SAN FRANCISCO, USA – It’s long since been an alien or frowned-upon concept for us to consume reams of written words in digital format – be it lengthy blog posts or e-books (despite our growing appetite for bite-size mobile apps).
So it’s always interesting to see the way we digest and access content evolve, and this week our attention has been drawn to a fascinating new approach – highly acclaimed San Francisco-based novelist Alexander Besher is releasing his new 600-page sci-fi epic graphic novel, The Manga Man, in an unconventional and freely downloadable mobile-formatted digital book to anyone who sees and takes a photo of a Manga Man T-shirt with a QR/2D (2-dimensional “quick response”) barcode on the front. Simply scan the code and the book is yours to keep and read on your phone.
This isn’t just a whimsical alternative method of how you can get hold Besher’s book, as The Manga Man book can only be accessed via photographing the Q2/2D barcode on the Manga Man T-shirts.
As he explains,“It’s like science imitating science fiction”, which is certainly an fascinating concept. Of course, there’s an initial limitation to the amount of people who’ll be able to access the graphic novel, but interestingly Besher, as you might expect, is looking towards the future with this idea:
“You can pass my T-shirt novel down to your grandchildren. Not only is it a collectible, but it’s an instant classic in the pantheon of wearable literature.”
We’ll hopefully be catching up with Alexander Besher this week to talk about the concept, and the vision behind this fresh breed of mobile publishing.
Have you got any questions you’d like us to ask him? Scribble them down in the comments section below.