Dôme – Review
Gabriele Di Fazio over at Just Indie Comics has a review of the production-as-performance anthology, Dôme. Dôme was published by French collective Lagon together with Breakdown Press, LIVE at Angouleme via risograph and then handbound in the presence of the majority of the featured artists. 40 pages 17 authors, this one is a doozy worth looking into! Read the review.
Embellished by the idea of reiterating in the central pages an appendix of the different stories as single strips, Dôme is the best anthology of recent years thanks to the exceptional ability of the editors (Alexis Beauclair, Joe Kessler, Sammy Stein) to summarize in a few pages the greatest virtues of contemporary comics. If the eighth Kramers Ergot lacked an overall view, if Mould Map #3 over-indulged in an old-fashioned cyber aesthetics, if Volcan was a bit dispersive, Dôme in just 40 pages gives an example of a really rare aesthetic coherence.
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Jillian Tamaki on Cavern of Secrets
On this episode of Cavern of Secrets, Lauren Mitchell talks about turning 30 and nostalgia before speaking with Jillian Tamaki(This One Summer, SuperMutant Magic Academy). They cover the gamut: the curse of absolute freedom, life in Toronto compared to life in New York City, learning curves, “creative culture” and how money changes everything.
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On Not Being a Dick (Comics Criticism Realities)
Kim O’Connor lays it out plain and simple over at Comics and Cola.
I’m writing today because I think I know the answer to a question that comics types revisit every so often: Why aren’t there more people writing comics crit?
Some of the reasons are universal. (There’s no money in it. There’s no real audience.) Others are huge, but not universal, like systemic racism and sexism. On top of all that there’s another, more nebulous obstacle that some of us experience, and that’s the fact that comics promotes a culture in which people feel way too comfortable acting like total dicks to complete strangers.
I know what some of you are thinking. Kim, I can’t help but notice that you yourself are a total dick. No, my friend. You are mistaken. I am a bitch.
Read her thoughts in full.
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Silent Treatment by Celine Loup
Celine Loup has posted her contribution Laura Lannes’ Bad Boyfriends Zine. An alarmingly relatable story and comic. Many have been near similar scenarios. Celine Loup and the Anonymous writer take a stand and break this silence. A tough read that is brilliantly executed. Read Silent Treatment now.
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A History of Wingdings
Something not so new but definitely worth taking a look at is the history of Wingdings. This one comes courtesy of Phil Edwards over at Vox. Read it!
Often derided as a silly by product of corporate culture and the technosphere, there’s a lot more to the font than you think. Take some time and read it, you’re sure to learn something. Recommended for those of you interested in visual literacy and its evolution, especially as a product of reproduction technologies intersecting with modalities of human communication.
“Emojis are like dingbats in being typographical symbols,” Bigelow says. “But they also hark back to the ancient concept of picture writing from which pictographic-ideographic-logographic Chinese characters and kanji evolved.” Chinese and Japanese writing came from pictures and, like today’s emojis, are ways of expressing our ideas and ourselves.