Showing posts with label Accursed Dragon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Accursed Dragon. Show all posts

Friday, March 15, 2013

Majoring in Comics as Literature, Dragons and the Graphic-Novel Trend

Cellphones make for a difficult challenge in dramatic irony anymore. You see them in almost everything, as information is instantly forwarded from one agency to another as the pace of a narrative rockets along. In fact, watching old films where characters stand around a rotary phone, or check in at a hotel desk to receive their "messages" seems so clunky and awkward now.

But cellphones have changed storytelling forever. Writers have had to adapt.

In the world of cellphones, it's hard to delay characters from interacting with each other - so often as soon as someone learns something new or dangerous, they go to inform the protagonist, but are stopped - and then viewers just watch as we know full well the hero is diving head-first into peril. Cellphones basically eliminate the possibilities of this - unless you get creative about why a cellphone isn't working.

And those scenes (where a nemesis is removing of disabling a cellphone) always seem a bit contrived - HOWEVER, I'm certainly not above it. Do you think anything will happen to Casey's cellphone while he's chatting with Barney? (probably!) Think this will be the last time it happens in the script? (probably not!)


Struggling with jet lag and his professional relationship with Howard,
Casey looks to make necessary changes in Why'd you do it?
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Graphic novels and webcomics
Check out Accursed Dragon, and see some of the other neat stuff that's being said about graphic novels at the academic level now! You can find them in the classroom as a learning aide, but you're also able to MAJOR in the style, as well.

Accursed Dragon
Ryan Smith

Accursed Dragon.com
Accursed Dragon

This week I've started reading Accursed Dragon by Ryan Smith, and I'm liking it a lot. I've had this on my reading list for ages - and now I'm mowing through it. What I'm especially impressed with is that each page tells a little gag - which is great writing. It's a constant pleasure to see the narrative continuously propped up with pleasant breaks, while the pacing and serial story telling flow together seamlessly. It's definitely worth checking out!
Click to read more.

The Graphic Novel Trend
Harper Academic

Harper Academic.Blogspot



The Alchemist


Reading the review of The Cartoon Guide to Genetics got me thinking about a huge trend we’ve noticed in the academic department: graphic novels. In fact, most of the books that teachers were really excited about (especially teachers of boys) at the National Council of Teachers of English Conference were graphic originals or adaptations. So I thought I’d share a few of our graphic books that the teachers I’ve met seem to really love.
Click to read more.

Yes You Can Now Major In Comics Literature
Rich Johnston
Bleeding Cool.com



Major in comic literature


As an English professor (Professor Jeremy Larance)at a relatively small public university in West Virginia, West Liberty University, I often try to find ways to sneak comics and graphic novels into my courses. For several years now, for example, I’ve used V for Vendetta as the culminating text in my British Literature course, because—let’s be honest—there just isn’t a better example of a modern-day Byronic Hero than Alan Moore’s V. Some scoffed, but my decision was ultimately validated by the fact that The Longman Anthology of British Literature now includes an excerpt from that graphic novel in its section of contemporary British fiction, just a few hundred pages after James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Click to read more.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Increasingly impassioned with webcomic community

Well, here's the update for Page 80 of the Tomb of the Undead. I really liked the opening scene, and felt it really said a lot while they were entering the scene. I think this might be the turning point in the comic where I started to get the hang of drawing these characters - but then again, the artwork continues to be an evolving animal, changing in complexity (both up and down) and reflective of my attitude when I'm creating it, which is that special something about creating art.

I hope you like it.

Dr. Miller, Dr. Bolam and Evelyn return to Escutcheon's office in search of a new direction in Call the office.

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Webcomic news
I've recently become much more impassioned with webcomics than graphic novels, and think that the work I'm doing falls more in line with that species of art. But, who am I to classify it - in any case, the online community seems much more vibrant around webcomics than graphic novels anyhow. I think I'll be happier there.

Webcomics I've been following up with:
Buttersafe  from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro
Silent Pirate from Ahmed Fahim
Curvy from Sylvan Migdal @SylvanMigdal
Zombie Ranch from Dawn and Clint Wolf @zombieranch
Tripp from "Spinester" @kingsburymanx
Katamari from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro (the folks at Buttersafe)
Garfield minus Garfield from  Dan Walsh  @GMinusG
Super Haters from  Nick Marino @Super_haters
Goblins from  Thunt
Cyanide and Happiness from Kris Wilson, Dave McElfatrick and Rob DenBleyker @Explosm
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal from Zach Weiner

There are a whole cast of other webcomics out there I'm interested in following up with, but haven't yet jumped at like El Goonish Shive, Accursed Dragon, Tales of a Checkered Man, which are next on my schedule. 

If you've got any recommendations for me leave a comment and I'll look into it, for sure!