I had never seen this before!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fantagraphics/sets/72157621831423113/show/
Friday, December 11, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Pythagorus comic.
Hi everyone.
I did this small piece today :
(Sorry, the image was very small, so I enlarged it but it got blurred.)
Well, when I say "I" did it, in fact it is copied from a drawing due to Thabit Ibn Qurra (826-901), I just decomposed it in a sequence of 5 figures. So the "today" is quite innacurate as well, and even more when you remark that it does provide a proof for Pythagore's Theorem, which is way older. (If you don't see why, call a,b and c the lengths of the sides of the triangles that appear in panels 2 and 3, c being the larger side, then in the first panel you have a black area of c square, and in the last one a black area of a square + b square.)
I don't think that this piece is very interesting as a comics (as a mathematical proof, it is brilliant - of course I take no pride in it since I just copied it and have nothing to do with its invention), but I publish it here because I think that there might be something to investigate here. There is a whole lot of "proofs without words" in mathematics. Wikipedia says that "The College Mathematics Journal runs a regular feature entitled `Proof without words' " (but I never looked at it), and there is a book of the same name containing hundreds of these proofs (I have looked at this book a while ago). So maybe one could take inspiration in these proofs to produce abstract comics that would be quite different from what I have seen until now (I guess), since its contents would be "concrete" representations of mathematical "abstract" concepts (I put both in quotes as I use these words in a quite unprecise way).
Of course, the interesting point would be not to just translate a mathematical graphic proof into a comics, but to introduce something new, which I did not make.
Well, I hope it does not sound too boring for people who do not like maths as I do. But for me this proof from Thabit Ibn Qurra is incredibly elegant, and deserved to be known, so even if my piece is not that interesting, I hope that those who didn't know it enjoyed it.
IaR.
I did this small piece today :
(Sorry, the image was very small, so I enlarged it but it got blurred.)Well, when I say "I" did it, in fact it is copied from a drawing due to Thabit Ibn Qurra (826-901), I just decomposed it in a sequence of 5 figures. So the "today" is quite innacurate as well, and even more when you remark that it does provide a proof for Pythagore's Theorem, which is way older. (If you don't see why, call a,b and c the lengths of the sides of the triangles that appear in panels 2 and 3, c being the larger side, then in the first panel you have a black area of c square, and in the last one a black area of a square + b square.)
I don't think that this piece is very interesting as a comics (as a mathematical proof, it is brilliant - of course I take no pride in it since I just copied it and have nothing to do with its invention), but I publish it here because I think that there might be something to investigate here. There is a whole lot of "proofs without words" in mathematics. Wikipedia says that "The College Mathematics Journal runs a regular feature entitled `Proof without words' " (but I never looked at it), and there is a book of the same name containing hundreds of these proofs (I have looked at this book a while ago). So maybe one could take inspiration in these proofs to produce abstract comics that would be quite different from what I have seen until now (I guess), since its contents would be "concrete" representations of mathematical "abstract" concepts (I put both in quotes as I use these words in a quite unprecise way).
Of course, the interesting point would be not to just translate a mathematical graphic proof into a comics, but to introduce something new, which I did not make.
Well, I hope it does not sound too boring for people who do not like maths as I do. But for me this proof from Thabit Ibn Qurra is incredibly elegant, and deserved to be known, so even if my piece is not that interesting, I hope that those who didn't know it enjoyed it.
IaR.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Abstract Comic Anthology featured in Holiday Books issue of New York Times Book Review!!
I know that Derik scooped me on it, but I've been sitting on this news for a week not wanting to jinx it, though I could hardly wait to post about it--so I'll do it anyway. This is the greatest exposure the Anthology has had yet, and, given the reach of the Book Review, probably the greatest exposure we could have hoped for; and it's in the Holiday Books issue, no less, as one of Douglas Wolk's favorite comics of the year. (Not to mention that this brings us that much closer to convincing Fanta to do a second volume--so spread the news widely, folks!)
When I get my physical copy of the review tomorrow, I'll post here a scan of the actual review. IN the meantime, here's what Wolk has to say:
The artists assembled by Andrei Molotiu for his anthology ABSTRACT COMICS (Fantagraphics, $39.99) push “cartooning” to its limits: the selections have few if any words, no characters or plot, and very few clearly identifiable representations — just abstract images in sequence. Some contributors draw on comics’ native vocabulary for their lines and compositions, while others avoid contour drawing altogether. (The “Mutts” artist Patrick McDonnell’s sequence is mostly circles, right angles and negative space; Janusz Jaworski’s watercolor blobs “communicate” with word balloons full of meaningless scribbles.) It’s a fascinating book to stare at, and as with other kinds of abstract art, half the fun is observing your own reactions: anyone who’s used to reading more conventional sorts of comics is likely to reflexively impose narrative on these abstractions, to figure out just what each panel has to do with the next.
When I get my physical copy of the review tomorrow, I'll post here a scan of the actual review. IN the meantime, here's what Wolk has to say:
The artists assembled by Andrei Molotiu for his anthology ABSTRACT COMICS (Fantagraphics, $39.99) push “cartooning” to its limits: the selections have few if any words, no characters or plot, and very few clearly identifiable representations — just abstract images in sequence. Some contributors draw on comics’ native vocabulary for their lines and compositions, while others avoid contour drawing altogether. (The “Mutts” artist Patrick McDonnell’s sequence is mostly circles, right angles and negative space; Janusz Jaworski’s watercolor blobs “communicate” with word balloons full of meaningless scribbles.) It’s a fascinating book to stare at, and as with other kinds of abstract art, half the fun is observing your own reactions: anyone who’s used to reading more conventional sorts of comics is likely to reflexively impose narrative on these abstractions, to figure out just what each panel has to do with the next.
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