Book Review: The Lexicon Of Comicana

Have you ever wandered into a conversation of people who are in a very specific or specialized field and wondered what language they are speaking? And yet, you are very curious anyway? That was my impression as I read The Lexicon of Comicana by Mort Walker (he, of Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois comic strip fame).

It was fun to read and to think about the ways in which Walker, and other comic strip makers, have created their own vocabulary for things they do in the world of comic book making. Words like Briffits, and Plewds, and Grawlixes, and Mayhemia all surface, and this book is a light-hearted tome, too, with Walker having fun with the concepts and with us, the reader, as he adds jokes and pratfalls and other visual elements to his explorations of Emanata and beyond.

Famous comic creator Chris Ware offers up the foreword, and talks about how an earlier edition of this book — which is mostly in the form of cartoons and comics, with some adjacent prose — made its rounds through the worlds of cartoonists and graphic novelists in his early, formative years, transforming the way they talked about their art.

This edition that I read is a reprint, and I am happy to have stumbled across it, to know that even academic materials from the world of comics is accessible and fun to read.

Peace (in panels),
Kevin

A Poem and A Pic

Barley On The Shore

The one word prompt for poems this morning was Barley, so I used its historical significance for my haiku. Then, over at the Daily Create, there was an interesting prompt about movement photography but I did not have time or understanding on how to pull it off, so I found an older image with a blur and left it at that.

Blur

Peace (in the morning make time),
Kevin

Internet Phone Book Explorations: Avi Has A Website

Avi has a website. That’s what the title of the site is. And Avi’s website is just the kind of place I was hoping to find with my inquiries into the Indie Web with the Internet Phone Book project. Quirky, strange, and funny as heck, Avi’s homepage links to a variety of oddities that I found quite unexpected and entertaining (and then I landed on his Color Clock, which he explains is an attempt to give the world a glimpse at what he sees, and I thought, Avi certainly sees the world different than most of us, and uses that to create interesting experiences. Cool.)

My favorite expedition off Avi’s website was Cows Love Jazz. I had no idea what was going on or even why, and I didn’t even care all that much because once the hand-drawn collection of cows starting coming off the edge of the screen towards the image-scrapped jazz saxophonist, I was hooked. Come on, cows. Find the beat. Meanwhile, those cows — they just kept arriving, one by one. More and more cows. Grooving to the scene. Cows love jazz. I’m in.

And then there is the Bluesky Dictionary — tracking every word posted on the social network to see if every word of the dictionary ever gets used. Our is not to ask why. It just is. I think I came across this somewhere else, at some other time, and it is pretty interesting (and a reminder of the quirky stuff people could do at that other platform before the API was monetized and manipulated and kicked far Right). Looking at the word lists (including words not yet used), I almost wanted to bounce over to Bluesky just to post something with the unused word “loveliheads” — which believe it or not, is a term that a friend of ours uses ALL THE TIME! (Hold on — I just did it.)

I didn’t try it but Avi’s Dive Into The Pitt got my attention — it seems like it’s a browser add-on that connects the hour of day of the user to the time of some mayhem in the Emergency Room of The Pitt (which is fantastic for its writing and acting, but is cray cray with chaos). What a brilliant idea. Unless you need calm. Then, you know, maybe not so much. Either way, the concept of connecting the hours of the day to the hours of the TV show surprised me in a fun way.

And finally, the I’m Proud Of You Soundboard activity had me smiling. Hey, you know — validation is validation. I’m proud of you, Avi, for making such interesting things, and thanks for sharing your creativity with the world. This kind of experience — the unexpected entertainment, amusement and engagement — is exactly why I am on my inquiry journey with the Internet Phone Book.

Peace (wandering on),
Kevin