“It is very much childish play, imagination and thinking for those who still know how to play, imagine and think, or want to learn it,” says popular Czech writer and director Ivan Vyskočil about his children’s book, Tinybut Likeus. The dadaistic story about a boy smaller than a fly who becomes a „guardian of dreams“ inspired the artist Matyáš Trnka to adapt it first in form of hand-drawn comics, which was then digitalized into an unique interactive form - the first Czech interactive comic book was born.
Tinybut Likeus was first published as a book in 1990. The author, popular Czech writer and theatre director Ivan Vyskočil, is a founder of the tradition of absurd theatre in the Czech Republic. The dreamlike surrealistic story of the little Tinybut also contains a significant dose of absurd humour and has since its first publication attracted many readers of all ages. Today it is considered to be a classic of children’s literature in the Czech Republic.
The new adaption of „Tinybut Likeus“ created by artist, director and graphic designer Matyáš Trnka is true to the popular and beloved story, but also absolutely unique thanks to its interactive form. It is not without interest that the idea was born six years ago, when tablets or touch screens in general were not yet so widely used as they are now. „Today I would even say that Likeus and iPad were created for each other – yet at the time when we started to work on it, we didn’t have any idea about such devices, smartphones and tablets weren’t even available. I think that our project is quite an interesting example of the direction where this technology could go. Touch screen creates a great opportunity for interaction between reader and the story itself“, explains the author. „Tinybut Likeus“ thus works as an application, where all chapters can be read in the same way as in classical comic book, but the reader can also play voiceover of the text in each section, play a short animation, explore the story in various details and decide where it would go.
The first version of Tinybut Likeus comic book was however hand-drawn – the 12 chapters are elaborated in 12 detailed drawings. The drawings were then manually animated using the technique of so called „total animation“. Matyáš Trnka’s work draws on the famous tradition of Czech animation school and combines it with the modern technologies. The result is 60 minutes of remarkable film material with original soundtrack, voiceover by Steve Gove and unlimited amount of time any child or playful adult can spent with the comics.
The Czech version was released in December 2012, the English version is available right now at:
Appstore (iPad):
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tinybut-likeus/id983972913?l=cs&ls=1&mt=8
PC version:
http://sites.fastspring.com/drevonos/product/tinybutpc
Mac OS version:
http://sites.fastspring.com/drevonos/product/tinybutmac
Official website: www.tinybut.com
FBpage:www.facebook.com/malyalenas
About the author:
Matyáš Trnka is Czech artist, director and graphic designer. He is finishing his animation degree at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. His animated shorts were noticed at several international festivals and hes also the autor of the creative design and festival spot of the 11th edtion of International festival of animated films AniFest. His latest project, an interactive exhibition „Trnka’s Garden 2“ which he created together with his father Jan Trnka, is currently to be seen in the Museum of Western Bohemia as part of the programme of Pilsen 2015 – European Capital of Culture.
You can find more about Matyáš and his work at www.matyastrnka.cz.
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