2009 February | Sequential Art Collective Blog

Archive for February, 2009

Hippasus Gurgles: Math, Sequence, Narrative

On alternating Fridays, Michael Carlisle examines the world “outside” sequential art to find… more sequential art. Expect mathematics, a bit of madness, and a dash of pessimistic optimism.

by Michael Carlisle

Hi. My name is Mike, and currently I’m an academic.

(“Hi, Mike!”)

Some day I hope to get out with a Ph.D.

In mathematics.

Already you’re wondering, why is this guy here?

I want to share an idea with you. What are the sequential arts? These are, in the McCloudian sense,

mccloud_defn

Yes, there’s argument about this definition. However, I’m a mathematician, and so I, like the esteemed Mr. McCloud, like to start with understandable (and general) definitions.

I will now proceed to give a most unmathematical argument.¹
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2009: 02/06
POSTED BY: mike
CATEGORY: Hippasus Gurgles
Ramblings of a Fanboy
TAGS: logic
math
narrative
sequence
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Strip Search: Garfield Minus Garfield

On alternating Thursdays, Jennifer M. Babcock reviews and recommends comic strips available in print and on the web.

by Jennifer M. Babcock

I wasn’t sure what to write about for my first blog, other than I wanted to do something either about syndicated comic strips or web comics. After some thinking I decided I was going to write about a comic that relates to both: “Garfield Minus Garfield,” a web comic that is a new feature on GoComics.com, a site run by uclick, which is a part of Universal Press Syndicate (and where my comic, “C’est la Vie,” also happens to be featured!)

2009: 02/05
POSTED BY: jen
CATEGORY: Strip Search
TAGS: comic
garfield
philosophy
strip
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Die by the Pen: Jared 101

Every Wednesday, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

by Jared Gniewek

jmg

When I was a small boy I lived in a small city called Clinton, Iowa. It lies just north of the Quad Cities, and has an incredible public swimming pool. We lived about a stone’s throw from the Mississippi River and in my mind (ala Woody Allen in Annie Hall living directly under the roller coaster) the mighty river flowed through the alley directly behind our house. As a fourth grader there, I had a ritual. Every Tuesday after brawling in the schoolyard I would walk the five or six blocks of tree-lined streets to the local Library. The children’s section was where I first discovered many of my passions: Time-Life books on the supernatural, UFOs, cryptozoology, Grimm’s fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen, Andrew Lang’s colored Fairy Books, Bullfinch’s Mythology, L. Frank Baum, and photo-picture book adaptations of cheesy monster movies.

It was as though they had a section in the card catalogue entitled “Jared’s Brain”. I’m not sure where that would lie in the Dewey Decimal System but the numbers would probably all add up to AWESOME!

2009: 02/04
POSTED BY: jared
CATEGORY: Die By the Pen
TAGS: origin
pen
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Mr. M’s Alphabet of the Arcane!: The Letter A

On alternating Tuesdays, Justin Maudslien, aka Sub-Human’s Mr. M., explores weird and little known factoids and shares his skewed observations about the world of comics, cartoons and sequential art. (All images copyright their respective owners and creators.)

by Justin Maudslien

Tremble in fear, mortals, for the first posting of Mr. M’s Alphabet of the Arcane is here.

Today’s blog is brought to you by the letter “A,” which stands for alcohol – specifically alcohol in comics. I really enjoy this subject because I’m a bartender who reads comics, so I might be slightly biased. Mwuhahahaha!