bless/curse the being that made this.
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mccloud
mccloud@scottmccloud
Comics | Visual Communication. Writes, draws, teaches, lectures, and invents stuff (and yes, I’m on Bluesky; same handle).scott⚡️mccloud’s posts
Saw a story about a teacher who forbade comics in the classroom, comparing them to junk food.
Let's take this moment to say THANK YOU to the new wave of teachers and librarians who've *embraced* comics in recent years & helped spread the word. Thank you for NOT being that guy.❤️
Two million ballots to go in Pennsylvania.
Mostly blue.
TWO. MILLION.
Time for my periodic reminder that
I am NOT Scott Adams.
Different "Scott" altogether.
Please do not confuse us.
Stan Lee's complex legacy will be necessarily simplified in the next 24 hours. But with eyes open, let's take a moment to remember him at his best, and through his own words [via ]. Rest in Peace.
Matt Sighting! Had lunch with yesterday and got to give him a copy of the giant new HC edition of The Sculptor.
Long before , Matt was in a local production of Three Musketeers with Ivy and became part of our weekly game nights here in So Cal.
1/3
Can this story NOT be lost in the shuffle, please?
Ivy Ratafia McLeod
1960–2022
You loved us and told us so.
We loved you and told you so.
Every day.
We love you. We miss you.
We wish it wasn't so.
Replying to
Ivy died in a car crash on Thursday, April 28.
She was 61. We were married 34 years.
The kids and I, plus Ivy's family (and many dear friends) are slowly picking up the pieces. It may take awhile.
Comments off. You don't have to say anything.❤️
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Hasn't aged a day.
Trump was impeached for blackmailing Zelensky by withholding military aid to Ukraine.
Trump was impeached for blackmailing Zelensky by withholding military aid to Ukraine.
Trump was IMPEACHED for BLACKMAILING ZELENSKY by withholding MILITARY AID to UKRAINE.
And again: Proportional, based on population.
THIS is the country Americans truly live in.
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In the print edition of today’s NYTimes, a full-page map of the presidential results so far showing the margin of victory for each candidate, county by county.
Saying "comics are bad now" when all you've ever read is superheroes is like saying "movies are bad now" while standing in a demolished Blockbuster Video.
Sometimes it's good to just SEE it, instead of arguing about it:
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Time for my annual reminder to cartoonists that WHAT you choose to draw in a panel is often far more important than how *well* it’s drawn.
Draw the Noun.
Draw the Verb.
Easy on the Adjectives…
One time offer:
If the Pope just hauls off and punches Trump, I will renounce my atheism.
Yeah, I know Carlin gets appropriated by both side A LOT and you're probably tired of him, but this bit from 40 years ago (about Andrew Dice Clay) is especially thoughtful and timely.
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George Carlin explaining the Dave Chappelle situation almost 40 years ago.
1:20
Jean-Claude Mézières has left this world, but we should rejoice in all the worlds he left to us. A giant of imagination. Rest in Peace. 💜
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C’est avec une immense tristesse que nous apprenons le décès de Jean-Claude Mézières, disparu dans la nuit du 23 janvier 2022 à l’âge de 83 ans. Toute l’équipe de Dargaud a une pensée pour sa famille, son ami Pierre Christin ainsi que ses proches.
dargaud.com/actualites/jea
Pulled a Cheney.
Lasted a Scaramucci.
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Saying that picture books and comics require "less imagination" rests on a faulty premise: that it takes imagination to picture the meaning of each and every word, yet none at all to discover the rich, subtle meanings in each and every picture.
Works for me!
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This photograph is black and white picture. An artist has drawn some colour lines through it. The human brain is filling the rest of the colours even though they aren't there. zoom in look closely.
We tend to fill in using the availability heuristic which is a cognitive bias.
Aaron Carter's response to artist Jonas Jödicke won't sit well with any artist I know. This kind of thing should trigger more serious legal consequences. The "small claims court" reference is telling.
(I checked, btw—JJ's screenshot is accurate.)
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Okay, it's been a couple of days.
Some corrections:
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
...and Jack Kirby...
