One week 'till the next Scott McCloud book comes out! WHOO!

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 4:57 pm

http://www.scottmccloud.com/makingcomics/

Whoo! Now I can learn comics advice from the mighty McCloud!

*dance*

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 1:01 pm

...

Squeee!

Just the other week I finally bought my own copy of "Understanding Comics"... Sheer brilliance.

Sigh. *is such a fanboy*

--RS

Micro_Fur · Post by **Micro_Fur** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 1:54 pm

*Sigh* I wonder when the next issue of 'Circles' will be published.

Micro_fur - Patience is a virtue with deminishing returns.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:11 pm

RandomScribe wrote:...

Squeee!

Just the other week I finally bought my own copy of "Understanding Comics"... Sheer brilliance.

Sigh. *is such a fanboy*

--RS

You read "Reinventing Comics" yet? Seriously squeeworthy stuff. (And don't forget to dig around on scottmccloud.com for "I Can't Stop Thinking" for awesomeness.)

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:04 am

Wait, there's another one? Geez, where have I been? O.o

--RS

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:18 pm

Reinventing Comics is much more of a Trend-oriented book; the objective here is to project some of the potential ways in which the future of comics can or should unfold.

As a result it is somewhat more political (McCloud veers just shy of calling the modern comics industry a vile beast scant years from choking on the filth of its own excess) and much more topical than Understanding Comics, but it also has lots more specifics on the ways McCloud imagines the future of comics. I absolutely adored this book, but as most people will point out, it isn't as profound as its predecessor. Scott points out at the very beginning of the book, however, that it isn't supposed to be.

DO check out ScottMcCloud.com's stuff, and Scott's blog which has introduced me to a number of truly freakalicious comics.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:20 pm

Got Making Comics. All I really have to say at his point is

mmmmMMmmyy prreeecciousssssss..

Micro_Fur · Post by **Micro_Fur** » Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:42 pm

allan_ecker wrote:-SNIP-
mmmmMMmmyy prreeecciousssssss..

Quick! Somebody get the shackles! We have a golem on the loose!

Micrp_fur - Recipient of the WTF? award.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:00 am

So, heh, right, more details. Well, if you haven't looked at my LiveJournal lately, well, let's just say I really like Making Comics.

This book is just amazing, really. I am fairly confident that in the end this will become the accepted "best book" of Scott's three books on comics. (Admittedly he wasn't even trying to make Reinventing Comics any more than a polemic on the state of the art.) Making Comics is... a magnificent text book, and honestly you could write a one-year college series on Comics that follows this thing: it's the Grey and Meyer's Analysis and Design of Analog Circuits of Comics.

One of the neat things about reading this book after making comics for six years is that a third of the lessons are ones I've already learned, another third are ones I had some sort of subconscious grip on but seing them put into words like that was a huge revelation, and another third were just like "buhhhwwhhhaaa? Daaaaaaaaayyyyuuum."

Particularly awesome was the segment on facial expressions, because some of it was "oh that's why I'm good at that" and other parts were like "but WAIT! I COULD GO FURTHER!" so, freaking yay all around.

No, I will not let my desire to experiment ruin UH2.

There are a few very specific things I'm trying to do with this comic, and the fact that I now know how to do a whoooole bunch of things I never had even considered doesn't mean I'll try to do them here. But I will be doing them.

Oh yessssssss...

I'll show them! I'll show THEM ALL!!!

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:56 pm

Oh, and by the way, I just got done watching Scott McCloud give a guest lecture. Yeah. I think I'm still kind of in shock. Details to follow once I've had a chance to compose myself.

--RS

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 6:49 pm

Still waiting raptly for that Scott rant. It's okay if you diss on him, even. I just wanna know what you thought; McCloud's ideas interest me intensely, even the ones I'm not so sure he's right about.

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 4:00 pm

Erf. I'd kinda forgotten about this thread. Sorry to keep you hanging.

First, if you'd excuse a brief fanboy moment... (I figure I'm asking the right person here.)

SCOTT. FREAKING. MCCLOUD. OMIGOD.

I really enjoyed the talk as a whole (you can find the audio recording here, by the way). Not having read all of Scott's stuff (yet), I don't know how much was said that he hasn't already touched on in his books and the I Can't Stop Thinking series, but it was still a lot of interesting stuff. The overall theme was something like "comics in the digital age," focusing both on the unique opportunities and drawbacks of the new technologies available to comic artists. For example, unlike print comics, webcomics have the ability to incorporate sound, animation, and interactivity--but at what price? Animation, for instance, disrupts the "space=time" equation that Scott holds is so crucial to comics.

There was also talk of very new and future technologies that might shape comics. Comics via iPod sounds like a cool idea (to some people, apparently, myself not included), but I agree with Scott that the form (tiny, tiny screen) would put some serious limitations on content. Also, what of alternatives to scrolling? Tactile interfaces that combine webcomics' liberation from the printed page with some of the advantages of print, tactile and otherwise (the division of comics into physically distinct "pages" is not without benefits, apparently). And virtual reality--imagine slipping on a VR headset and walking through a comic strip like you would browse an art gallery or walk along a mural. Lot of potential there, but the technology needs to be in place first.

