Scott McCloud's Blog, page 54

Under the Spell

I’m still in New York, taking thousands of reference photos for the graphic novel. The two-day seminar (Friday and Saturday) was packed and energized; a great class with a lot of talent and spirit. Now it’s just me and my camera for a couple of days. I promise they’re not all of high horizon line rainy sidewalks like the above, but damn, I do love me some high horizon line rainy sidewalks…

Originally planned as a solitary expedition, this part of my trip still had me crossing paths with some old

Speaking of Ms. Beaton…

This was pretty much our experience with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as well (during our drive through B.C. on the way down from Alaska in 2007). A fine, polite fellow was our Mountie.

NYC, KB.

Off to New York for the seminar and reference photos for the GN.

Hm. Must blog something…

Ooh—Kate Beaton collection! There. That was easy.

The Fringe of the Fringe

Nawlz has been around for a while, but in case you haven’t seen it yet, it’s pretty much the quintessential experimental webcomic. Weird, dissonant, and relentlessly inventive.

I sometimes joke that my early experiments in webcomics put me in comics’ “lunatic fringe” but it’s nice to know that there are artists like Sutu out there that make my scribblings look tame by comparison. He tells me he may release a graphic novel follow-up including the first chapters on DVD, so I guess all the walls be

Bloodlines

Dylan Meconis began her webcomic about vampires in the French Revolution back in high school, but you’d never know it from the smart, funny writing and accomplished artwork.

Now we can finally own it as a book so all is right in print as it is in pixels.

Also out this month (with a considerably bigger spine) is Tatsumi’s monumental A Drifting Life which I’ve been reading with great interest. Early in the book, the young cartoonist meets his hero, Osamu Tezuka, still in med school, but already a M

Two Scrollers

Courtesy of the New York Times this week, Maira Kalman’s And the Pursuit of Happiness is an enjoyable meditation on laws and those who preside over them.

And since Kalman’s comic is presented in one big scroll, it gives me a hook to also link to Dash Shaw’s gargantuan scrolling Bodyworld webcomic (completed earlier this year) which I’ve been meaning to blog about for awhile.

In principle, I always liked the idea of putting comics all together on one page; the idea being that readers could just hit

New York, Toronto, Barcelona—and Drawing, Drawing, Drawing

Still catching my breath after China, but three more trips loom in the next five weeks. First Manhattan for the two-day seminar. Then Toronto, where the whole family will be joining me for TCAF, a show we’ve wanted to do for a while and which we’re all very much looking forward to. Then I’ll be swinging by Barcelona for the 27th Annual Comics Festival there.

Despite a busy spring, my travel schedule will cool down for the rest of the year as I focus increasingly on my new graphic novel for First

Shanghai Wrap-Up: The Side Trips!

Dude, that’s totally Sky on the Great Wall of China.

Though most of our journey to China took place in spectacular Shanghai, we decided since it was Sky’s 16th birthday to splurge a bit on a couple of brief side-trips.

First to the enchanting Hangzhou with our great hosts Mikey and Alyssa and new friends David and Kim, where, thanks to some light rain, we fulfilled every tourist photographer’s dream: To make China look as much like China as possible.

Then, of course, to stately Beijing, for the gr

Shanghai Part Three

Just time for a quick update to my photos. Our time in China has been amazing, but also left little time for blogging. Sorry about that.

All five of my lectures and all our class visits are now complete. We’re taking a weekend in beautiful Hangzhou with our fantastic hosts, Mikey and Alyssa, and new friends Dave and Kim, then off to Beijing for a couple of days before returning Wednesday.

Meanwhile, if you’re in Portland for The Stumptown Comics Festival, you can say hi to Ivy and Winter who are

Shanghai Part Two

Sky has uploaded some pictures and I’ve uploaded more of mine. 

Still hoping to get captions in, but for now… sleeeeeeep.