Graphic Medicine: Comix Pathographies
For the last few years, each February I have made the journey to Middletown, PA. There’s no train station in Middletown, just a yellow painted wooden platform and an awning with a bench underneath. The train tracks run directly over an old overpass that stretches west towards Harrisburg. There’s usually snow on the ground when […]
Sagmeister’s Happy Show = Awesome
The Happy Show by Sagmeister is perhaps the most enjoyable user experience I have had in a museum setting … ever. Even before entering the main gallery the show begins. With text on the stairways, giant inflatable gorrilas on the mezzanine and curious cards that randomly ask entrants to clap profusely or text a joke […]
Comix and UX Interaction Design
In 2008 when Google introduced the world to its new Internet browser, Chrome, they asked Scott Mccloud, revered sequential art scholar, to explain what their product was using a comic book. Over in the UK, Andrew Park built a small design empire using his scribing skills to illustrate head-scratching topics on dry erase boards. […]
So What Ever Happened with the Tagged Tanakh?
From 2007-2010 I worked at JPS; first as a contractor, then as an employee. Publisher of the Hebrew to English translation of the Jewish Bible, JPS has a 124-year archive of intellectual property built around an ancient text. The former CEO of JPS,Ellen Frankel, a biblical scholar and librettist took a chance on me. First, […]
I am a Horror Vacui-ist!
It was recently pointed out to me by a new friend that I am an artist in the school of Horror Vacui. Ever since grade school, I have been obsessed with doodling and filling in the margins of my notebooks with drawings. In fifth grade I got hooked on graph paper. Then Todd McFarlane blew […]
She Said: Ursula Rucker Rocks out Debut Fifth Album Live in Philly
Full disclosure, I am friends with Ursula Rucker. I knew her as my boss 12 years ago before I knew her music and poetry. If you don’t know her, Ursula was the first feminine touch to The Roots early albums. Then she went on a sonic journey. I’ve seen Ursula perform at least a dozen times in […]
Happy Purim!
As the full moon ascends we celebrate the topsy turvy nature of life with Purim. This holiday is the Jewish spin on a global rejoicing of the Spring to come. Persian New Year, Chinese New Year, Mardi Gras and Purim coincide by weeks as each culture celebrates the fool as the king and then imbibe […]
Twitter Memes and Random Thoughts
HoboDarkseid and TimeLostBatman are the latest examples of fan-fiction transmedia hijacking brand name properties from the corporate establishment. Each of these Twitter accounts takes on the personality of a comic book character and adds their own wacky dialogue to the twitterverse. DC would never have Batman philosophizing with Aristotle or kicking ass in Sodom and […]
Go Micro!
With the success of District 9-props to VFS alumni who worked on the film-a new creative path has been blazed. An FX designer had a dope idea and executed it amazingly. No need for a resume, maybe just the right connections…and boom, a micro movie is transformed into an international box office smash. The success […]
The Cool Kids I Know
Yes it is true, I went to high school with a bonafide movie star. And though he never acted in school, he has gone on to become a rising star in romantic comedies and now makes movies with De Niro!? But recently, I discovered that another grade school peer is making waves, al beit it’s […]