If augmented reality is the future of storytelling, it should come as no surprise that the technology has made its way into the world of graphic novels. The already visual storytelling experience in comic books and graphic novels is the perfect platform for technological enhancement, and books like Modern Polaxis have already made the jump. Modern Polaxis is a graphic novel that comes with an augmented reality mobile app, so the time travelling science fiction story literally leaps off the page.
Polaxis is the name of the story’s protagonist, and the book is set up as a collection of his personal journal entries. “Modern Polaxis is a paranoid time traveller”, explains Sutu, the author, illustrator, and animator of the book. And although Polaxis keeps a journal record of his travels, “all his secret information, his paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories, he hides away in a layer of Augmented Reality”.
The premise of story is that Polaxis believes we are living in a holographic projection. Considering this is a theory that has grown in popularity in real life, Modern Polaxis hits the nail on the head for a large community of conspiracy theorists and reality skeptics. Polaxis is convinced he is a fugitive, running from the Intafrag agents that monitor the holographic projection from elsewhere in the universe. It seems like he has created the augmented reality layer of his journal for the sake of his own privacy, which hits another touchy subject from today’s real world. It’s a beautiful approach to integrating augmented reality into the storytelling itself, instead of just using the technology as a gimmick.
Readers will need to buy the book and download the app to get the full Modern Polaxis experience. The storytelling is spread out over the book’s multimedia experience so there are a lot of ways to go about experiencing its full effect. The book itself costs $30, but the Polaxis augmented reality app is free to download. Sutu also released a series of three Polaxis posters that are set up for the augmented reality experience, available online for $30 each.
