About the interactive comic

Hailed as “the first Norwegian comic that makes use of sound, music and motion”, Close, Closer, Closest is a short autobiographical digital comic by Fredrik Rysjedal. The author searches for family stories that will bring him closer to his grandfather, who died 15 years before he was born. One of the few things that Fredrik knows about his grandfather is that he was a sailor during WWII and that there are probably many stories about him to be unearthed. Close, Closer, Closest is a personal portrait of post-war Norway and family relations.

Artistically, Fredrik defines Close, Closer, Closest as a “comic hybrid” since it mixes static images and moving sequences. Zoom-ins and zoom-outs are activated both automatically and by the viewer. Another peculiarity of this digital comic are the small pieces of tape applied to the page. Additionally, the evocative soundtrack by Stephan Meidel plunges the viewer into a suggestive atmosphere. Over the course of 2016, Close, Closer, Closest has also been presented at several public readings as a kind of “performance comic”.

About the author

Fredrik Rysjedal is an illustrator and comic artist from Leirvik in Sogn og Fjordane, based in Bergen, Norway. He got his formal education at Bergen Academy of Art and Design where he made a Bachelor and Master degree in design. He was a fellow researcher at the same institution from 2012–2015, where he made an artistic research on the topic screen-based comics and the hybrid between comic and film.

Credits

Close, Closer, Closest was developed under the umbrella of the artistic research project “Frozen Moments In Motion” (blog) at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design/University of Bergen. It was funded and organised by the Norwegian Program of Artistic Research.

Story and visuals: Fredrik Rysjedal
Music: Stephan Meidel
Programming: Hans Philip Eide
Translator: Sunniva Vik