I think I’m going to stagger my Tim talks about the stuff he’s doing posts and my talkback fueling dissertations. Tomorrow more expostulating on stuff and hang out till Friday for Graphic Smash talk.

Last week it went from murky rumor to stone cold fact, that I have joined Clickwheel as associate editor. Tim Pilcher, a man of far greater experience, is our new editor in chief.

The world is changing. Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Clickwheel? To stand against the might of iPods... and the union of the Two Tims?

Obligatory LoTR references aside, I get the feeling a lot of you guys aren’t really that aware of what Clickwheel is. Well no fear, boys and girls I am jam-packed with the knowledge you crave!

So, it’s generally understood that Clickwheel is in the business of getting comics on iPods, but that’s a pretty broad thing to say. The bread and butter of the site, is in its image downloads. The creator takes their work, formats it to the proportions of the iPod screen and then uploads as many ‘frames’ as are in that particular episode. The reader then downloads those images as a ZIP file, loads them on their iPod and then they can be ‘clicked through’ much like turning the pages of a book. These downloads range from three frame strips, with a panel on each frame, to downloads holding as may as 50+ frames, sometimes with multiple panels to a frame, for a longer narrative. It’s more versatile than you might guess, and the clarity of the iPod screen is fantastic, allowing smaller type and detail to shine clear. It honestly looks better than the huge majority of computer monitors.

There’s one hitch in the above method of delivery—iTunes doesn’t currently serve image files. BUMMER. The necessity is the mother of invention solution here was to take comics in the above format and build them to ‘click though themselves’ as mv4 movie files. Yes, this made me nervous at first too. Is that REALLY a comic? The practical fact of the matter though was that iTunes is a powerful delivery method, and if compromise was necessary, so be it. The results of this experiment (mine carried out by Phil Kahn- Master and Commander of Final Cut Pro) I found to be amazing. Are these ‘animatics’ still comics? It depends on your definition and I’m not interested in changing minds, but they are something all to their own. I’ve read blogs and gotten feedback all the way from “this is the future of comics” to “these aren’t comics, don’t bother with them.” I can understand and respect either extreme, (I fall some place in between) because they ARE different.

A new step, is offering comics as PDF downloads. Wait a sec, you say? You can’t read a PDF on an iPod? No, you can’t. So why the heck are we doing it? The simple answer is Clickwheel is about more than just iPods, it’s about digital delivery. The iTunes store serves PDFs now, and I think making a full comic available via iTunes is a pretty attractive prospect in terms of reaching new readers.

And that, my friends, is the tip of the iceburg. Clickwheel is doing a little shifting right now, as both us Tims settle into our roles, but you can expect to hear of some new coolness in the coming year. That’s not even a line. Serious. Cool stuff. That’s why I’m involved with CW, this stuff sparks my geekery for technical innovation. I dig it.