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The RCPS is an alternative presentation form for enhanced graphic story-telling.
The RCPS communicates with symbols and navigation sytems borrowed from other readable media such as diagrams, information icons, typograpy; signage or road maps; but above all with the vast symbol language we find in comics.
The RCPS is not linear. It consists of several story threads which can divide, run parallel to or cross each other, do loops or run out of the main story. Basically, it is read like a mixture of a road map and a metro plan.
This type of navigation, of course, needs space. So the RCPS is not a comic book, it's a comic POSTER.
On the edges of the poster, there are points at which some story-threads leave the poster or enter it. they look like this:
at these points, additional alternate stories printed on postcards can be docked onto the edges of the poster.
see example
others can be placed right on the poster itself and thus change a story thread or give an alternative point of view on a section of the story
see example
The R.C.P.S. is a modular system. Future sequel posters will be perfectly compatible to the first one, meaning that they too can be docked onto each other. Thus, an ever expanding story system will take shape.
see example
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Poster # 1 tells the story of "Mr.Monkey & Mr Frei and how they both fell over the edge of the cosmos"
It's a screenprint, 5 spot colors, 90x130cm, one part of the story is printed entirely in night-glowing color and can only be read in the dark.
Poster # 1 comes with 10 extension postcards, A5 and A6, 2 spot colors, offset.
The Poster can be bought at the burodiscount shop in Zurich, Switzerland and costs about 50 Swiss Francs (30 Euro, more or less). They will launch a webshop in early 05, so the RCPS will ship anywhere soon. If you want one RIGHT NOW just send them an e-mail and ask nicely.
Launch the poster in a popup window and have a scroll!
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The RCPS was developed by Mr. Chragi Frei as a graduation project at the HKB in Berne, Switzerland.
Mr. Frei has been an occasional comic artist for quite a bunch of years, then studied graphic design at the Hochschule der Künste Bern where he still included the spirit of comics in his work, sometimes graphically, but mostly ideologically.
Bored by the linearity of conventional comic storytelling and the uniformity of the medium itself (it's all books...), Mr. Frei started working on a different way of displaying graphic stories. After a theoretical research on the communication mechanisms of comics he finally wound up with the RCPS.
download Mr Frei's theoretical research on the subject (german only)
For Questions concerning the RCPS please contact Mr Frei by clicking here
Mr. Frei would like to thank:
- Mr. Georges Schmutz of Giessform for excellence in tutorship.
- Mr. Scott McCloud and Mr. Will Eisner for being the wise men they are.
- Serigraphie Uldry for printing the poster and for keeping their cool under the enormous time pressure.
- Basisdruck for printing the postcards and for being good chums, too.
- Mr. Monkey for living his life parallel to mine and letting me tell about it.
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April 5, '05
The RCPS will also be featured at the DNS-Award 05 Exhibition (April 16-30) at the Villa Bernasconi, Geneva. Be there or be square.
March 18, '05
Mr. Frei would like to announce something cool: The second RCPS Poster is in progress. It will first be presented to the masses at the Fumetto comicfestival (April 16-24, 2005) in Lucerne, at the Ruby Tuesday Shopfront. RCPS 1 Posters will be available there, too. The second poster will be perfectly compatible to the first one, meaning that the posters can be docked onto each other.
November 20, '04
ALLRIGHT. Mr. Frei would like to announce that the RCPS poster is now finally for sale.
It is available at the burodiscount store in Zurich and costs about 50 Swiss Francs (that is, er... 30 Euro). They will launch a webshop in early 05, so the RCPS will ship anywhere soon. If you want one RIGHT NOW just send them an e-mail and ask nicely.
November 1, '04
The RCPS has been nominated for the DNS-Award 05. Which is a cool thing.
July 9, '04
Mr Demian5 tried to blackmail Mr. Frei into making the RCPS poster preview bigger, so that the details can be read too. Well, allright... now it is.
However, Mr. Frei would like to mention on this occasion that he usually can't be blackmailed that easily. Now please lease do check out Demian's Page and find out what other mischievous plans this man is working on.
July 6, '04
Scott McCloud has linked the RCPS page. Let's link right back to him! Ha!
July. 5, '04
Soulmates. Mr Frei's would hereby like to express his heartfelt respect to the other RCPS.
June 5, '04
The battle against the popup problem is over and it's NOT Mr. Frei who had to give in. Again, man triumphs over machine!
June 3, '04
A great day! This site goes online! Mr. Frei is wondering why those popup windows aren't working. Has he done anything wrong?
May 28, '04
Bad News: The ComicsChäller in Berne
is no more. Mr. Frei has to think of other distribution channels for the RCPS posters.
May 10, '04
The Fumetto festival is over. Although it wasn't communicated anywhere, Mr Frei has sold two posters. On this occasion, he would like to thank the people who went for the extra trouble of asking for the posters! Big respect! Good taste, too!
About May 7, '04
Mr. Frei realizes that he had also forgotten to communicate that his posters are actually for sale at the festival.
April 30, '04
The RCPS is featured at the Fumetto comicfestival in Lucerne! For 10 days the posters are displayed at the Goetti/Niederer Shopfront. Sadly, Mr. Frei forgets to bring his camera and cannot capture this glorious moment. But Mr. Frei hopes he can sell some more posters there.
Big thanks to Häumu and his Opel and Wüdu and his parent's Peugeot who helped transporting the whole thing!
April. 24, '04
A big honor: Mr. Frei is invited to introduce the RCPS to the post-graduate students of the NDS/signage at the HKB Berne, this time without the funny hat. Still, the students (mainly old geezers) seem to get what he's trying to say.
Mar. 6, '04
Mr. Frei realizes that he has made a small fortune by selling the posters at the exhibition. He decides not to spend it on drinks but rather on a new handle-bar for his bike.
Feb. 25 - Mar. 5, '04
The RCPS is a public magnet at the graduation exhibition, mainly because Mr. Frei had built a special darkened room where the part of the story printed in night-glow-color could be seen.
Also, the exhibition is the first opportunity to test the RCPS in public. Results are encouraging: Most people get it.
Feb. 21, '04
Mr Frei rocks the graduation jury with a stunning presentation of his RCPS project and makes a fool out of himself wearing a funny hat which has "RCPS Conviction Agent" written on it. Nevertheless, he recieves top marks and stays drunk for almost a week.
Before Feb. 21, '04
Mr Frei has a tough time developing the RCPS.