Blog

  • Visual language in society

    As I’ve mentioned before, I think that the meshing of the notion of “comics” with sequential images (a simple glossing of what I call visual language) actually hurts the perception of the graphic form by pigeon-holing it into a specific cultural context. If this form of communication was actually used like a language there would…

  • Status report

    School is back in full swing, which means my time to devote to other projects (like blogging) has received a decimating blast. I’m still planning to post my research project on page layouts sometime soon — I just need to find the time to make some edits at this point. On the good side though…

  • “Comics” needs less nouns and more adjectives

    In the comments of a previous post, I started riffing about the different uses of the terms “graphic novel” and “comics”, and what might be a better terminology. It seems like people are constantly looking for that upgrade in terms so “comics” won’t be looked at disparagingly. But, as I discussed in this essay, just…

  • Video of Ray Jackendoff

    It’s not quite topical to the things I usually talk about on this blog, but my advisor recently gave a talk at Google that has now been posted to video: Jackendoff’s talk on “The Peculiar Logic of Value” centers on how humans conceptualize systems of value. He hypothesizes that value is conceptualized as an abstract…

  • ACLU comi… I mean “graphic novel”!

    Apparently the ACLU has an “online graphic novel” titled Defenders of Freedom up at their site. I find their use of wording interesting. The piece itself states, “We are not trying to disguise a civics lesson in a comic book” — though their tagline calls it their “first graphic novel” (apparently more will follow?). This…

  • Video: Visual Grammar

    The conference proceedings for the Visual and Iconic Languages Conference from a few weeks ago are now posted online. On the site you can download the slides from my talk, and they’ve also posted full video of the conference proceedings. I’ve embedded my talk below, and also to my site. I highly recommend watching this…

  • Trouble with categories in “Comics are not Literature”

    Listening to the downloadable mp3 of the “Comics are not Literature” panel from Comic-Con is fascinating as a demonstration for how different people’s categories are relating to the definitions of “comics,” “literature,” or even “reading” it seems. (all of the issues seem resolvable by accepting the notion of a visual language) As I’ve been claiming…

  • Manga facial symbols

    I’ve been putting the finishing touches on my first draft of a book chapter for a textbook on Japanese manga recently. Mainly, the last things I had to do was draw my examples. Also being a “comic author” is a big advantage as a scholar, since I can create my own examples when I don’t…

  • Lessons from manga

    I found an interesting discussion in this thread over The Engine discussing this quote from a PW article: Still, if there’s a manga feel to the books, it’s not an accident. “I went into my local bookstore, and there were two shelves for the entire history of American comics and 12 shelves for manga,” Crilley…

  • Understanding motion lines

    Friedman, Sarah L., and Marguerite B. Stevenson. 1975. Developmental Changes in the Understanding of Implied Motion in Two-dimensional Pictures. Child Development 46:773-778. This paper reports on an experiment testing how action lines are understood by children. They compared figures with postural cues showing motion (i.e. they look like they’re running) with those with motion lines,…