40 Webcomics You Need to Read Allow Us To Explain Comics are wonderful, visual ways of getting a story across, and it goes without saying that we at The Mary Sue love them. But as wonderful as they are, grabbing issue after issue can add up. And yet the desire for more comics persists. Luckily there are plenty of creative, engaging, funny, and complex stories and gag strips out there for those of us who need our dose of sequential art. Webcomics allow artists and writers to take advantage of almost unlimited possibilities and showcase truly innovative storytelling, plus they come from the minds and hands of people who simply love to create. Of course, this list could never be a comprehensive overview of every comic on the internet, or even every quality comic on the internet, but hopefully you come away with a new fandom to call your very own. (pictured: Noelle Stevenson‘s Nimona)
Las 250 mejores películas de la historia y un plano de metro, la imagen de la semana ¿Cuántas horas de nuestra vida habremos perdido por discutir con otras personas cuáles consideramos que son las mejores películas de la historia, el año, el mes o incluso de la semana —que a veces las distribuidoras parecen confabularse para no estrenar nada interesante durante semanas para luego sacar varias de golpe—? Pues aprovecho la tranquilidad habitual de los sábados para dedicar esta nueva entrega de la imagen de la semana a un plano que recoge las 250 mejores películas de la historia según los votantes de imdb. Uno de los grandes atractivos de esta lista, a la que cada uno dará la credibilidad que crea conveniente, es la original forma en la que aparece presentada, ya que se han dividido las películas por géneros —y subgéneros como drama sobre la tolerancia— para que cada uno de ellos sea una de las líneas del metro más cinematográfico de la historia. Vía | MacGuffin 007
8 Tips For Creating Great Stories From George R.R. Martin, Junot Diaz, And Other Top Storytellers What the hell is a Story Lizard? In Wonderbook: The Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (Abrams Books, October 15), Story Lizards join Prologue Fish and other infographic helpmates designed to banish dry textual analysis in favor of a kicking, screaming, slithering approach to storytelling creativity. Author Jeff Vandermeer, a three-time Fantasy World Award-winning novelist who co-directs the Shared Worlds teen writing camp, says "The way we're taught to analyze fiction is to break down and do a kind of autopsy. Enter the Story Lizard, above, illustrated by Jeremy Zerfoss. As Vandermeer tells Co.Create, "A recurring thing in Wonderbook is to think of stories as being more like living creatures than machines." Neil Gaiman. Read on for a sampling of Wonderbook tips about how to craft mind-blowing stories. Tell, don't show Hugo Award-winner Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars trilogy, believes "exposition" deserves more respect. Name Wisely Build a Better Backstory Take Your Lumps
9 Books on Reading and Writing by Maria Popova Dancing with the absurdity of life, or what symbolism has to do with the osmosis of trash and treasure. Hardly anything does one’s mental, spiritual, and creative health more good than resolving to read more and write better. Today’s reading list addresses these parallel aspirations. And since the number of books written about reading and writing likely far exceeds the reading capacity of a single human lifetime, this omnibus couldn’t be — shouldn’t be — an exhaustive list. If anyone can make grammar fun, it’s Maira Kalman — The Elements of Style Illustrated marries Kalman’s signature whimsy with Strunk and White’s indispensable style guide to create an instant classic. The original Elements of Style was published in 1919 in-house at Cornell University for teaching use and reprinted in 1959 to become cultural canon, and Kalman’s inimitable version is one of our 10 favorite masterpieces of graphic nonfiction. On the itch of writing, Lamott banters: On why we read and write:
5 Timeless Books of Insight on Fear and the Creative Process by Maria Popova From Monet to Tiger Woods, or why creating rituals and breaking routines don’t have to be conflicting notions. “Creativity is like chasing chickens,” Christoph Niemann once said. But sometimes it can feel like being chased by chickens — giant, angry, menacing chickens. Whether you’re a writer, designer, artist or maker of anything in any medium, you know the creative process can be plagued by fear, often so paralyzing it makes it hard to actually create. Today, we turn to insights on fear and creativity from five favorite books on the creative process and the artist’s way. Despite our best-argued cases for incremental innovation and creativity via hard work, the myth of the genius and the muse perseveres in how we think about great artists. In the ideal — that is to say, real — artist, fears not only continue to exist, they exist side by side with the desires that complement them, perhaps drive them, certainly feed them. Are you paralyzed with fear? Donating = Loving