The impression that I get is that what (web)comics need right now is some sort of "successful mutation" (his words) to survive and grow, and we don't know what it is yet. There is no good in webcomics just being print comics on a screen, but there are also a lot of innovative ideas that either don't seem to work outside of specialized experiments or else take us out of the realm of comics entirely. So I don't really know.

Apart from the actual content, the talk was really just a lot of fun. Scott's an entertaining guy, and used his slides (lots and lots and lots of slides) very well, though I suppose that makes sense. In a way, he's uniquely suited to create and give a PowerPoint presentation. It felt very much like a live-action production of one of his books.

On a more fanboyish note, in the middle of the talk he asked for a volunteer to play with this little gem on his computer while he talked about it, and guess who he picked. *points to self and mouths the word "Me."* Omigosh. I was within five feet of Scott McCloud and didn't do anything utterly humiliating. I'm so very proud of myself.

After his part of the talk, Scott's daughter Sky (her name is Sky McCloud--how awesome is that?) got up to talk about the McCloud clan's 50 State Tour, which has a blog. So if you want to see him, you should check that out.

The floor was then opened to questions, first from a panel of grad students and then from ordinary schmucks like us. Not too much new material was brought up, but there was some interesting discussion about the role of new online communities arising as a place to create, share, and discuss comics and other forms of art (Second Life, for example).

So, unless anyone has any specific questions, I'm going to go back to "Reinventing Comics," which I picked up at the library today because the bookstore didn't have it (heathens!). I'm trying to refrain from buying "Making Comics" so I can ask for it for my birthday, but deep inside I don't think I can be that strong.

--R ("SCOTT. FREAKING. MCCLOUD. OMIGOD.") S

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:43 pm

Heh. Glad to see I'm not the only one completely pathetic over Scott McCloud.

"Successful Mutation," huh? Well, he's right that nothing in comics has taken over yet. If you ask me, though, the stuff on e-sheep qualifies as comics which make use of the infinite canvas AND go beyond experimentation into the realm of real storytelling. As for Making Comics, all I really can say is that, well, it made me better at making comics.

Like, overnight.

That, you know, shouldn't be, uh, POSSIBLE. It's just a book, right? Right?

But I've churned out page after page of experimental comics, and all of them are really good stuff. Wake up and smell the content good. Maybe I'm delusional but the page I posted on my LiveJournal this weekend strikes me as one of my best comics ever. Perhaps it's due to the very strong "you can do this, too" attitude he puts forward in the book; Making Comics is half study guide, half pep talk. And it's really, really good stuff.

So, yeah <3 McCloud.

The_Fox · Post by **The_Fox** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:59 pm

Hm. I'm downloading the talk. But I suppose this is yet another book I ought to read.

- Jarylan

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:00 pm

... Sky's presentation style is FREAKISHLY like her father's.

Alfador · Post by **Alfador** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:40 am

Idea for a virtual world comic:

Walk into a room. Your character is invisible, like an FPS hero, and so not disruptive to the setting. This is especially important because, as the point-of-view of the reader, your avatar will move. None of the comic characters move, as each "frame" is a still shot of action. Speech appears in easy-to-read bubbles that follow your camera view like item sprites in Doom. When you're finished observing the scene in as much detail as you want, walk through the next door.

Granted, depending on the engine (I thought "This would be easy to implement in Second Life!" and then I thought "But it would be so freaking slow to walk through...") there may be various problems with seeing this as equivalent to a comic. The artist may stuff more dialogue into each scene to make up for the facts that a) it's a lot more effort to detail every aspect of a scene from every point of view instead of just one, and b) the reader is going to be lingering over a single panel for far longer than in a print comic. Action sequences would be difficult, and a "page turn" remote held by the reader might speed things up a bit: go through the door when you're taking the time to "read" each panel in detail, or use the remote when there are a bunch of similar panels with lots of motion.

It was just my visualization of how space=time would work in a VR context: pass through a door and you're in the same room moments later. (though the engine might see it as just an identical room with different character positioning, to simplify the programming.)

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 8:42 pm

AR Gurney wrote a play called "The Dining Room" that traces over many years the history of a single room and the people who move through it... It seems quite suited to being adapted to this sort of format.

Just an idea...

--RS

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:54 pm

Okay, so. You know how I was going to hold off on getting Making Comics so I could ask for it for my birthday? Well, I broke down and bought it yesterday, because I have no self-restraint. And then I went home and read it in one sitting, because, again, I have no self-restraint. Yeah. And I really really liked it. And I've now read the entire McCloud trilogy, or whatever you want to call it. So... Now I just need to actually draw something. ^^;

--RS ("Mmmmm... Diagrams...")

(...Seriously, that has to be my favorite panel out of the whole book.

)

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:20 pm

"Mmm... Diagrams" has got to be one of the funniest things ever. Although I think my favorite panel in the book is actually the one after that with the sheepish pause.

Making Comics is a glorious, glorious thing, and if you have been keeping up with my LiveJournal you'll notice I've been using that space to do loads and loads and LOADS of experiments, most of which lately have in one way or another been influenced by that book.

Man that book rules so much.

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:23 pm

It does, it does! ^^

And your LiveJournal experiments are quite interesting. I approve. I still need to try the dice one...

--RS