"Crediting the publisher and not the artist contributes to the fiction that these comics were created by companies and not by people, and that nobody drew the original images."
– Neil Fucking Gaiman
AND HE'S RIGHT.
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Hey @MuseumModernArt. You mention the DC comic, SECRET LOVE #83, that Lichtenstein traced his Drowning Girl from. Wouldn’t it be better if you credited the human artist who drew it? His name was Tony Abruzzo.
moma.org/learn/moma_lea
sequentialcrush.com/blog/2014/08/a
I can't believe I have to say this, but when Trump's first Secretary of Defense compares him to the Nazis, calls him a threat to the Constitution, and supports the protestors, that's kind of a big deal.
theatlantic.com/politics/archi
Trump just condemned hatred on "many sides" after a car driven by a white fucking supremacist rammed into a crowd of peaceful protestors.
“The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous, and it is now approaching a point of crisis overall.”
RIP EOW
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The biologist Edward O. Wilson died Sunday. Here is my @nytimes obituary nytimes.com/2021/12/27/sci
Internet feuds can be confusing for those not following closely... myself included...
But if any of you out there are still confused about why Comicsgate is considered a hate group, this one tweet and video should be all you need to make up your mind. twitter.com/TessFowler/sta
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Voting Trump if he "moderates his tone" is sorta like drinking a jug of battery acid & pig vomit if it has a little grape juice in it.
Alex Jones claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary murders were staged. Imagine you're one of those parents, reading this.
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Alex Jones releases statement on his ongoing custody trial: “I urge the press to be respectful and responsible"
Authors who write books about visual art with no pictures in them should be forced to EAT THE MENU at restaurants.
Please don't tell me *why* we did it;
it's enough to know that we *could.*
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In 1930 the Indiana Bell building was rotated 90°. Over a month, the structure was moved 15 inch/hr, all while 600 employees still worked there. There was no interruption to gas, heat, electricity, water, sewage, or the telephone service they provided. No one inside felt it move.
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Replying to
Here's something closer to the original. See comments below for a bit more about its (as yet) mysterious origins.
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Well, here's another horrifyingly plausible scenario. PLEASE VOTE, Pennsylvania!
Excellent take-down of my sloppy terminology from 30 years ago.
Ordinarily, I'd defend mine as cheeky appropriation in a new context, but Reimena's proposed use of "polyptych" for *another* comics device closer to the original in spirit is the killing blow.
Yee for the win.
👇
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Just discovered that this comics device I call "polyptych" has already been used to refer to another device, but I am going to have a Hot Take here and challenge the old use and argue why mine makes more sense from an etymological and formal standpoint. 
In my lifetime, Truth has never been more weakened, more attacked, more obscured, more outnumbered. And it's still going to win.
Now that's some impressive attention to detail!
(flatland cross-bar plaid, as yet, not possible IRL)
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@_scott_mccloud
#understandingcomics #scottmccloud #eccc #zot #comics #comicbooks #psychedelic #destruction #visulfunk #foodone #jimmahfood
Name of artist?
(“Biltek Videolari” doesn’t sound like a name exactly.)
1:14
From
Biltek Videos
Well, *I* just learned something. twitter.com/knowIedgehub/s
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It's like he read my mind.
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“There’s a kind of sick, perverse dynamic… People who really are heroes of conscience—they don’t matter, because they speak up early. The tipping point is the people who are the biggest opportunists. When you lose the opportunists, you’re really in trouble.”— 10/10/17
"First they came for..."
⬆︎
This is real; always keep an eye on the most vulnerable.
Trans people are friends to our family and family to our friends, but even if they weren't, we'd be idiots not to know their rights are human rights.
Please VOTE.
nytimes.com/2018/10/21/us/
A wonderful honor tonight, especially alongside such other great talents (including who's been a friend since before many of you were born). A long strange trip that I hope is nowhere near its end.🤞
🙏🙏🙏 to all who voted. 🤟
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And the final #HallofFame inductee to this year's Eisner Awards is...@scottmccloud. He thanks his thoughtful editors and his agents, Judith Hansen, and Ivy and the girls. "I guess I can be who I really am just for a moment, a grateful, aging nerd that you have made very happy."
