Comics. Lots of Comics.
Yes, I’ve been incredibly busy with my thesis work. If you look at the thread, you’ll see that Tom and others contributed a lot in helping me refine my test. Thanks to all of you, I have a better chance of passing.
Actually, I got my interim transcript and found I actually did better than I expected. In UK, there is a system of “Fail”, “Pass” and “Pass with Distinction”. The boundaries are 50 and 70 (getting 70 is really good in the UK). Apparently, I did well enough that if I get a distinction on my thesis, my overall should also be a distinction. We shall see. I was resigned to not getting a distinction because of all the additional work I’d taken on this year but it seems I’m still in the running.
The San Diego Comic Convention happened a month or so ago. I’ve never been to one but I read a few reports. It’s been a long time since I’ve been deeply into comics to care about the fanboy aspect but there seem to be a growing community of web comic artists making it. As a result, I found a ton of amazing talent online to enjoy and I though I’d share:
Piled Higher and Deeper is one I’ve always known about but this year, it actually makes much more sense to me. My advisor told me he should throw me out for sending this one to the class list.
Count Your Sheep is a very cutesy strip that endears you almost immediately. I would’ve designed Ship the Sheep slightly differently (i.e., w/o gloves) but it works well. Start at the beginning.
Copper is a rather philosophical monthly comic. The art and colours are superb but it takes a few reads to really appreciate the subtelty. Come back and read it again a second time.
Same Difference and a number of other comics by Derek Kirk Kim are amazing feats of storytelling and pacing. The angles he uses are perfect.
Flight Anthology is where I found the majority of the artists above. It’s an anthology of some of their work and many other talented creators. I’ll probably grab one when I’m back in North America.
Alpha Shade I love just for its artistic mastery whilst Butternut Squash is so vibrant and so damn funny … though not for kids.
A few days ago, I was suddenly inspired with another comic idea. Not a strip for OK/Cancel (nor one of our commissioned works), but a new strip entirely that’s a bit more artsy, surreal and even sentimental. I don’t want to talk too much about it yet and I don’t have time to do more than preliminary sketches so I’ll post more when I have more but I’m really excited about it.
