Location In Research

One of a range of experimental webcomics on show at e-merl.com. PoCom-UK-001 exemplifies one type of "infinite canvas" webcomic, or "hypercomic" as Merl likes to call them, that Scott McCloud has discussed at length in his latter books.

Whilst PoCom-UK-001 is innovative, the navigation suffers from fixed level zoom (3 magnifications) and the narrative really takes a back seat to the cleverness of the presentational device. The main narrative features a character journeying to the shops to buy some milk, from this numerous sub-plots - some mundane, some highly hyper-real, spring. The illustrations feature a number of visual rendering stylings. Although the panels are joined (using the "trails" concept which McCloud also discusses at length) indicating to the reader which panels follow from their present point of focus, the strip is hampered by the sheer weight of panels and number of directions the reader can be lead. Combining this with weak narrative and no character interest leaves the content of the panels subbordinate to the panels themselves.

Interesting early "infinte canvas" example.