In 2016 Leonieke Verhoog visited ‘’The Future of Storytelling conference in New York. Waiting to enter one of the great interactive installations her eye fell on a row iPads. She got introduced to a new format of scroll comics and was immediately sold. Before she even realized she dived into the black and white world of Phallaina. In Veldwerk #4 Leonieke talks to one of the producers of Phallaina Alexandrine Stehelin who has been involved in the process at transmedia studio Small Bang in Paris. Marietta Ren created and published Phallaina in 2016 as an application for iOS and Android.
" The simplicity of the animation, the black and white style, the special soundtrack, but especially the ability to control how fast you get through the story, makes Phallaina a remarkable and a new way to experience stories." – Leonieke Verhoog on Phallaina
Phallaina tells the story of a young woman Audrey, in 1600 screens. Audrey who experiences strange hallucinations, she tries to figure out what causes them but what she eagerly tries to find out is what they mean.
As a reader, you swipe and scroll the visuals all the way through the story, which allowed u to set your own reading pace.
Phallaina is a digital comic, filled with changing perspectives close-ups, single frames and cross frames. It’s rich in visual depth by parallax effects (Scroll technique) and immersive sound design. With that Phallaina sets a new standard for developments in this new genre.
In 2016 Phallaina has been selected for the Angoulême International Comic Book Festival, and the Naples Comicon. After that, it received the award for ‘’Best digital comic’’ at the new media film festival in Los Angeles and was a huge success at festivals as the Peabody and the Webby Awards.