Scott McCloud's Blog, page 13

Best. Email. Ever.

Okay, I officially love these guys now.

Got this letter this morning.

Dear Scott,

Mind if I call you Scott?

Oh, Scott, you have done so much for us comic geeks.

Reading comics is no longer childish. It's «de la culture» !

One book and everything changes. *sigh*

Thank you for that.

I have to tell you first how much my friends and I like you. We admire you.

But I have something else to say, and it won't please you. Ooooh no.

Do you like french people, Scott?

You don't have to answer. We know how Americans see us… They think they know us, they think froggies are full of self-esteem, arrogant… even rude sometimes.

Do YOU think we are? Do you, Scott?

You are so far from the truth.

We are worse.

This «24 hour comics day» you created, you know… it was a really good idea. Congrats for that.

But, eventually, we realised it was way too easy.

We decided to do the same, but in 23 hours.

Yep, 23 hours.

Because we choose the shortest night of the year, when daylight savings time begins.

And we did it. We've been drawing faster than you and your pals for 3 years now.

We just wanted you to know. We are just the best.

And on march 26th, we'll do it again.

In your face!

But with respect.

And a lot of compassion.

Yours faithfully,

Zia, for the amazing Turalo, Piak, Paka, Kéké and hundreds of french comics artists.

(So who else is surprised they even *have* daylight savings time?)

Good luck from all us slowpokes!

Wanna Help Kickstart Daniel Lieske?

One of the things I like the most about this pitch, apart from the fact that The Wormworld Saga looks really nice on the iPad, is that it wouldn't have made any sense just a few short years ago.

This scene is moving fast, People.

Catching Up with Nate Simpson

Following on last Thursday's post, here's another cool comic we got a sneak peek of in an old blog post that's finally hitting the stands: Nate Simpson's Nonplayer.

Simpson says on his blog that now's the time (and by "now" I actually mean today, since I didn't link to this sooner) to tell your local shops to order Nonplayer.

Looks amazing, no?

8.9

Not in a very chatty mood this morning, watching things like this.

I'm sure we'll hear shortly where to send contributions. Just a reminder that it's easier than ever to give, especially with things like text donations.

Our hopes and warm wishes to those with friends and relatives in the affected areas.

Update: Text REDCROSS to 90999 right now if you'd like to make a $10 donation.

Shoe #4 – About to Drop

More than a year and a half ago, I wrote about four upcoming books and promised to post updates as each became available.

Those books were David Small's Stitches, David Mazzucchelli's Asterios Polyp, Hope Larson's Mercury, and Vera Brosgol's then-untitled graphic novel for First Second.

Well, the first three came out to well-deserved acclaim, and now at last that fourth one—quite possibly my favorite of the whole bunch—is finally available for pre-order. And it has a name!: Anya's Ghost.

Brosgol points out on her blog that now's the time to tell your local comics store to put in their orders through Diamond. I can very highly recommend this one (as does a rather famous Neil on that cover, above, in case you didn't notice).

Vera Brosgol is the kind of cartoonist I want to be when I grow up, and I know several other cartoonists who feel the same way. Get a copy of Anya's Ghost for yourself and find out why.

One for Ivy

Lots of people may enjoy this hilarious deconstruction by Laura Hudson and David Wolkin of DC's recent Batman: Odyssey (a book which, I must admit, I kinda want to buy now). It's some, uh… amazing stuff, no doubt about it.

But I'm really just posting this link for one person's benefit: the woman I love.

Ivy: Click on this link right now. Trust me. You will not be sorry.

69 Love Songs

Here's a cool project: A comics anthology site adapting all 69 love songs from 69 Love Songs, the legendary album from The Magnetic Fields.

If I had the spare time, I so would've taken a crack at The Book Of Love…

[Thanks to our friend Kate for the link]

Well, Well. Isn't This the Best Thing Ever.

Doctor Cat is a comic about a cat who is also a doctor.

Doctor Cat does doctor stuff. And also cat stuff. As a result, sometimes things happen.

Discuss.

…

Doctor Cat!

Happy Birthday, Will Eisner—Google-Style!

Google is celebrating the birthday of the late, great Will Eisner today with a terrific Eisneresque Google Doodle, and I had the pleasure of contributing a guest blog post to help celebrate the occasion as well.

Thanks to everybody at the Big G for honoring a truly important cartoonist, and a great friend to a century's worth of comics-lovers.

Fondly remembered. Sorely missed. And now celebrated across the internet. Happy birthday, Will.

52 Card Psycho

From G. Alan Rhodes comes this unusual and innovative project. Be sure to view the demonstration video to get the full visual impact.

Rhodes writes:

I sometimes check-in with your website, and seeing your writeup of 5 Card Nancy (fantastic!), it occurred to me that you might like this project I've been showing around: 52 Card Psycho. It's basically an Augmented Reality installation where the shower scene of Hitchcock's 'Psycho' is made into a deck of cards. Writing to you now, I can see that this work strongly relates to the inspiration I had when reading Understanding Comics back in '93: how can I made films into comics (the inverse of that has been done a lot lately…).

Maybe it will inspire an idea– I'm currently making several new projects with the same technology.

That's it for today. Have a great weekend!