Scott McCloud's Blog, page 22

The Internet of Things?

Not comics-related, but I found this article about the impending availability of more wireless spectrum kind of interesting, and I liked the little "Internet of Things" video IBM put together (found via Mark Essel). For a corporate promo, it does a decent job of visualizing legitimately interesting issues, without just shilling for a specific product.*

Big companies seem to be doing a better job of earning those little logos in the last few seconds of their videos (♥ the herding cats video

Two Webcomics, Two Standards

Got two emails in the last few days with links to two new webcomics using navigation techniques that neatly sum up this interesting technological moment we're in.

Turbo Defiant Kimecan by Mexican artist Ferran Daniel uses Flash to load one panel or element at a time. We've seen a few comics like it, but this one gets points for some pretty artwork. Curious to hear what people think of this sort of loading order, now that we've seen it a few times. (Maybe time to revisit this discussion?)

Meanw...

Hey, It's Out!

Delighted to realize yesterday that Jen Wang's eagerly anticipated first graphic novel Koko Be Good came out just last week.

Fortunately, if you're in the Los Angeles area, you can still catch the LA release party at Secret Headquarters this Friday at 7:30pm, and be one of the first to buy a copy.

(And if you're not, there's always the Interwubz.)

Been salivating for this one ever since this effective little video hit earlier this year. Can't wait to get my hands on the real thing!

Next Week: The NBC Education Nation Summit

I'm heading back to New York again next week for NBC's Education Nation Summit, a broadcast public forum on a variety of issues surrounding education in the 21st Century, held in Rockefeller Plaza.

I was actually invited a while ago, but was holding off a bit on an announcement until I had a better idea of what I'd be doing there. As it turns out, I'll probably be doing little or no talking and a whole lot of listening (which is a nice change of pace, actually) but it should be an interesting ...

Web Experiments, an 80-Foot Comic, and the South Korean Ministry of Defense

Some odds and ends, this being Friday.

Via Kickstarter, news of an 80-foot comic being created for Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. It seems to be piggybacking on a somewhat old-fashioned idea of the contents of the "comic book medium" [*shudder*:], but you gotta give 'em points for the form.

Via Randy Oest, the suggestion that these intriguing experiments with some emerging Web standards might be applicable to comics. It's a good point. Anyone want to give it a whirl?

Finally, via Ed...

Happy 50th, Kurt Busiek!

The Syracuse years! Circa 1980. (Photo by ?)

Ha! Beat him to it by three months. (Wait, is that a good thing?)

As most of you know, Kurt, in addition to be being a great friend since before the time of Moses, is also the kid who insisted I try reading just a few of his comic books in 8th grade, thus changing the course of my life forever.

He's also one of the smartest and best writers in comics has been giving me good advice for 27 years.

Many happy returns of the day!

You old geezer.

The Physics of Iconography

Via Dan Wallace, news of this concept video by TAT Technology.

2014 may seem kind of soon for a lot of what they're showing, but it's encouraging to see how close our imaginations are drawing toward the kind of pie-in-the-sky displays I was filling peoples' heads with during Q & As in the late '90s.

(Also, yeah, there's a bit of gratis "product placement" in the first scene, though I swear that's not why I'm linking to it!)

A lot of the progress we're seeing in multi-touch display technology...

Attention, Southern California:

This is the full 2-Day Workshop (given most recently at School of Visual Arts in Manhattan). 16 full hours of everything I can teach you through lectures and hands-on exercises.

An intense look at the art of telling stories visually.

Here's the link! As always, availability is limited. See you in December!

24 in 24 From Australia

Here's the latest mutation of the 24 Hour meme, this time from Down Under, James and Hania Lee's 24 Flash animations completed just this weekend. Lots of funny and creative short shorts at the link.

The listing on YouTube is pretty comprehensive, so I'll be lazy and reproduce it here:

All of these film shorts were created within a 24 hour period. Flash animation by James Lee. Music composition by Hania Lee.

Members of Newgrounds, deviantart and the web helped bring this film together, by...

Friday Odds and Ends

Way, way back in the deep recesses of the horrifying guilt-mountain that is my Inbox, I found an old email from one Michelangelo Cicerone forwarding the news of a very cool Historic Tale Construction Kit, which is essentially a Create Your Own Bayeux Tapestry tool. Give it a try if you're so inclined.

On the night table: Top Shelf's excellent alternative manga collection AX; Mario and Gilbert Hernandez's good-old-fashioned twisted comic book adventure Citizen Rex; and Moto Hagio's lyrical