I’ve always believed that newspaper comics strips are a highly underrated art form, relative to painting/sketching/etc..

Now I’m not discounting the power of paintings (Picasso’s Guernica or Munch’s Scream, case and point), or that of comic books (take a bow, Alan Moore), but comic strips, if done well, can be as powerful as either of the former art forms.

This is because they’re part of everyone’s staple diet of newspapers. They’re far more accessible to the hoi polloi. And their frequency of delivery (relative to the other forms) allows them the liberty to be subtler. Plus (in most cases) they connect through humor – which helps the message surpass mental barriers. And you just know that there have been several times when the comic strips are at a Much higher level than the publication itself. A great example  that comes to mind (although it’s more an editorial cartoon) is The Common Man, by R. K. Laxman.

While not in the same category, Calvin and Hobbes was another awesome comic strip. It wasn’t editorial in any respect. It wasn’t about politics, the economy, etc. – at least not seriously. Instead, it dealt with everyday life and the human existence, which is far more relatable for a lot more people.

But this I didn’t really get until I grew up. This I understand now. But I still loved Calvin and Hobbes as a kid (as did everyone else) and I’d always wondered why we were such fans, even as kids, until I read Bill’s brilliant explanation. I couldn’t have explained it any better:

I always identified with Calvin as a child (I suppose you could say I still do), and this strip pretty much sums up what being a kid like Calvin is like. Constantly feeling out of sync with the rest of the world, and thus retreating to the world you create for yourself in your mind. If you think about it, Calvin was really quite an anomaly in popular entertainment -- not just in comics, but in anything, be it movies, TV, etc. He has no friends, and no extracurricular activities; the only people he ever sees are his parents, who he has a strained relationship with, and Moe, Susie, Rosalyn, and Miss Wormwood, all of whom he detests and all of whom detest him. The only person he ever has any real interaction with exists only in his head. He is, for all intents and purposes, completely alone. And he's fine with that. The kind of kid most people would entirely ignore all through school is not generally the kind you make the star of your show, and yet the strip became hugely successful.

I know that people of all ages enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes, but I have to think that it meant even more to those of us who grew up with him. Going to school every day and seeing all the ways we didn't fit in, it was nice to see someone like us, who was intelligent and independent, and didn't need to be a smile-plastered Mouseketeer to enjoy life. Though numerous motivational posters and guidance councelors and after-school specials had said it again and again, it was Calvin who managed to truly express the idea—without being preachy, without being sappy, perhaps even without trying—that it was okay to be different.

via progressiveboink.com

Without further ado, here’s some of the 25 that have stuck with me all these years.

We’ve (Directi) sponsored tons of events (industry gatherings, sales expos, recruitment focused conferences, etc.) in the past and have had a booth in most of them. Over the years, we’ve used several carrots to bring people to our booth – whether it’s the classic “Drop in your Visiting Card for a Surprise Gift” or simply having a big bowl of awesome candy (hey, it Works) or giving away freebies like Pen Drives and T-Shirts (surprisingly popular still) to organizing Casino Nights (passes to be collected at the booth), coding contents and Treasure Hunts.

Now I’m not saying that these don’t work. Au contraire, we’ve had looong queues for our T-shirts on multiple occasions (with people coming back and asking for multiple T-shirts), we almost always run out of candy and have even had plenty of buzz for the Casino Night. But it’s really time to think out of the box – and this is really something that can work.

Why? Because Augmented Reality (a combination of live video and interactive graphics) is still something few people have been exposed to. It quite literally takes pretty much the same ideas (freebies, treasure hunts, etc.) and changes the delivery/execution – which makes all the difference.

And it does works. The Nike 6.0 case study proves it. Add to that this which someone posted to everyone in office, and everyone in office Had to try it at least once.

All you need is:

• A creative concept to use Augmented Reality: You could do something elaborate like virtual clues or map for a treasure hunt or something as simple as Nike’s virtual slot machine works.
• The Augmented Reality itself: Nike used Total Immersion and I assume there’s a growing number of companies that do this.
• Basic infrastructure: A few webcams and large screen displays and distributable print outs of the basic images to enable to video experience.

Check out the pictures of how Nike set it up. You’ll need to find a way to get the initial few people to your booth. Post that, word of mouth will ensure that more people will follow.

Given that we have a whole bunch of events coming up in 2010, I’m really hoping to test this out first-hand.

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