Thursday, December 5, 2013

Ch5 Pointland plus Rumpus

So I'm plugging away on drawing Chapter Five, and wanted to share a little preview.  In this excerpt, we make a return to EA Abbott's Flatland, which was initially introduced in the Interlude between Ch1 and Ch2, and has subsequently been referenced throughout. But I'm using this two-dimensional world here, and the even more bizarre situation of the zero-dimensional realm of Pointland as a way of introducing this chapter that takes up the imagination. You'll see a call back as well to the earlier definition of unflattening, and the symbol for it, which was first introduced in Ch2, emerging from thinking of Eratosthenes's calculation of the circumference of the earth.

Also, my recent NYComics Symposium talk, alongside cartoonist and author of Iron Bound, Brendan Leach, was written up by terrific artist Andrea Tsurumi, for the ongoing feature on the symposium on the Rumpus - check it out here. (Past talks here.) It was a great night at the symposium, Brendan's talk featured live music from the soundtrack accompanying his graphic novel, and I had some of the most engaging questions I've had - i'm still thinking about! If you're in NYC, definitely recommend coming by for a symposium session sometime.

Ok, Chapter Five isn't going to draw itself, and I need to start on Ch6 in a few days... Onward - Nick

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Nick, I love your blog. Keep it up! Your comics are wonderful.

nsousanis said...

Thanks, Natalie! I certainly will keep it up - a few chapters to the finale! Thanks, N

Unknown said...

Hi Nick! I am not sure if I am your biggest fan, but I am certainly a big fan of yours! Your PhD thesis is amazing and I am looking forward to reading it soon! I saw excerpts from your thesis (comic) here recently and I thought it would be great to include 5 pages at the end of my own thesis (with your name and the link to this blog of course under each page). I wonder if you agree to me using your 5 thesis pages in my own thesis? I would like to end my thesis with a reference to your work which I find really inspiring and very relevant to my own PhD thesis which is titled "An Image-based Concept Inquiry scenario in HE". My thesis is about the value, intricacies and challenges of a HE teaching and learning method which I designed to support students' thinking about abstract concepts in social sciences by inviting them to represent those concepts via digital images in order to externalise and develop their concept understanding, creativity and multiple perspectives thinking. The accent is pretty much on externalising students' interpretations and developing "seeing in multiple ways". Whatever your decision, I wonder whether you would be interested in some collaborative work in the future... It would be great to talk and collaborate with you! I am currently based in the UK at the University of Nottingham. Good luck and I praise you for doing your thesis in a comic form - I have been into the genre since my childhood!
All the best,
Natas(h)a

nsousanis said...

Hi Natasa, thank you for your note and kind words! Sorry I didn't make it over to the UK this fall - I had hoped to do so, but glad the work at least could get there.

Your work sounds great and up my alley. Why don't you drop me a line directly in regards to your request. Email is in the About section down the right sidebar.
All the best - Nick