I'm almost surprised at how furious I am at something we all knew was going to happen, one way or another.
Pamplona for chemists...
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This giant elephant toothpaste experiment has been conducted by Nick Uhas and David Dobrik and it's possibly one of the biggest reproduction of the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide [full video: ow.ly/vX8o30q3Etc] [more about the experiment: ow.ly/D87r30q3Eth]
0:08
"The pandemic can't be fought with lies and disinformation, nor with hatred and agitation. Fact-denying populism is being shown its limits."
– Angela Merkel
July 1, 2020
Heard this quote on Ezra Klein's podcast just now:
"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."
— Abraham Joshua Heschel
I'm old (61) and still admire cleverness in some, but this quote does resonate. Definitely my own arc on some level.
Replying to
Great catching up with such an agile, creative mind and discussing about 1000 subjects at 2x speed.
Alas, I also discovered that I lost my ability to pose for a proper selfie during the pandemic. Yikes. Fortunately, Matt pulled it off, so I've cropped accordingly. ;-)
3/3
Pass it on!
A good summary.
Useful thread.
And for creative types, don't forget that the best thing about a 9-5 is you can still follow your passion from 5-9. Two hours a night plus weekends really adds up.
I did a 100 page pitch for my first comic while working a 9-5. A day job does not mean giving up!
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Replying to @Iron_Spike
There are people out there who pay $5k for the course, get certified, and walk out the door into jobs paying 50 or 60k. If your end goal is just "a good job with decent pay," you could do a LOT worse than the trades.
Replying to
When I needed a friend to do ref poses for The Sculptor, I naturally thought of Matt. So, in a sense, it meant he got to appear in a production with Ivy again, since Ivy inspired the character of Meg almost 40 years ago (during the 7 years I was secretly in love with her).
2/3
A disclaimer for our time.
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Nowadays, it's difficult to post anything online without someone dropping by your mentions to let you know that you royally fucked it up. To help, I've made this handy disclaimer that you can attach to anything you post!
1:35
Some comics pros never talk politics at all. Maybe it's healthier for them in the long run. All the negativity... everybody so exhausted and angry every day, me included... So I get it. I respect why some might want to keep out of it completely.
But I don't know how they can.
Take comfort, no matter how bad it gets, that there is also THIS in the world.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=trDnp3
(Via & )
Hagai bit my finger! 😭
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Before Watchmen, From Hell, etc... (yes, yes, very good) Alan Moore created THESE FIVE PANELS (from Maxwell the Magic Cat under the pseudonym "Jill de Ray") and they might actually be his best. 💀🖤
Wow. I'm an ATHEIST and I believe in a loving God more than this guy. twitter.com/EWErickson/sta
If Anne Frank had lived to be as old as Bob Dole, she'd still have another 6 years left to go.
Jackhammer-strength mid-term message right there.
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Women are not the property of their State, so they can travel between them for any reason they damn well please.
Said this before, but Ivy had an ectopic pregnancy in 1991. If these medieval anti-choice laws were in effect then, they would have killed her at only 30 years old—AND our two daughters, now 29 & 26, that we were struggling to conceive that year, would have never been born.
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There is no "delivering a baby who is ectopic," @nytimes. It is not possible. There is no scenario in which a "baby" exists at the end of an ectopic pregnancy; the natural course is a clump of cells and a dead woman.
Might as well talk about "delivering ovarian cancer."
Stuff I've learned since losing Ivy in late April:
• Meaningful work helps grieving. Not just as a distraction, but as a modest source of joy and purpose when both are in short supply... That's how it's been for me, at least. So far.
Also:
• Grieving is meaningful work.
True. Much clearer. 👍
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I find that by tracking the shadow instead of the Moon it is much easier to visualize what is happening during an eclipse. Watch it simply drift through Earth's waiting shadow. #astrophotography #space #opteam
0:13
Glorious rant here.
Read all the way down.
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We didn’t have a nuclear winter because we didn’t have a nuclear WAR, you fucking moron—because good, decent, rational people WORKED TO PREVENT IT.
