Steel Raining is a web comic created by Alberto Silva from Spain. His description of it goes something like this: “In the world’s biggest metropolis, a silent buzz vibrates. A buzz that makes men in suits howl. There’s a symbol drawn with chalk on the floor, a girl trapped in an IC and a neon guitar.”
And why are we covering this here? Alberto, to promote the second season of his web comic, created a teaser edition that runs exclusively in Amstrad CPC machines. We minced a few words with him about what drove him, a non-retro, non 8-bit, non-coder person to do this.
You can read the interview and get the original Amstrad CPC executable right after the jump:
[TCTD]: Where did the idea to make an Amstrad CPC-based comic came from?
[Alberto Silva]: I always been interested in the story of the first digital comics as well as the way computers have slowly been incorporated into comic creation. I just finished reading some things like Mike Saenz’s “Shatter” or Pepe Moreno’s “Batman: Justicia Digital”. I was impressed in the way they knew the potential in computer graphics and how this could be applied to comic making. They were pioneers, I guess, even though they are not usually referenced that much.
That’s how I started toying with the idea to make a comic with the same tools as in 1986, as a little homage. I also wondered what a web comic would look like if Internet had existed 20 years ago.
[TCTD]: So, what happened then? How did it all start?
[AS]: I took the Amstrad CPC out of the closet and started to fuck around with it! To be fair, most of this comic was drawn using a PC with an emulator and a Playstation joypad. It was still done in an ancient paint program called OCP Art Studio, so all the limitations of the platform were still present. I would have liked to add music and other details, but I barely know how to code and I am afraid I forgot the little BASIC I knew. That’s all there is to it!
[Akira’s note: The Amstrad CPC was one of the most popular platforms of the 80s in Spain. Even if surpassed by the Spectrum, both shared the bigger chunk of the consumer market, winning to the Commodore 64.]
[TCTD]: Any other interesting information to share with us?
[AS]: That was basically it. You can download the executable files for Amstrad CPC from here, and also the full size comic “page” from here. If you have no Amstrad, you can use an emulator or watch the video in this interview.
[TCTD]: Muchas gracias, Alberto!
For those curious about Steel Raining, the story after the Amstrad CPC edition continues here:
Comments
2 responses to “Steel Raining – Amstrad CPC comic!”
Yes ! Very nice and creative work ! Good idea !