What Remains of Edith Finch is a (2017) video game consisting of a series of distinct short experimental storytelling sections tied together by an overall narrative about the central family, almost every member of which seems to suffer an early demise.
One section of the game details the death of Barbara Finch, a 1950s child star famous for starring in creature features. The player experiences her story through an in-game comic book loosely inspired by the “real” events. Thus, the visual style it is presented in is heavily inspired by horror comics of the 1960s, with all of their over-the-top cheesiness. A video of the section can be found above.
Starting as a series of still pages the player has to click through that depict the literal comic they are reading, the tale then transitions into short gameplay sections still enclosed in panels. With a visual style congruent with the previous section, as well as the use bright colours and bold outlines over everything, the section really feels like a living comic.
I think this approach to telling the story is really clever and fits the subject well. I particularly like the combination of comics/animation/gameplay, it flows together well and draws on the strengths of all three. Due to the temporal closeness and similarity in genre/influences, I was reminded of my own project and began to consider whether a comic, or some form of combined comic-animation approach would actually work better for the final work.
Under the conditions I am currently working, being unable to reliably access uni equipment with my preferred animation software, as well as lacking regular advice from tutors due to finishing this as part of a resit without attendance, I have made the decision to pivot to the final approach of a comic.
I have done plenty of research into both mediums and wrote my third-year essay on sequential art with a particular focus on the unique structural features it offers. I am well equipped to produce this story as a short comic. I also think with some adjustments, the story would work well as a 60's comic-inspired piece of sequential art.
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