Online Comics!

The purpose of this introduction is not to set up the characters and situations of the series; if I've done my job well enough, you'll be able to simply start reading and enjoy the story with no prior knowledge of the characters and setup. If you'd like to know more about Tetsuko, Sonya and company before you begin, you can read this introduction at her home page, or these short biographies of the cast.

My purpose here is to introduce a new (for me, anyway) paradigm for the presentation of comics on the Web, and to give credit where credit is due.

Those of you who have already read my online versions of Satin Steele know that they're just the original print versions, scanned and turned into JPEG files with little or no adaptation to the new medium of Web publishing. Satin Steele #4 represents somewhat of a departure from the first three issues, since it was designed specifically for being read in most standard Web browsers with little or no scrolling. This results in a page that resembles a Sunday comic strip more than a comic book page, but sometimes doesn't advance story or character as much as I'd like. So, for Tetsuko #1, I was ready to go back to the old "scan a page intended for print" model of publishing Web comics.

Then I discovered Scott McCloud's web site. If you haven't read his book Understanding Comics, do so ASAP! It's one of the most important books about comics ever written! er, drawn! uh, well, just read it! Then read his follow-up, Reinventing Comics, which discusses the future of the medium, including its presence on the Internet. McCloud is "continuing" the book Reinventing Comics at his website with his "I Can't Stop Thinking!" column. The third and fourth installments were particularly eye-opening, and as you'll see I've utilized several of his ideas in Tetsuko #1. Thanks for the inspiration, Scott!

And now... on with the show!

©2002 David C. Matthews.