Reading comics for work

August 23, 2010 5:21 am by Neil Cohn

I admit it, I have a pretty sweet job. Among the paper writing, class teaching, and data gathering (all fun), it is true that at least a portion of my time is devoted to reading comics. A lot of comics. I end up combing through hundreds of pages of comics just to find examples that might be worth discussing in my papers.

For example, this summer I’ve been working on a massive paper detailing the inner workings of how people comprehend sequential images. And by “massive”, I mean that I still have numerous sections left to fill in, and the paper is already 130 pages.

I spent last weekend combing through a giant stack of Calvin and Hobbes looking for interesting strips. Unsurprisingly, there were many. (It’s a rough life…)

One of the things I’ve noticed recently is that very few comic sequences really faze me anymore. I seem to be able to account for most everything I come across in my existing theories, which is both cool (“yay, my theories seem to be working!”) and troubling (“I need to find more strips with things I haven’t thought of!”).

So, if you happen to have any sequences that you think are a little strange or challenging (especially strips), please send them my way! Maybe I’ll even post them here and give them some analysis…