If comics are to thrive and grow as a medium in the 21st century, they’ll have to find their place somewhere in the midst of the digital world. Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that. It seems like everyone with a blog, column, or message forum login has offered his or her opinion on how online comics will (or won’t) work. But while these pundits drown themselves in speculation, a few innovative creators are actually putting their digital comics on the market.

Valentine, by Alex de Campi and Christine Larsen, is one such effort. It ventures into the era of Napoleonic France’s ill-advised invasion of Russia, focusing in on young Valentine Renaud, one of the failed campaign’s few surviving soldiers. As Valentine seeks to make his way home, he finds himself embroiled in an ages old conflict involving a supernatural, demonic foe, and a mysterious, powerful sword.

The series has been created specifically for reading on an electronic mobile device, meaning that it’s not simply a regular comic book scanned onto your computer screen. Following an iTunes-like sales model, episodes of Valentine may be purchased for many of the popular smart phones as well as for an e-book reader like the Amazon Kindle. The specific restrictions of these formats, as well as their unique capabilities, contribute to a reading experience that couldn’t be replicated on paper.

Most notable is the fact that only one panel of the story is displayed on screen at a time, essentially a necessity of a cell phone’s physical dimensions. To her credit, de Campi takes what could have been a limitation and turns it to her advantage. Whereas consecutive similar panels can appear boring on the printed page, they can be used to amplify dramatic effect or generate the illusion of motion when shown one by one. Envision a series of panels that progressively zoom in on a character’s face or a punch being thrown across a pair of otherwise static images.

The digital format also makes possible several variations on the classic types of panel transitions. At times, the frame slides horizontally from one panel to the next, revealing bit by bit the makeup of a panoramic view. Valentine also employs the addition or peeling away of layers atop a singular image. This can take the form of a field of snow gradually fading away across panels to reveal an approaching figure in the distance or a set of narrative captions superimposed over an establishing shot once the reader has had a chance to survey the scene. All of the above succeed in bringing life to de Campi and Larsen’s tale.

Do not think, however, that Valentine relies merely on the novelty of its format. In fact, the aforementioned techniques are used sparingly beyond the first episode, only in moments when they would legitimately contribute to the prevailing mood. The story itself is relatively simple, but only in a way that allows the reader to slip into the characters’ world without a massive amount of exposition.

Much of the plot is devoted to action, with just enough characterization offered to make these chase and fight scenes feel like they matter. Looking beautiful all the way, the excitement builds episode by episode. Before you know it, the human soldiers threatening Valentine are replaced by otherworldly flying creatures stretching to the farthest reaches of the sky. It reminds me of the animated work of Genndy Tartakovsky, whose Samuri Jack and Clone Wars cartoons used bare bones plots to facilitate dazzling battles royal.

It would be a shame to ignore a solid piece of work like Valentine while the better known publishers figure out their digital game plans. Whether or not de Campi and Larsen are giving us a predictive glimpse into the future of comics, there’s no reason not to enjoy the story they’re crafting right now.

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