World Statistics

This site is intriguing and good use of congregating data collection across a wide variety of sources. How accurate is it? Not sure. The site is called Worldometers and it claims to have real-time stats on a variety of issues from across the globe. (Read about its gathering of numbers, if you want to dig a bit deeper)

There are some interesting stats about the environment there that are just plain sad to read, particularly how much forest areas are being lost and how much junk is being pumped into the air by companies.

But this area interested me. It shows media and publishing.

What do you make of a world where more cell phones are sold in a day than books that are published in a year? And just look at the number of email messages sent, number of Internet users and blogs posts. Fascinating. And are there really still that many newspapers around? You’d think there were only a handful left if you read the news about the news.

Peace (in the numbers),
Kevin

The Seven Things You Should Know Archive

Educause puts out a series of papers called Seven Things About … that are must-reads for anyone dipping their toes or minds into technology and learning. The two-sided white PDF papers explore the use of a technological tool in an educational setting in language that is easy to understand and simple to grasp. I’ve often used the Seven Things papers as supplemental handouts at workshops and find it gives just enough of an overview to spark a good opening discussions.

At the Educause site, you can find information about:

It’s worth a visit.

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

A Kid’s View of Gaming

This high school freshman lays out the rationale for gaming and learning. She talks about character development, story development and interactive immersion into other worlds as learning experiences.

Peace (in the immersion),
Kevin

A Review of “The Cartoonist”

My son and I bundled under some blankets this rainy weekend to watch the documentary on Jeff Smith, creator of the very popular Bone comics/graphic novel. The documentary is called The Cartoonist: Jeff Smith, Bone and the Changing Face of Comics and it is a treat. The video features extensive interviews with Jeff Smith and friends and admirers, and tracks the evolution of Bone in Jeff Smith’s fertile mind.

Here are a few things that really jumped out at me:

  • Smith notes that he remembers making some of the characters that are in Bone back when he was five or six years old. He says he drew all the time, everywhere, and talks about the evolution of the Bone characters over time. He uses three main characters, who are archetypes for Smith himself, and notes that he got one of the names for Fone-Bone from Mad Magazine via Don Martin’s site gag comics. I chuckled over that one.
  • Smith was interested in using the comic concept to create a long-form story (a 1,000 page book, as he put it) in the vein of The Odyssey or Moby Dick. From the start, he knew the story arc that would take place over time — in this case, more than 10 years of comics that told one big story. If you have ever held the collected Bone book in your hand, you’ll see that he has succeeded. It’s huge and hefty and rich with story.
  • Smith got his start in commercial animation — there are some scenes of he and his partners making “cells” of animation, which are overlays — and the documentary notes how his experience in moving pictures seeps into his comics, through the use of movement across frames and consistency of characters.
  • Smith explains how he uses symbolism, imagery and allusions in his Bone stories and one interesting scene shows Smith hiking through a forest area with waterfalls and streams that are depicted in his Bone book as the epicenter of the story. My son said, “That’s just like in the book!” Smith also notes how important the symbol of water is to storytellers and how he uses it himself in his book.
  • At one point, Smith notes how much the audience for comics and graphic novels have changed. It is no longer 30 year old men in comic shops. Now, there are kids (again) interested in comics and graphic novels, and he notes that librarians understand this shift. While book lending is mostly down in libraries, the one stack that shows constant growth is the graphic novel/comic stack. And the film notes that librarians and teachers see the use of graphic novels for engagement of young readers in text and can be a “bridge” to novels and other forms of reading.

All in all, The Cartoonist is a wonderful look at the man behind Bone, and the life of a comic book artist. Smith is engaging and open and excited to be where he is, and when you see the lines and lines of people of all ages waiting at conventions and book signing just to shake his hand or get an autograph, you realize just how much effect Smith and others are having on our views of literature when it comes to Sequential Art.

What I wonder is: what impact will these graphic novels have on young writers and what will the results of that influence be when we look at the field in 10 years? I can’t wait.

If you are a teacher searching for a movie that explains the creative writing and art process of comics and graphic novels, I suggest you consider The Cartoonist for your collection.

Here is a clip from the documentary:

Peace (in the comics),

Kevin

Music Monday: Inspired by Bird

This another chapter in my evolving ebook comic series about music in my life. This comic focuses in on my young obsession with all things “Charlie Parker” as I was deep into the saxophone as a kid. (Note: if you are using an RSS feed, you probably can’t see the comic. Follow the link to the ToonDoo site below)

Here is the evolving ebook:

Peace (in the sounds),
Kevin