Multiplex is a comedy webcomic written and drawn by Gordon McAlpin which ran from 2005 to 2017. The comic focuses on the lives of the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas and the movies that play there.[1] Originally envisioned as an animated short, Multiplex is visually inspired by cut paper animation and vector graphics. Three print collections of the webcomic were released from 2010 to 1017. McAlpin's webcomic ended in April 2017, and the series is to be rebooted in the form of a stand-alone animated film, titled Multiplex 10.
Multiplex is a webcomic about the employees and customers of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas located in a fictional suburb of Chicago. The Multiplex 10 employs a large number of young adults and has a wide variety of customers: many of the strips revolve around how the staff interacts with their customers, while others deal with what happens with the staff after the cinema has closed.[2] The series was set in real-time, and most strips include a date, making its many movie references more understandable.[3]
The cast of Multiplex consists mainly of the staff of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas, with some of the customers having recurring roles in the comic.
Some recurring customers include Björn Lager, an obese white middle-aged man akin to the Comic Book Guy, a "Creepy Loser" who once applied for a staff position at the Multiplex hoping to be able to meet some of the theater's female staff workers, and a "Stalker Boy" with an obsession for Melissa.
McAlpin began posting Multiplex in July 2005. His brother Lawrence, a programmer, helped set up the website for him and later programmed the Multiplex iPhone app. When McAlpin began writing his webcomic, he liberally made use of the dynamic canvas size of webcomics, making his strips as long as they needed to be.[4] McAlpin originally intended to create Multiplex as an animated short, but abandoned the idea and later decided to publish it as a webcomic.[5] Visually, McAlpin was strongly influenced by cut paper animation and vector graphics, stating that "the flatness of it can be beautiful thing." The writing of Multiplex was inspired by Archie, South Park, Clone High, and sitcoms like The Office and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.[2]
В интервью Newsarama Макэлпин заявил, что не любит читать веб-комиксы онлайн, заявив, что печатные комиксы содержат в четыре раза больше деталей, чем цифровые. Макэлпин проработал в полиграфии и издательстве большую часть своей жизни и заявил: «Мне нравится вес книг, дизайн, текстура бумаги и особенно более высокое качество воспроизведения произведений искусства». Сборник ранних стрипов Multiplex был выпущен в печати в 2010 году под названием Multiplex: Enjoy the Show . Макэлпин отметил, что архив его веб-комиксов, насчитывающий более 500 полос, может напугать, и что коллекция печатных изданий в мягкой обложке облегчит новым читателям доступ к серии. МакАлпин профинансировал релиз через краудфандинг на Kickstarter , поставив цель в размере 7500 долларов США и собрав более 12 500 долларов США. Позже Макэлпин предположил, что он, возможно, был первым веб-карикатуристом, который использовал Kickstarter для финансирования печатного выпуска. [4] [6] Книга была опубликована в сентябре 2010 года компанией Chase Sequence Co. С тех пор были выпущены еще два сборника.