Comics don't make you dumb

Last night I attended a talk at Leicester central lending library by Bryan Talbot. I initially attended simply to have him sign my copy of Alice in Sunderland but it turned out to be a very interesting talk.

He talked about various things to do with being a writer and artist of numerous comics/graphic novels. Most interesting was his talk about the subliminal side of comic book artwork. He pointed out how a lot of various elements affect the way you read a comic without you realising it. Things such as how the pages are laid out (including things like panel grids, etc) and things like colour choice (even that of the background of a page). He also talked about his work on "The Tale of One Bad Rat" and how he tried to make it accessible to a non-comic reading audience. A lot of what he said got me thinking about my Digital cultures sessions and things such as signs and signifiers and "readerly" and "writerly" approaches to reading a work. If only we could've had a session where we discussed graphic novels!

Of course, I did get a chance to have him sign my copy of Alice in Sunderland and it's now part of my collection of signed graphic novels, which includes Alan Moore's V for Vendetta and Karl Kopinski and Gordon Rennie's first Kal Jerico collection.


Keeping with the comics theme, I thought I might mention Doktor Sleepless:

Doktor Sleepless is a new ongoing series by Warren Ellis. While this is of course something interesting in itself (especially as Warren has compared it to Transmetropolitan), what makes it especially interesting is that it also has its own wiki (along with certain other sites). This isn't just a place that summarises what happens in the comic, this is the entire virtual world of the comics. They affect each other and grow out of each other.

Being in the IOCT and being around people like Jess Laccetti, Sue Thomas and Chris Joseph, I hear a lot about Transliteracy but I don't often see it action. While I spend pretty much every day reading a wide variety of media, but I don't often find the chance to do that with one specific thing (such as a piece of writing or film). Even more interesting is that this is a step into mainstream media (while comics may be a niche genre and Avatar may be an independent publisher, I can still walk into town and pick up a copy of Doktor Sleepless quite easily). Also, this is maybe a form of media (that of the comic/graphic novel) that wouldn't usually be included in talks about transliteracy, despite the fact that it's transliterate in nature (the fact you have to read images as well as words).

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 29: In the game "Batman Begins" for the Xbox; during your training for the League of Shadows you have to ring a bell with a shuriken. You are asked for a passphrase that you took off a ninja as part of your training. The passphrase is "Looking Glass". (The writers of Batman are rather obsessed with Alice, as we've seen before)

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 30: Virgil Griffith has put together a list of "Books that make you dumb", which correlates set texts against SAT scores. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland equates to scores around 1100.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 31: Quote #182779 on bash.org features a trivia question regarding the "eat me" cakes in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I was lying in bed when I read this, so I had to get up and make a note of it. That's dedication for you!

Alice was a Bond girl

"HUMANS ARE SO INTERESTING THAT THEY HAVE EVEN INVENTED DULLNESS. QUITE ASTONISHING."
-Death, from Hogfather

I started thinking the other day about how awesome things are (and I'm using the original definition of awesome here). About how awesome simple day-to-day things are that we take no notice of, because, if we did, we wouldn't be able to stop. We'd wake up each morning and we'd spend an hour unable to move while we come to terms with our very existence. Even longer if we'd been dreaming.

It's our humanity that takes us to the top of Everest and makes us stand there and go "You know, I could murder a sandwich..."

As technology advances, we're being exposed to more and more awesome things and we're ignoring them more and more. Right now, I'm talking to a friend in Australia. I actually talk to him more than some of my friends who live in the same city as me. Let alone those in the same country. I take no notice of this and I'm more concerned with how my left speaker cuts out when I knock it because there's a wire loose somewhere.

I think we should all take any chance we can get to inject some more awe back into our lives. And who knows what awesome things the future might bring?

"Think about it; the quicktank is given a job most of us would laugh out of town. Build a sophisticated camera capable of full 3-D input and peripheral pickup, using only water and jelly.

Build an eye."
-Spider Jerusalem, from Transmetropolitan

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 21: I stumbled across this website earlier, which makes fun of various ridiculous situations in old comics. It features two issues that have Alice references. The first in a small reference to a back-up story about "The Girl From The Looking Glass!". The second is a full comic about Alice, with the cover featuring a picture of her being spanked by a rag doll.

What I did on my holidays

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 15: In Tony Wilson's novelization of 24 Hour Party People, he references Alice in Wonderland twice. First on page 67: "Wilson perched, half-cross-legged, on a bar stool, holding court like the caterpillar on the mushroom", and then on page 78: "He just retreated till there was less even than the smile of a Lewis Carroll cat."

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 16: I've been reading through some of my old comics and found that District X number 12 (written by David Hine and Illustrated by Lan Medina) ends with an epilogue where Ismael Ortega finds Mikhail Smerdyakov reading Alice in Wonderland to his uncle Gregor who has now fully taken root in one of the tunnels underground. Mikhail notes "Uncle Gregor says the proper title is Alice's Adventures Underground." (The title of the original, much shorter, book Carroll wrote for Alice Liddell).

Who am I?

So either I don't have any "self," or else I have a multitude of "selves" appropriated by them, for them, according to their needs or desires.

- Luce Irigaray, "The Looking Glass, from the Other Side"

I use a lot of different names on the internet. I expect most people do. I wonder if they all mean something? Or if any lack of meaning they all have may have some (meta-)meaning to it. Looking at my own names, I know the stories behind them and what I use them for and discern the individual personality traits of the members of this family of names that make-up my internet existence.

Let's begin with what could be considered the head of the family. The name that I use as often as possible and is the oldest that is of any significance. Shen-an-doah. Taken from a Pitchshifter song (the only variation with hyphens), it apparently has several different meanings. Often shortened to "Shen". This is the name that can be added to all the others, my "family" name (literally in some cases, such as Shen Fayray or Shen Alice (Shen is a Chinese name, so it goes first)).

Then came Doll. Originally a character created out of whimsy and a desire to "fuck with people" and see their reactions. An eternally 16 year-old girl, unsure of her sexuality. The reveal spawned Susan Dalle, who has a more concrete existence. Doll is no longer a name for me, but is used to describe an unnamed object of my affection.

Bruitist is an anomaly. Taken from a Refused song, it's a back-up name. Disconnected and without any real usage or derivatives like the others. I'm still the top result on Google though.

Finally, there's Alice. The latest and my current favourite. Given to me by my friend Kienan as "It's a female name that happens to fit you, I'm not really sure why. It's better than Susan, I know that." As with all names, it is subject to changes and derivatives such as Allison or Shen Alice/Shenalice. It has currently taken over from Shen, which may change or it may not...

That's it for now. Maybe I'll make a proper family tree one day and include all the names that have fallen by the wayside (Jerusalem, Clockwork man, and many more than have been transient and possibly forgotten) and all the derivatives of my common names. I could even include non-internet names, as some of these have crossed over and been used in place of my given name in certain situations.

The implied and the actual gender of these names is a subject for a later date.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 2: In this month's issue of "Marvel comics presents", the story about Hellcat ("The Girl Who Could Be You") features Patsy Walker referring to one of the personalities that has split from her as "Alice in Wonderland". Presumably referring to the fact that she is wearing a blue dress and hairband similar in style to Alice's. Also possibly due to this being the polite and "proper" side of Patsy.

Alice in popular culture sighting no. 3: Today's Diesel Sweeties strip has Indie Rock Pete mentioning "Alice's looking glass" as an example of a strange alternate reality.

-Alice