Blog

  • Comics and Information Design

    What with the chaos of getting ready to move, I’m going to skip updates on Meditations until I get settled into Boston in a week and a half. In the meantime… John Soellner alerts me to his site comparing qualities of “comics” with information design. He has a nice set of links down at the…

  • Personality Tribing?

    In several of his latest interviews, talks, and, I assume, upcoming book, Scott has talked about his “Four Tribes” theory that roughly describes different groupings of creative enterprise. His chart looks roughly like this: Classicists are concerned with beautiful craftsmanship, Animists with the craft of the story. Formalists dissect the medium itself, and Iconoclasts rebel…

  • Codex Boturini

    My old friend John Jacobson passes along this link to the final pages of the Mexica Aztecs’ Codex Boturini which shows some very interesting text/sequential image combinations. It’s definitely worth reading through the Brief Readings of each page, and at least perusing the essay. One of the things I find interesting about it is its…

  • Theory informed tutorials

    Well, now that I’m back online, it looks like this week is just a blogging bonanza!… Scott links to Rivkah’s blog instruction series on Paneling, Pacing, and Layout in Comics and Manga. It’s broken up into a couple parts: Part One Part Two (It looks like one more part is on the way. I’ll update…

  • Just for the kiddies

    This was a final thought that never got posted on the whole “Iconic Bias” kick. I started thinking about the old “Comics are for kids” misperception related to it all. On the one hand, I think we can all agree that this belief has come in part from the selection of genres and social contexts…

  • La Pluie

    At long last, my Meditations have returned. Here’s the latest called “La Pluie”. The use of French was largely intended for the melancholy mood it gives, and I took into account that readers might not actually be able to read it. My own French is rather poor (which actual French speakers will probably notice), as…

  • Wizard World Chicago Wrap up

    I’m happily unwinding after a long weekend of Wizard World Chicago. I lucked out with a booth next to Jose and Daphne from Dreamweaver Press, which was fun since we were booth neighbors in San Diego a few years back too. Though it was a little slow, I was very glad to talk to everyone…

  • Pictureless Byrne

    Derik was sent a great series of pages from an old Marvel Alpha Flight issue by John Byrne that uses only words in the panels. I also second his observation about the mainstream character of the pages, despite no picture content. It’s also fun to see a little formalist experimentation by such a mainstream artist…

  • ComicCon Report (finally)

    Huzzah! My computer has returned. While I was responding to (and purging) a few emails I was astounded to find 520 emails had accumulated across my various addresses. So, if you’ve emailed or expected more prompt communication from me over the last two weeks, I apologize and please be patient… I’ll get to it in…

  • Reruns at Sequart.com

    So, after discovering my post about them, the folks over at Sequart have kindly offered to repost some of my essays on the comic industry that initially appeared at Comixpedia over the last few years. I’m grateful for the exposure to a new audience, and if you’ve surfed over here from there, welcome to my…