100 Diagrams That Changed the World Since the dawn of recorded history, we’ve been using visual depictions to map the Earth, order the heavens, make sense of time, dissect the human body, organize the natural world, perform music, and even concretize abstract concepts like consciousness and love. 100 Diagrams That Changed the World (public library) by investigative journalist and documentarian Scott Christianson chronicles the history of our evolving understanding of the world through humanity’s most groundbreaking sketches, illustrations, and drawings, ranging from cave paintings to The Rosetta Stone to Moses Harris’s color wheel to Tim Berners-Lee’s flowchart for a “mesh” information management system, the original blueprint for the world wide web. It appears that no great diagram is solely authored by its creator. Most of those described here were the culmination of centuries of accumulated knowledge. Most arose from collaboration (and oftentimes in competition) with others. Christianson offers a definition:
The 10 best movies about design | Industry insight Need some design inspiration this holiday season? Well, rather than tune into the latest by-the-numbers action film or romcom, why not take a look at some of the many awesome design documentaries? There’s nothing better than seeing what some of the great designers have done to help boost your creative ideas and spur you on. 01. Seminal artist Saul Bass and Mayo Simon created animated short documentary Why Man Creates in 1968. 02. American director Gary Hustwit celebrates 50 years of the typeface with a feature-length documentary focusing on the wider conversation about how type affects our culture. 03. Directed by Mu-Ming Tsai, Design and Thinking examines how design can influence the world of business and social change and calls on creative minds to work together to change the world. 04. Following on from Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s second film looks at the world of design engineering and the creative concepts behind everyday objects such as toothbrushes to tech gadgets. 05. 06. 07.
EL FUTURO QUE DEJAMOS ATRÁS – La ciencia ficción de los 70 en 50 películas, 1ª parte: Los avances científicos serán portadores del CAOS | El pájaro burlón En general, con sus más y sus menos, el equipo de redacción de El pájaro burlón se ha criado en los 80. Para futuros adictos al cine como hemos acabado siendo, no podemos quejarnos. Pillamos casi el punto de partida de los blockbusters, y digamos las películas de aventuras, de acción y de fantasía, en líneas generales, se hacían enfocadas hacia un público juvenil desde Hollywood, lo cual para nosotros por edad era ideal. Aquella visión aparentemente tan inocente no estaba tan alejada de la realidad y lo descubriríamos años después. Salió del ghetto, empezó a llegar a unas masas que comenzaban a consumir un tipo de arte popular muy diferente al de décadas anteriores. La década de los 70 para el género recibe el primer aviso del cambio de ciclo en 1977 con la llegada de La guerra de las galaxias y es un anticipo del mundo que estaba por venir. -Androides, extraterrestres y otras criaturas infernales nos llevarán al EXTERMINIO. Pero, ¡tranquilos! 1.08 – TEST PILOTA PIRXA (1979) Polonia
Infographic: Humans Are Just A Twig On The Tree Of Life Life started with bacteria. By some cosmic chance, amino acids became DNA and proteins, which together became life. It took roughly 2 billion more years for things to get more interesting…but things got very, very interesting. Click to enlarge. In this graphic by the Tree of Life web project and designer Leonard Eisenberg, we see all 3.5 billion years of life on earth evolving, not through limbs and timelines, but an elegant rainbow swirl. As you look at the graphic, realize that time radiates outward and each kingdom’s appearance is also in chronological order from left to right. You’ll see lots of ideas that didn’t work--branches surrounded by small pockets of white or an extinct species. Humans? Read more here.. [Hat tip: Visual.ly]