Just repeating for emphasis what Sen. Warner just said:
THE PRESIDENT IS INTERFERING IN THE CRIMINAL TRIAL OF HIS OWN CAMPAIGN ADVISOR.
And no one can stop him.
It’s barely even news.
Days later, it still seems a bit surreal!
Thank you again for all the well-wishes, Everyone.
🙏
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ICYMI: iconic comics thought leader, cartoonist, and The Sculptor author @scottmccloud was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame. Congratulations Scott! 
Replying to
Sorry, yes:
...and Steve Ditko...
...and Steve Ditko...
...and Steve Ditko...
...and Steve Ditko...
...and Steve Ditko...
A key characteristic of happy people: The passionate acquisition of unnecessary knowledge.
Today would've been my father's 100th birthday.
Though legally blind, Dad graduated Harvard, became a successful engineer & inventor, and helped raise 4 kids to adulthood. He died at 59.
Mom never remarried. She turns a healthy 100 this fall. We FaceTime every week on her iPad.
Art is a celebration of the unnecessary. twitter.com/finetraitt/sta
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WOW. What a spectacular Kickstarter (with 41 days to go, no less)! Congratulations to our old buddy and and all the gang at .
kickstarter.com/projects/criti
I don't know *anyone* on in my lefty circles who wouldn't throw Bill Clinton under the bus in a heartbeat to blow the whole Epstein scandal wide open. WITH PLEASURE.
We are all this stapler. twitter.com/FacesPics/stat
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Oh man, after all the awful things Trump has done, wouldn't it be funny if he finally got arrested for something trivial and unimportant like selling nuclear secrets?
Werner Herzog has some ideas for that ship that’s stuck, but they’re not gonna like it.
Jesus, Jimmy—are you even LISTENING to what you're SAYING??
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Student loan forgiveness undermines one of our military’s greatest recruitment tools at a time of dangerously low enlistments.
Wow, this Flynn scandal could go all the way to the man at the top.
Or at least to Trump.
THREAD:
We had to put Bucky down yesterday. Just wanted to offer a few thoughts/images.
I’ve disabled comments to spare y’all the awkward burden of having to say something heartfelt about a stranger’s dog. I know you care, seriously; you don’t have to prove it. Thank you.
It's the "Year of the Rooster" and, sure enough, the world is waking up every day to the alarming sound of a loudmouth cock.
From the great Saul Steinberg. Gotta say, these all look about right to me!
h/t
Movies where the Bad Guy wins:
• Funny Games
• Angel Heart
• They Shoot Horses Don’t They?
• Raise the Red Lantern
• The Conformist
• Brazil
• 1984
• My Fair Lady
What are some others?
My new hero!
Let's re-post this cartoon (by Australian artist Denis Lushch) about once a year until the madness dies down, shall we?
Black teenager accused of multiple sexual assaults is then caught on tape bragging about multiple sexual assaults.
Verdict?
Whoops—did I say "black teenager?"
Haha sorry. I meant White Billionaire.
Verdict?
11 years later, I still think this is important—and not well understood by aspiring artists.
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Cartoonists: Do you know that WHAT you put in your panels is potentially far more interesting than how well you DRAW it?
“Squircle” is a good word. 👍
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The Japanese manga industry outsold us 20-1 for decades—wanna know why?Because they made comics for EVERYONE.
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Pick a cover, any cover. @princess_jem4 @GenevieveFT @nilaffle and @CSpeedMcNeil (cover coming soon) #BingoLove BingoLoveComic.net
There are 3 Republican challengers to President Trump (including 2 former governors).
In response, the GOP is *cancelling primaries* across the country.
Think about it: They are literally CANCELLING ELECTIONS so Trump can't be challenged.
How is this not a bigger story??
Happy Birthday, , who joins me—and soon Ivy—at the dull age of [redacted] which rightly said doesn't deserve a celebration.
Here's Neil with the fam, outside a SoCal Baskin Robbins in 2012—reminding the world how short we all are!
(photo by )
I wasn't the only one thinking this at the time, but I'll grant that this is a little spooky to read 23 years later.
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Scott McCloud being fucking spot on in his prediction of the future from 2000
