"1296 Universes" Back to the Comic
Random chance meets determinism.
"1296 Universes" is a different, randomly generated comic strip each time the page is visited. Each of the four life stages (childhood, teenage years, adulthood and method of death) are selected from six possibilities, resulting in 1296 different stories.
The work was inspired by the science fiction stories of parallel realities, where small changes result in major differences over time. Inspired by this, the original piece was constructed on 4" cubes, where the viewer could literally roll the dice to change reality. The first and last panels were on cubes glued into place, so that no matter what chance had in store for the main character, he couldn't escape death.
In addtion to the chance aspect, the viewer can click the panels to alter the protagonist's life, either for better or for worse. Through this interactivity, the viewer becomes part of the storytelling process and simultaneously becomes the god of the universe where the character lives.
Below are the various panels available:
Childhood
Teenage Years
Adulthood
Method of Death
Programming assitance with this comic was provide by Ashwin Purohit.