Jason Shiga talks "Meanwhile" at the Alternative Press Expo (2009)

I talk to cartoonist, mathematician, and librarian Jason Shiga about his book Meanwhile. This choose-your-own-story, or what Shiga refers to as an "adventuregame comic", was self published in 2001 as a handcut black and white booklet. Amulet published a full color deluxe edition in 2010. Shiga wasn't selling copies at APE, but was instead giving them away to patrons who could solve 3 difficult logic puzzles by the end of the day. Only three attendees managed to solve those. Filmed at the 2009 Alternative Press Expo (October 17–18 — Concourse Exhibition Center, San Francisco) From Andrew Plotkin's site: "Meanwhile began as a series of seven increasingly complex flowcharts. Once the outline of the story was structured, a computer algorithm determined the most efficient way to transfer it to book form, using a system of tabs to interlink the panels and pages. The problem proved to be NP-complete; it was finally cracked in spring of 2000, with the aid of a V-opt heuristic algorithm whi