'World First' Online Comic Book Charts the Adventures of Brand New Heroes FireFingers & IceFist!

In a UK first, global super-brands Doritos and Pepsi MAX have teamed up to create an online comic starring two unique superheroes, FireFingers and IceFist. These all-new characters are inspired by their brand new products, Doritos Jalapeño Fire and Pepsi MAX Citrus Freeze, and their online comic is pushing the boundaries of what the medium can do. Here at What Culture! we were lucky enough to get an exclusive behind the scenes look at how these characters were brought to life. First thing's first - these new flavours are, it has to be said, incredibly tasty and compliment each other perfectly. As the press release states: 'Together these great new flavours create a super-powerful combination of spicy hot and cooling lime and, like FireFingers and IceFist themselves, when united they are an unstoppable force." It might sound like hyperbole but, judging by the ways in which this online comic book is attempting to revolutionise the medium, it's a fair comment that is well justified. Upon talking to the animation team at The Mill, it's immediately evident how much passion has gone into designing this online comic, with the whole creative team at The Mill being determined to do things differently to the competition. They believed that the world of online comics was largely an €˜unexplored€™ territory and, while most web-comics simply display the pages similar to how a basic PDF reader might do, The New Yet Somehow Continuing Adventures of FireFingers & IceFist fully takes advantage of its position as an online comic book. It incorporates elements of motion comics, such as having animation within the panels, features a fully scored music accompaniment and sound effects that help accentuate story developments, as well as seamlessly integrating unique interactive elements within the course of its narrative. These mini-games allow the reader to participate in the story, such as getting the chance to test out the duo€™s super-powers on an unsuspecting sofa, and it truly creates a unique comic-book reading experience that no other online comic can match. As The Mill€™s Andy Orrick stated: €œWe wanted to create a piece that is true to the comic book world that uses interaction as a storytelling device, but putting storytelling and character at the heart of the experience." Unlike the creative process of comics nowadays, particularly online ones, the team behind The New Yet Somehow Continuing Adventures of FireFingers & IceFist opted to use traditional methods of animation, relying on a sole artist to do all of the pencils, in an effort to create a sense of continuity to the characters and their behaviour, thus allowing them to create a distinctive idiosyncrasy to the characters' personalities that would have not been possible had multiple artists been involved in interpreting them. Similarly, a single inker was involved, allowing the aesthetic to remain consistent across all stages, and all the inks were done by hand rather than digitally, creating a tone that is reminiscent of the traditional, old school cartoons that we were all brought up on as kids- meaning that, despite its status as a digital comic, the book is very nostalgic in its values. It€™s a credit to the team that they haven€™t tried to copy the generic conventions of most super-hero comics, with the style having more in common with the distinctive, idiosyncratic cartoonish nature of indie-books like €˜Chew€™ and €˜Scott Pilgrim€™, and the comparisons to these types of offbeat books doesn't end there. Humour is present throughout the story, with The Viz being a major influence (though the comedy here is obviously slightly tamer!) and the book regularly pokes fun at the conventions of super-hero stories (the action takes place in Generic City, and the heroes get their powers from a meteor) while still clearly having a deep reverence for the genre. Along with the online comic book, there will also be an animated commercial starring FireFingers and IceFist that will introduce audiences to both the characters as well as the brand new products, Doritos Jalapeño Fire and Pepsi MAX Citrus Freeze. To view the first episode of The New Yet Somehow Continuing Adventures of FireFingers & IceFist visit www.doritosandmax.com, where you can also enter a daily prize draw with the chance to win a trip to hot Las Vegas or cool Iceland! Episode 2 will be debuting in the near future, and, judging by the cliffhanger of Episode 1, it can't come soon enough.