I used to make comics. I know that because strangers would look at my work and immediately share their most excruciatingly banal experiences with me:

— that time a motorised wheelchair cut in front of them in the line at the supermarket;
— when the dentist pulled the wrong tooth and they tried to get a discount;
— eating off an apple and finding half a worm in it;

every anecdote rounded of with a triumphant “You should make a comic about that!”

Then I would take my 300 pages graphic novel out of their hands, both of us knowing full well they weren’t going to buy it, and I’d smile politely, “Yeah, sure. Someday.”

“Don’t try to cheat me out of my royalties when you publish it,” they would guffaw and walk away to grant comics creator status onto their next victim.

Nowadays I make work that feels even more truly like comics to me than that almost twenty years old graphic novel. Collage-y, abstract stuff that breaks all the rules just begging to be broken. Linear narrative is ashes settling in my trails, montage stretched thin and warping in new, interesting directions.

I teach comics techniques at a university level based in my current work. I even make an infrequent podcast talking to other avantgarde artists about their work in the same field.

Still, sometimes at night my subconscious whispers the truth in my ear: Nobody ever insists I turn their inane bullshit nonevents into comics these days, and while I am a happier, more balanced person as a result of that, I guess that means I don’t make comics any longer after all.

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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: November 23rd, 2024

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  • haverholm@kbin.earthOPtoFediverse@lemmy.worldI said what I said
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    7 hours ago

    TFW to skandinaver sidder og skriver engelsk med hinanden online. Dansker bosat i Sverige her 🤝

    But to continue in the lingua franca, yes — Runes are unfortunately appropriated by Nazis. I asked without thinking about that connotation, because I generally try not to give those troglodytes too much thought.

    On the other hand, are we absolutely sure there isn’t some kind of occult baggage to the asterism as well? I’m fairly certain Aleister Crowley used one constellation of asterisks or other in his writings… Just putting it out here in case the potentially satanic implications of a pentagram logo really did motivate the asterism campaign 😄


  • haverholm@kbin.earthOPtoFediverse@lemmy.worldI said what I said
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    8 hours ago

    If you want to be taken seriously, or at least get a constructive reply — don’t open with “If you want to be taken seriously”. It reads really condescending, and I’m going to have to assume that’s your intention.

    So here goes:

    Assume that even if you don’t immediately understand the context, one probably exists outside your frame of reference. If the post catches your interest, look up that context. Otherwise, move along.

    Don’t expect other users on a discussion board to take you to by the hand and explain the circumstances leading up to this point in history. If you do, please don’t act like you’re the keeper of the style guide (see preamble).

    For full clarity, I did not post this for you as a bumper introduction to the backs and forths of the Fediverse symbol feuds, but to signal for those already in the know that the frontline is shifting.

    TL;DR — this wasn’t for you, don’t demand that it be customised to your measures.


  • haverholm@kbin.earthOPtoFediverse@lemmy.worldI said what I said
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    8 hours ago

    See, there’s a typographic argument I can get behind. Having worked as a magazine layouter and kerning pincher, horizontal alignment is a very valid point.

    As for handwriting, that’s barely an issue since we’re talking online text, but let’s go: Is an asterism easier to write by hand? Not really, you have to squeeze in three asterisks in the height of one line. They’ll likely render as blobs. Could you draw a star easier and faster? I think so.


  • haverholm@kbin.earthOPtoFediverse@lemmy.worldI said what I said
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    9 hours ago

    it fits the metaphor

    Does it though? If the stars are nodes, how are you going to illustrate a (federated) network with less than four points? The pentagram does that more clearly.

    Just riffing off your username — sorry if that’s uncalled for — isn’t there a good Runic character that fits the same purpose? AFAIK those have a Unicode subset?