Contributors' copies!!

I got my shipment today. Anyone else get theirs? What do you think?

Jesse Goes Abstract!

My friend and bandmate Jesse Reklaw makes a great daily diary strip called Ten Thousand Things To Do and during our last band practice, I decided to try an experiment...

In between songs, I played drum-fills which were actually Morse Code spelling out "MAKE ABSTRACT COMICS MAKE ABSTRACT COMICS" 

-- .- -.- . / .- -... ... - .-. .- -.-. - / -.-. --- -- .. -.-. ...

-- .- -.- . / .- -... ... - .-. .- -.-. - / -.-. --- -- .. -.-. ...

and here's Jesse's strip for that day:

Yes! It worked!

-... ..- -.-- / .- -... ... - .-. .- -.-. - / -.-. --- -- .. -.-. ...

-... ..- -.-- / .- -... ... - .-. .- -.-. - / -.-. --- -- .. -.-. ...

Ditko's Abstract Comics

I saw this great post over at Blog Flume about the beautiful abstractions in Steve Ditko's comics. These panels are just begging to be remixed into a full abstract comic! (HT: Paul Hornschemeier)

Underwhirl

Continuing the preceding...



And... the vocal version:



Thanks, Mike!

After Whirlover

Drawn over the previous (which, as you'll remember, was itself drawn from Mike's "Whirlover"):

Whirlover in 8 strokes

A free tracing of Mike's drawing. For each panel I did not lift up the pen.

Whirlover

This one I made last summer while sitting next to a cat who was fascinated by my quick, swirly brush moves and when I was done, turned over on her back, stretched, then curled up on top of my lap. I thought at the time, and still believe, that if we can find a way to market abstract comics to cats, we will have a very big hit. 

Graphic Novel Reporter write-up

I had missed this one--we're on the Graphic Novel Reporter's "hottest graphic novels for Summer 2009" list (nonfiction division):

http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/hottest-graphic-novels-summer-2009-nonfiction-other

Their brief write-up is pretty nice, too, and super blurb-worthy:

The first thing you'll notice is the awesome
cover by Jacob Covey. Then you'll wonder if
this is an art book, a book about comics, or
something else. It's something else.
Abstract Comics breaks the art of comics
storytelling down to its most basic unit, the
panel, and from there creates a visual
experience unlike any other. Pioneers of
the form are joined by some of the greats
from decades past and the present for a
magical, wonderful trip. Found art, drawn
art, whatever it happens to be, Abstract
Comics sheds new light on the prospect of
sequential art.

Updates: Action Yes, Growing Diaspora, etc.

I've been down with the flu for a while, so I've been rather remiss in posting here. But I'm better now, thanks!

First of all, I wanted to remind everybody of something that Tim already posted: the new issue of Action Yes has an extensive Abstract Comics session, including an article by Tim and a preview of the anthology. (They reprinted my definition of abstract comics from the introduction to the anthology as a prelude to the preview because Tim's definition, as outlined in his article, is somewhat wider than the one I used to put the anthology together).

They also feature two pieces by me, specifically formatted for the net. First, a click-through version of "Alcoholalia," my 2004 remix of a Maakies strip:




(Cover to the original 2004 mini shown)

and second, a panel-by-panel version of one of the pages from "24 x 24":




As to Growing Diaspora (TM) news, Tyler Stafford has posted some more abstract comics at his blog recently:



Robukka, one of our readers, has posted a comment recently reminding us that he has a great number of abstract strips based on music on his stripgenerator page:



and again, Nina Roos's new pieces are definitely worth seeing, but I'm not going to abuse her generosity by posting another one of her images here.

Other than that (and let me hear you say, "way to bury the lead, Molotiu!"), according to Fanta the street date for the anthology will be the 2nd or 3rd week of August.

Graphogarden

...scribbled throughout the week.

I think it could be a companion piece to this one:

http://abstractcomics.blogspot.com/2009/05/summersick.html

steel pole bath tub

i've always loved this strip,
it's from a comicbook
which came as an insert with
steel pole bath tub's
1990 album, "Lurch"

:

this comic drawn by

Dale Flattum

Rube Goldberg vs. Ockham's Razor

In response to the Michael Farrell post below, here's a PDF of a minicomic I made a few months ago. Of particular interest is the last story, "Rube Golberg vs. Occam's Razor," where I rely on rhythm (the definition most post-McCloud formalists seem to agree upon is that comics are essentially rhythm engines) and words alone (and, I guess, the phenomenological data encoded in just drawing the letters and panel borders and such) to build the narrative. This is, maybe, the opposite of "abstract comics," but its aims are similar: exploring minimalism and formalism, structuring temporal space, trying to figure out where the line is between form and content, picture and word in this weird, composite medium. Hope you like it! Thanks to Mr. David Lasky's "The Raven" for inspiration!