Scott McCloud's Blog, page 32

Art is Everything

A great story from Larry saves me the trouble of coming up with one of my own this morning.

Back to work!

The Mystery Quote

"Write as if everyone you ever loved was dead."

It's great advice for writers. Right up there with "Murder your Darlings" (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, apparently) and "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water" (Kurt Vonnegut).

But who said it?

I must have the phrasing off, since Googling yielded nothing, but I'm sure that was the essential meaning of the advice. McEwan said something similar regarding parents, and there's a jumbled similarity to something by...

Five Days to Go

Jess Smart Smiley is Kickstarting a 500 copy run of his cool short story comic "A Map in the Dirt."

Both Jess and Patrick Farley are five days from their goal (as I write this) and well within striking distance of making it (and they both deserve to). Feel free to help them over the finish line if you like what you see.

I'm intrigued by the Kickstarter phenomenon which seems to be getting a bit more traction than I would have expected. Looks like the arts community is getting increasingly...

Friday Odds and Ends: BBC does Comics, True Swamp Online, and Serendipity via Twitter

Reader Jacob Stevens Corvidae emailed me with a link to "another Kick-Ass debate"; Kevin Smith on the BBC's Newsnight Review, discussing both the film and the comic with author Jeanette Winterson (whose novels Jacob strongly recommends) and comedian Natalie Haynes (Part 3 above being especially lively).

A few quotes taken out of context might be depressing to comics enthusiasts, but I was actually delighted to see comics' new rules of engagement in play. The medium's potential for great work s...

Well, That's not even Subtext…

Rich Johnston has a snappy write-up on the big announcement that Archie Comics is introducing its first gay character.

In 2010.

Let that one sink in for a moment. (Fun fact: Archie first appeared in 1941).

Best of all though are the clips at the bottom of the article, with some very easily "misread" panels and covers from Archie Comics' history, including my favorite above.

Dreams and Memes

Shaenon Garrity has a dream in Slow Wave this week. Good excuse to link again to this delightful, long-running archive of reader-submitted dreams, drawn by Jesse Reklaw.

Meanwhile, here's an embryonic meme that might catch on (if it can escape the Livejournal tarpits): Jason Turner's Page 100 Project, now picked up by Rebecca Dart and others.

Wrong Question?

Related to yesterday's post, there's a controversy brewing over whether video games are "Art" or not, spurred on by various comments by film critic Roger Ebert.

A couple of people have even Beetlejuiced* me, wondering which side of the issue I'd come down upon. Anyone who's read the art chapters of UC or RC can probably guess my response.

If you're asking if videogames are art, I think you're asking the wrong question. I don't think art is an either/or proposition. Any medium can accommodate...

Talk, Rock, Kick, Ass

Catching up a bit:

Liked the visual essay Less Talk More Rock on BoingBoing last month. Good approach to tackling a problem in games that assails every medium; how to reconnect with core principles and the unique potential of an art form in the face of commercial dilution and the imported sensibilities of other media.

Getting "back to basics" can be much more than just turning back the clock. Taken in its more profound sense, it's also the key to moving forward.

Saw Kick-Ass last night. Not...

The Single Vendor Problem

Not to dredge up old arguments, but one of the primary reasons I wanted to see a central, independent web currency (the online equivalent of nickels, dimes, and quarters that people could exchange quickly and easily) was that without a single currency, the natural alternative—if there was going to be any sort of paid content industry at all— was a very small number of very BIG vendors.

And this is the inevitable result.

Of course, many are advocating an end to paid content entirely and stuff...

"…the River in Which We Sink or Swim…"

Bill Griffith recently offered his Top 40 List on Comics and their Creation and it got me thinking about the influence of his generation—the RAW/Arcade generation you might call it—not only on comics but on popular culture generally.

If there's one document that sums it up beautifully, it's Gary Panter's funny, screwed-up, poetic, and profound Rozz Tox Manifesto from 1980; a call for artists to infiltrate the lumbering machines of popular culture and start messing with the gears.

Through...