Well, I promised you an actual example of a comic done in SVG, so now I'll deliver. This one, entitled “Bad News” has a bit of an SVG twist.
As you can see, the characters are placed a bit further into the background than normal. You can see that they're having some sort of conversation, but the details are only visible if you look closely. One of the advantages of SVG is the ability to zoom in without the image degrading into a bunch of indistinguishable and anonymous dots. You can see what I mean by right-clicking on the area of their faces and choosing “Zoom In.”
What a jerk! I don't know what he's said to her, but it's obviously made her cry. Apart from illustrating the overt features of SVG, this shows how it can be used to achieve an aesthetic effect. Placing the characters in the background gives a sense of emotional distance, enhanced by the fact that we can't “hear” what the man is saying. I could just as easily put a voice balloon in the frame to give a voyeuristic thrill to the reader, like this:
There are a lot of possibilities for this technique, used judiciously; as with any gimmick, the effect on the reader is drastically lessened with overuse, often to the point of merely being an irritant. But take, for example, the use of it in an upcoming panel from our spy/adventure series: as our hero passes by, the reader can see a man perusing a newspaper in the background; were the astute reader to zoom in on the paper, he would see that the headline story gives foreshadowing for what is to happen to the hero (I'll post a link to this soon). It's not crucial to the story, but it gives the story a little more “texture.” In the panel above, the effect is mainly an emotional one; the gray color of the bubble, the padding around the words, and the italic font-style all give the impression of a muted whisper. Maybe he's hissing at her not to make a scene in public. Again, what a creep... but wait! Maybe you aren't seeing the whole picture. Try stepping back a few feet, by right-clicking and selecting “Zoom Out.”
So, maybe the guy isn't such a jerk after all--maybe he's protecting the girl. Well, out in the open like that, he's not doing a very good job, but his heart's in the right place. The man in the foreground with the gun brings a new level of threat to the scene. (And he's not wearing any pants!) In our own comics, we intend to let the reader know that there's more to the scene by changing the color of the panel outline. But here it's hinted at by the fact that the bush on the right side of the panel is cut off, perhaps prompting the reader to investigate further by zooming or panning. Panning, incidentally, is achieved by holding down the “Alt” button and grabbing and dragging with the mouse.
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