C. each with their individual features for everyone to to have some degree of input into the final story that will be fully created- but we need YOU! And all of which will be available in-App!

Did you look at any other interactive comics for inspiration and if so which ones? What makes a great digital comic and how do you think you do at balancing fancy effects and sound with good readability?

DM: We did do a little digging, especially with Madefire, Marvel AR and other “in-line” apps. But there honestly isnt that much Digital Comics that are not just PDFs, so after digging a little, we tried not to research others too much because of the theory of absorption. We didnt want to start making similar products because we were building a clearer vision of what we wanted. Fancy effects? We don’t just put in any effect/sfx just for the hell of it we want to stay as close to comic storytelling as possible so after a long time of trial and many errors we found we have the winning formula now, for not only good readability, but an exceptional engaging experience.

Have there been any issues or concerns with censorship from Apple when it comes to D.E.C.? Did you tone anything down to get D.E.C. an App Store release? How do you feel about potentially being beholden to their rules for publishing?

DM: Simply put, No. We know who we were making it for, and that was just “not younger kids” so with an age of 13 on it, we send it on, and had no problems other than sitting about nervously for what seems ages until we got word back from them, but that could have been us acting like little excited school girls!haha

You seem to get a lot of support from the Derry comics scene, what do you think it is about Northern Ireland that means you have such a passionate fan base?

DM: Well for a few reasons I believe we have a strong local fanbase. We are from Derry where there is no other company exactly like us so thats immediate brownie points already. Our first comic, which is the basis for our first title of the D.E.C. (Not Dead Yet), is all set in Derry, with familiar characters and scenes, the unique turn of phrase we stuck close to and the relevant themes throughout helped a lot of people, especially the 16-25 age ranges, relate to the comic. And right now we are situated in a really good position in derry as it celebrates the City of Culture UK Accolade. So just a right mixture of all those factors- and I suppose you could say that they had no choice because of our unshaking determination and promotions especially when we have risen through the ranks of the 2D festival, Northern Irelands most prestigious Comicbook Festival (festival, not convention, because its all free), and have been a mainstay at the event for the last good few years running.

Finally, what can we expect from you next? There were some tantalising teasers at the end of your trailer?

DM: As I mentioned about the pilot projects- we want YOU to get involved in the creation and development of certain comicbook series Titles, and so you say counts. We have a Space-faring SciFi story, LEAP, a gritty neo-Noir story named COHEN,and a Steampulp Fantasy Mystery, CONUNDRUM.

You can check them out now and keep up to date with everything by signing up through the newsletter at the bottom of each page on the DEC website here

 You can download the D.E.C. app from the iTunes Store here

For more information on Danny and co then visit the D.E.C. website or the Uproar Comics website, or follow them on Twitter @uproarcomics