It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time...

What do you think about this?

I think my suggestion came across as more radical than I'd intended, but it's resulting in an interesting discussion.

Okay, the new site's front page is almost done, comments enabled and everything. We just need to jump through a few hoops to get the permalinks and rss to play nice and then there can be a central feed for LJ, the Facebook page, etc...

Stop by toss in your two cents on the burning issue of the day: whether Craig Thompson is the Sufjan Stevens of comics.

[cross-posted with the new site still, but hope to have a proper blog live soon]

Dylan Horrocks Awaits You

The great Dylan Horrocks has relaunched his website with new comics and other content that will mess with your head in exciting new ways.



Get your brain and eyes and bookmarks to hicksvillecomics.com now.

[cross-posted for now with the new site]

More Infographic Terror

Everybody and his brother is linking to this great animation by Jonathan Jarvis about the credit crisis:



Literally my brother in this case, who was blogging regularly about the housing collapse before it happened here.

[Yeah, I'm working on it]

Five-Card Flickr?

Another invention has been mutating while I've been hibernating (this time via Ms. Nancy).



Check out 5-Card Story & 5-Card Flickr by way of the esteemed Alan Levine, aka CogDog, and add your own photos the pool.

Oh! And argue about whether it's comics or not.

[cross-posted with my new blog until it's a little more bloggy and a little less lame]

Information Wants to be Loved

Two videos. My daughter Sky showed me this last week:



And Cat Garza showed us this on his blog last week:



They've both been around for a while (2006 & 2002), but if you've never seen either I strongly recommend both. [dates edited to match main page]

Funny thing is, I love the first one because it's all about pure information—spare, monochrome, one idea at a time—and I love the second one because it's just the opposite: a cascading waterfall of mostly useless infographics. Maybe it's just the sensation of being taught. Maybe it's just porn for info-geeks like me. Either way I can't take my eyes off them.

[Cross-posted with the new site blog until I have a proper rss feed bloggy thing]

Making Faces

The Grimace Project is a freakishly cool facial expression generator that came out a few weeks ago in which you can mix and match any two of the six "emotional primaries" that I charted in Chapter 2 of Making Comics.



The project comes out of the Vienna University of Technology under the guidance of Peter Purgathofer. The team kindly acknowledges me, but credit is equally due to my own inspirations for the charts, artist Gary Faigin and researcher Paul Eckman -- not to mention Mr. Darwin.

Facial expressions should be taught in every grade school. Just because kids can "write" and "read" them through instinct is no reason not to help them understand this powerful communicative tool we all carry around on the front of our heads. Widgets like the Grimace Project could be a great starting point.

It's Alive!



So, I updated the site. All feedback welcome, including:

1. Typos
2. Bugs
3. Stuff you like
4. Stuff you hate
5. Features you want to see added
6. Suggestions for front page conversion to full PHP (probably WP) blog in the near future.
7. A better name for the blog

Thanks!

Poughkeepsie this Saturday.



Going to NonCon at Vassar Saturday (Feb 21). Lecture at 2pm, and presumably hanging around a bit as well. See you there!

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New Site and Blog next week, BTW. Just ironing out some bugs this week.

It's official!



A few weeks ago, I visited the Manhattan offices of our friends at First Second books to discuss my plans for an original graphic novel that I've been dreaming of for more than two decades, and which, in the last couple of years, has become a full-blown obsession. The three of us—myself, First Second, and the book—got along so well together, that we've decided to get hitched for the above linked-to two-book deal.

This means that I'll be working with a great comics-savvy team and a whip-smart editor, but perhaps best of all, it means that when I travel to New York (which I'll be doing often since the graphic novel takes place in Manhattan) I get to visit their offices in the frickin' FLATIRON building:



How cool is that?

I'm redesigning my site right now and will be relaunching with a new blog soon, so look for many more details and sneak peaks of this massive new project in the near future.