Scott McCloud's Blog, page 14
March 3, 2011
Welcome to Pine Point
Let's all contemplate our mortality, shall we?
Welcome to Pine Point is a "creative non-fiction interactive documentary" by Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons for the National Film Board of Canada.
Despite the rough, hand-animated photo-collages and humble lettering, Welcome to Pine Point achieves sophisticated and haunting effects as it chronicles a small Canadian town that was literally wiped off the map, and the lives of those who once called it home. I especially liked the use of music.
I highly recommend setting aside some free time, hitting full screen and diving in.
It's not comics, but shares some of our visual vocabulary, and it should be of interest to anyone studying visual communication, storytelling, and the power of shared memories.
March 2, 2011
March 1, 2011
Well, Here's a… Thing. From the Internet.
It's by an Israeli art director, going by the name of "Baboon" and all the traffic from a recent Very Short List link has blown out his site, so here's an alternate link for now.
See how many paths you can discover. It's pretty addictive.
[Thanks to Lori Matsumoto.]
February 28, 2011
Congratulations, Shaun Tan!
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
I had the pleasure of meeting Tan briefly in New York in 2009, not long after The Arrival was released.
Tan famously realized only halfway through The Arrival that he was working on a graphic novel. Fortunately, so did the rest of us, and it's won many well-deserved honors since. Congratulations to Tan for racking up another great honor, this time in the field of animation.
February 25, 2011
February 24, 2011
NSFM
You've probably seen this already, but just in case…
(Hi Mom. This is probably one of those links you don't really need to click on. Sorry!)
In other news, yeah, I was thinking a while back that I could kinda-sorta take credit for envisioning an iPad-like device in 2000. Guess I wasn't the only one who noticed.
And finally, here's a kickstarter for a cool-looking graphic novel project from Jesse Ian Rubenfeld. Give it a look!
February 23, 2011
Life's Reminders
Drawing of Dwayne McDuffie by Denys Cowan
News of the untimely death, from surgical complications, of comics and animation writer Dwayne McDuffie burned through the news wires yesterday. A real shock (he was only in his late forties) and the loss of a strong and unique voice in the comics community.
This has been a week filled with reminders of how fragile life is, and the many ways the "real world" can intrude on our cozy, screen-filled worlds. Emails arrived from Iran and Egypt that helped put a face on conditions/recent events there (one on new business, one on old). I remembered talking to Dylan Horrocks just last week about his conversations with people in the thick of it, thinking how disconnected I was.
And, as many of you heard, there was another serious quake in Christchurch, New Zealand right after we left the country. If you'd like to contribute to efforts there, here are some details. Jason Webley was there for a concert and Amanda Palmer was on her way to Christchurch, so it was a little harder to keep it all at arms-length, having just seen them both.
Us nerds like to escape from the world through stories. But, inevitably, the rest of the world is going to come knocking. And, as McDuffie made clear for decades, any story can be richer when we throw the doors open and let the whole world in.
February 22, 2011
Under the Weather
I seem to have picked up some hitchiking microbes on my way back from New Zealand Sunday, so I'm taking it easy this morning.
Back to blogging tomorrow.
February 21, 2011
The Plot Thickens…
Okay, it's a bit short on details, but why do I get the feeling that things are about to get very interesting out there?
Back home from our first-ever visit to New Zealand and the family (Ivy, Sky, and I, with the role of Winter being played by Sky's friend Kendra) had a fantastic time.
Webstock was top notch. Hung out with and loved performances by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley, met great brains like David McCandless, Peter Sunde, and Tom Coates, played Werewolf for the first time (Go, Villagers!), and had lots of good food and good conversations.
Wellington is a beautiful city. We're so adding it to The List (our friends will know what I mean).
Big shout out to the 40 or so wonderful cartoonists we met this weekend in both Wellington and Auckland. You guys rock.
And thanks of course to Dylan Horrocks, ambassador for the Kiwi comics nation, our host in Auckland with his adorable family, and one of our favorite people in all of comics.
Back to the drawing board!
[video link via @modernlovecomic]
February 14, 2011
Headin' South
Off this week while we fly south of the equator for the first time to visit New Zealand, speak at Webstock, and meet some great Kiwi cartoonists, as well as our old friend, the mighty Dylan Horrocks.
Back to blogging next Monday!
