Amotion comic (oranimated comic) is a form ofanimation combining elements of printcomic books andanimation. Individual panels are expanded into a full shot while sound effects, voice acting, and animation are added to the original artwork. Text boxes, speech bubbles and theonomatopoeia are typically removed to feature more of the original artwork being animated. Motion comics are often released as short serials covering a story arc of a long running series or animating a single release of a graphic novel. Single release issues of a story arc are converted into ten- to twenty-minute-long episodes depending on content.

The concept was fully outlined in the mid-1960s by science fiction authorPhilip K. Dick in his novelThe Zap Gun, an expansion of hisnovellaProject Plowshare, which was written in 1964 and first published as aserial in the November 1965 and January 1966 issues ofWorlds of Tomorrow magazine. In Dick's novel, weapons designers of the future aremediums, who create their new designs in trance states. The weapon designs are extracted telepathically from a motion comic book,The Blue Cephalopod Man from Titan, created by mad Italian artist Oral Giacomini. Dick describes both the storyline and the animated panels of this comic book in detail.

In the mid 1960s,Marvel Comics Animation used the technique for the television showThe Marvel Super Heroes. Actual artwork from the originally published comic books was augmented by voices, music, and a small amount of animation. The term "motion comic" did not exist yet.

In 1982, the comic stripJane was madeinto a TV series byBBC. It featured brief sequences of a stylized approach to comic panels, partly done with animation, partly with actors in a drawn environment viachroma key.^[1]

In 2005, Lions Gate released an animated version of theSaw: Rebirth comic, one of the first examples of an animated comic created to tie into a film franchise. The first major motion comics released, which is also the first use of the term "motion comic", were released byWarner Bros., the owner ofDC Comics to coincide with the film premieres ofThe Dark Knight andWatchmen, releasing an adaptation ofBatman: Mad Love andWatchmen: Motion Comics, adapting thecomic book of the same name.^[2][3][4] In 2010 a motion comic calledInception: The Cobol Job was released as prequel and prologue to the movieInception.^[5][6] In 2012 a prequel motion comic of the movieDredd was made to show the origins of the movie's main antagonist, Ma-Ma.

Marvel Comics has released motion comics using a company owned byNeal Adams. The first release was an adaptation ofJoss Whedon andJohn Cassaday'sAstonishing X-Men: "Gifted". Other adaptations includeSpider-Woman: "Agent of S.W.O.R.D.",Iron Man: "Extremis",Black Panther,Thor/Loki: Blood Brothers,Inhumans andAstonishing X-Men: "Dangerous".

Examples from other companies includePeanuts Motion Comics,Zits Motion Comics, theDead Space prequel comics and the "Lucy" element of the ABC News documentaryEarth 2100.^[7]

Another example would be a four-part motion comic based on theUncharted video game series as a prequel calledEye of Indra, released for thePlayStation Network.

A sibling format tomotion comics calledillustrated films was developed bytransmedia studioHALO 8 Entertainment with theirGodkiller, which was produced at the same time as (but separately from) theWatchmen motion comic. As opposed to repurposing an existing comic book, Halo-8 created new sequential art that was designed from its inception to be transmedia art for both a comic book and an illustrated film.Godkiller creatorMatt Pizzolo toldBloody Disgusting that "Godkiller was just a slower production thanWatchmen because we had to create 200 pages of art and story from the ground up first, rather than starting with one of the greatest comic books ever made as source material. Plus we had a dozen voice performers instead of just one".^[8]

Although aesthetically similar to motion comics, Pizzolo identifiesillustrated film influences as includingLiquid Television, theMTV cartoon adaptation ofThe Maxx, theBerserk anime series,Chris Marker'sLa jetée, the motion comicBroken Saints, and the experimental cinema ofRalph Bakshi.^[9][10]

According toComicsAlliance, Pizzolo stated "the difference between an illustrated film and a motion comic is kind of the difference between a movie that was shot in 3D versus a movie that was shot in 2D but got a 3D post-conversion. We're not repurposing an existing comic book here, we're building something unique from scratch".^[11]

The 75-minuteGodkiller feature was released theatrically in 11 cities before it was distributed on DVD and cable VOD.^[12][13]

Other illustrated films from Halo-8 includeBen Templesmith's original projectBlack Sky and an adaptation ofTim Seeley'sHack/Slash,^[14][15][16] but those projects are currently in development limbo.

ArtistJohn Cassaday described his experience with the motion comic adaptation ofAstonishing X-Men in an interview withComicBookResources.com:

I'd seen some motion comic animation, and the quality varied. When Marvel approached me, I was initially hesitant, but after looking at some test footage and hearing how committed they were, I knew what direction they were wanting to go".^[17]

Thevisual novel, a form ofinteractive fiction largely created inJapan (and also constituting the majority ofPC games sold in the country), makes similar usage of animated transitions between still graphic images for narrative purposes. Visual novels, which have been released since the 1980s, also make use of background music and voice talents in order to help drive the narrative.

Unlike most Western motion comics:

• Visual novels only occasionally make use of motion in-scene (i.e., a body part moving inside an otherwise-static scene).
• Visual novels, while making use of voice talents, also provide dialogue through dialogue boxes - usually superimposed on the bottom of the screen.
• Visual novel characters are usually depicted through graphicsprites superimposed upon a generic background; more detailed character designs and backgrounds are typically reserved for key scenes and events in the narrative.
• The majority of visual novels are original properties and are adapted for, rather than adaptations of, manga or anime.
• Visual novels can either be little more thaninteractive films or much more interactiveadventure games, with the dialog boxes containing controls for interaction with the game.
• Visual novels are also typically written from thefirst-person narrative.
• Most visual novels havedialogue choices,branching storylines, andmultiple endings.

The visual novel franchiseDanganronpa uses motion manga as a gameplay element at the climax of each chapter, with a brief reoccurrence in theDanganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School anime.

• Watchmen: Motion Comic (2008)
• Astonishing X-Men (2009)
• Batgirl: Year One (2009)
• Superman: Red Son (2009)
• Spider-Woman (2009)
• Jonah Hex (2010)
• Black Panther (2010)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2010)

• Comics terminology
• Visual arts media
• Comics formats
• Animation
• Motion comics

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