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I just wanted to let you know that at long last I have a new downloadable essay posted on my site. Entitled "Japanese Visual Language," this one outlines the unique properties of the structure of manga, and contrasting it from the visual languages in other countries. It's also a good overview of my ...

I'm excited to say that my entire talk from the Visual and Iconic Languages Conference has now been posted online! I've embedded the video on my site . I highly recommend watching it to anyone interested in my theories about comics. The first part covers what I mean by "visual language," while most ...

Glad to hear you're planning to go into the VL stuff more further down. I think your point is well achieved by the approach, though I for one would love to see more essays like this. However, I definitely know how tough it is to draw/write an essay, as I've done it several times. This goes back to m...

Shane, the essay looks like its coming along great! It's really well done, and I look forward to reading it in completion. If you plan to publish it on the web, please send me a link and I'll be sure to post it on my blog. It looks like you've got a good handle on my points and haven't misquoted me ...

My initial thought is that doing academic texts in this form would be great for conveying information concisely and effectively. That's why we did our non-fiction political book in graphic form, and why Larry Gonick's books sell pretty well (I don't have a link handy... google him). My guess as to w...

Yup, it's that time again: I just wanted to let you know that I have a <a href="http://comixpedia.com/loopy_framing">new "Comic Theory 101" article</a> posted up at Comixpedia called <a href="http://comixpedia.com/loopy_framing">"Loopy Framing."</a> This one explores the relationship of word balloon...

For your reading pleasure: I have recently posted a new downloadable essay at my site entitled "Time Frames... Or Not" about the assumptions that lead to the (false) belief that successive panels equal moments in time. Here's a short abstract: The juxtaposition of two images often produces the illus...

Congrats on finishing Jason! No problem about leaving me out... thats the way it goes in research. I hope my stuff helped your thinking at least!

It's time for another "Comic" Theory 101 article up at Comixpedia, this time tackling the potential for visual rhyming and its application in practice.

Yup... its time for another essay up at Comixpedia, this time fully drawn and tackling the "Problem of Two."

Ok, after re-re-reading your rather confusing analogy, am I to understand that you think people are drawing like manga just because they think it will make money or because it caters to a specific audience? My response to one of these potential questions: I think most Americans who draw like manga d...

I disregard the implication that emergent artists in one population have rules different from in another. (You might have noticed we are all implying it.) Actually, I'm exactly saying that people in one population work under different guiding principles than another (this is what I assume you mean ...

If American kids are growing up reading manga as their primary input, then they actually do understand it (as opposed to say, industry professionals that are told to draw that way by an editor who wants to bank in on it). Again though, I'd like to point out that copying another person's style isn't ...

Amen! Preach on preacher!

Yes, marketing might prefer predictable sells. But I'm not talking about business, I'm talking about human nature and cognition – the ways in which our minds learn and are programmed to respond in certain ways (in this respect, to graphic representation). If you read the second article I linked to ,...

Actually, several very well known and well regarded artists have jobs in Japan who don't follow that style explicitly. For instance, Otomo Katsuhiro ( Akira ) and Goseki Kojima ( Lone Wolf and Cub ). But, I think you'd find in Japan that most books are judged less by the aesthetic merits of the draw...

You're falling into an assumption about the nature of creating graphic images , that believes drawings should somehow mimic real life. Quite frankly, this view is bogus and just a reflection of cultural bias. Manga eyes don't need to look like real eyes (nor chins, nor emotions, etc), because they a...

gazorenzoku wrote:the "standard size" for print is 6 pt

Good lord, 6pt? That's tiny! I'm amazed to hear that (though perhaps it varies depending on the font, and whether you're using all caps like in traditional comics). I do agree though, best to eyeball it and see what looks right.

Along these lines, I've been wondering lately what webcomic and print comic font sizes generally are? I've been working on a fairly serious book and right now have the font at 10pt, and it just seems inappropriately huge for the tone, while that size on my cartoony book seems fine. Thoughts?

What you're talking about is somewhat similar to a lesson Jim Valentino once gave in an Image Comics magazine "how to..." section back in the mid 1990s. He said that intuitive page design should always lead the reader along in navigation through the contents of the panels. In his opinion, figures an...

Yup, its time for another one... I have a new essay called "Cross Cultural Space" up on the differences in "spatial structure" between American comics and Japanese manga.

"Lucky" isn't the word I'd use... patient maybe. It came in about three months after I placed the order. :-? I use it sitting on a regular flat desk. It stands up usually when I'm using it as a normal screen, but then I tilt it down when I want to draw something intensely. It has two levers on the b...

I've been using Wacom since 1997. My Cintiq just arrived on Friday, and I have to say this thing is incredible. So far I've only used it for a few drawing things, but its amazingly more comfortable than any of the other tablets I've used. It stands upright but also can slide to be flat. It also can ...

I used Comixpress for some printing awhile back. They didn't respond to me for about two months, then out of the blue wrote to apologize and printed all of my order for free (and it looks great, btw). I think they've been having some internal problems, but they're definitely worth going through base...