Monday Comic Corner – Inspired by Superbrothers

If you’ve ever played Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP, you can probably anticipate what this Zac Gorman comic will be like. Minimalistic, wordless, yet powerful. And Zac Gorman has done an excellent job interpreting the Sword and Sworcery style for both his own artwork and with a Zelda theme.

Though the comic seems simple, Link in the rain, after a few reads you’ll start to get an idea of what Zac Gorman was trying to convey. Hit the jump to see the comic!

On the page for this comic, Zac Gorman briefly explains the comic.

I wanted to challenge myself to write a wordless Zelda comic that sort of played with the subtle magic of the series; exploring, discovering mysterious caves, etc.

This comic was based on the Superbrothers article: Less Talk More Rock. It acts almost like an ultimatum to the video game industry. Games have more capacity for complex ideas, intricate themes, and descriptive graphics, but instead the potential is wasted on meaningless text and empty gameplay.

And the game Sword and Sworcery demonstrates it beautifully. The minimalistic art style speaks loudly and clearly, and the mood is set with the music. Everywhere in the game, these visual and audio cues feel like they have a purpose. Text is used scarcely. It feels a bit like an NES game, but more immersive. The game uses the advances in modern technology to its advantage, not because it “should”.

Now I’ll admit, Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP is not a game for everyone, and I bet the developers of this game have realized this, too. But if you think about it, you might realize that a lot of the complaints about modern video games are really that their appeal is very on-the-surface, and the game doesn’t feel immersive.

Like the article explains, most games target the intellectual part of the mind, which is learned, and almost synthetic. What Superbrothers describes as a good game is one that targets the whole mind. Intellect has a good relationship to the whole mind, but a video game experience can be much more than appeal to intellect, especially with modern technology.

Translate this into a comic, and you find what Zac Gorman has created. It seems awfully simple, but the artwork conveys much more than what you see. You may remember a time when you were stuck in the rain, or when you were playing a Zelda game and rain was pouring outside, or even just when you found a secret in a video game. The comic doesn’t explain anything to you and can express a set of multiple ideas, emotions, and memories which can all be more complex than the comic itself.

Overall, a very good comic by Zac Gorman, and an excellent article by Superbrothers. I highly suggest you take a few minutes to read the entire article (by clicking the picture below) and perhaps reflect on your own video game experiences with this new knowledge in mind.

Source: Magical Game Time, Superbrothers