Digital Experience Rebuild
Operation ajax
When a unique, award-winning digital graphic novel faced extinction due to outdated tech, RSM rebuilt it from the ground up for the open web — preserving and expanding its creative depth, educational value, and powerful historical storytelling for a new, global audience.
Client
Cognito Comics
Services
The Challenge
Preserve, convert, and relaunch a beloved, award-winning, cinematic graphic novel from iOS app to open web experience.
Operation Ajax is a groundbreaking digital comic exploring the CIA's covert role in Iran’s 1953 coup. Released in 2011 on iOS, it was unlike anything else in digital media: a richly animated, deeply layered interactive experience, crafted with painstaking visual detail and sophisticated audio accompaniment. It won wide acclaim and raised awareness about hidden but important stories of global history.
But despite its success, Ajax was dying.
Built in a custom 32-bit Unity engine for iOS, the app’s tech was no longer supported. RSM was tasked with recreating and relaunching the project. But this wasn’t just a platform problem — it was a challenge of creative preservation and envisioning a new future for the project.
The Process
RSM not only rebuilt the product, but helped ensure it would endure, advising a move to the open web to increase access, longevity, and impact.
Rebuilding meant more than just translating code. It required reimagining the experience on a new platform, while preserving the artistic nuance that defined its power.
Rebuilt the Experience
Replaced Unity with scalable web architecture for modern browsers
Animation Pipeline
Customized Adobe Animate CC system to faithfully match original transitions, motion, and visual flow
Update Engine
Headless CMS to allow fast, flexible content updates without relying on developers
Artistic Precision
Collaborated closely with original creators to match visual tone, timing, and interactivity down to the frame
Added Analytics
Designed and implemented Google Analytics throughout the experience to provide critical insights into reader behavior and engagement
The Outcome
The new Operation Ajax experience is now live on the open web — freely accessible, beautifully responsive, and built to grow. RSM didn’t just rebuild a product; we helped ensure a piece of interactive media history wasn’t lost to time.
Ajax is once again reaching readers, teachers, and funders around the world — and now has the infrastructure to evolve well into the future.
Recognition
Daniel Burwen, Creator of Operation Ajax
Why It Matters
Operation Ajax is a groundbreaking digital comic exploring the CIA's covert role in Iran’s 1953 coup. Released in 2011 on iOS, it was unlike anything else in digital media: a richly animated, deeply layered interactive experience, crafted with painstaking visual detail and sophisticated audio accompaniment. It won wide acclaim and raised awareness about hidden but important stories of global history.
