Blog

  • The God That Wasn’t There

    I recently watched this documentary that questions whether Jesus actually existed and explores the gaps in the historical record to this effect. It had some interesting points, but could have benefited from even more exposition in the details and expanded commentary about the consequences of its conclusions. Of similar nature is this episode of Penn…

  • Digital Creation

    As evidenced by my work in A Love Story and the Meditations series (like the now updated “Karuna” story), I have embraced digital tools with open arms. Though, I have some thoughts on their use, especially integrating them with line art and, shall we say, “techniques from the hand” (i.e. non-CGI produced). Essentially, I think…

  • Kinder Reflections on Understanding Comics

    So, in my “Problems with Closure” posts (parts 1, 2, 3, 4), I was in my “bloodthirsty academic” mode. I aught to add that Understanding Comics should be commended for “closure” in some ways too. Though it does provide explanations for the way things work, in many ways, the most important contribution of UC is…

  • Problems with Closure, part 4

    In my last post, I pointed out the assumption that pictures are not connected to any mental apparatus. I now continue on to show how that affects analysis of sequential images… Assumption #3: Absence of Mind By minimizing the contribution of the mind, a simple theory like closure can easily emerge. The images’ meanings are…

  • Another cycle

    My birthday gift to all of you is another page of “Karuna”.

  • Problems with Closure, part 3

    In my last post I pointed out that pictures are not believed to have constraints on them, and that the mind must place constraints on any sort of understanding: Assumption #2: The Veil of Iconicity This assumption is that pictures are “out there in the world,” not learned information, and thus not mental phenomena. McCloud…

  • Problems with Closure, part 2

    The first problem with closure isn’t a direct one, but a tendency of the way our culture treats graphic images as a whole. As a topic, it also happens to nicely correspond to my new article up at comixpedia: Assumption #1: Artistic Freedom In line with an “Art” perspective, there is a tacit assumption that…

  • Passing Judgment

    I’ve got new article up at Comixpedia discussing how intuitive judgments can lend towards developing a theories on the structure of visual language. I’m trying a new approach with this one, which I’m hoping to do more of: I’m laying out basic principles of methodology, and then leaving the actual theorizing to the readers. Its…

  • Addendum on Intentionality

    After that long post, I should note that there is nothing inherently wrong with an “interpretive” analysis for its own sake. I have no problems with artistic readings of things and discussions of what a given work “means.” To be clear, what I’m arguing against is the conflation of analyses of interpretation and those of…

  • Problems with Closure, part 1

    I’ve been reading Mike Meginnis’ blog lately, which has stirred up some observations I have about the issues of closure. As astute readers of my work know, I don’t buy into the ideas of closure anymore. I did once — developing more panel transitions even — but not since four years ago when I realized…