Arkholt's avatar

Arkholt

@arkholt.com

6 followers 37 following 107 posts

I draw funny pictures: arkholt.com | dribbble.com/arkholt | new.thebirdfeeder.com

I also write about funny pictures: blog.arkholt.com | notes.arkholt.com

Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Jim finally getting the recognition he deserves

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Comics in the Golden Age's avatar Comics in the Golden Age @comicsinthega.bsky.social
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Happy birthday to Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes!

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Cartoon Art Museum's avatar Cartoon Art Museum @cartoonart.bsky.social
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Born on this day in 1883, San Francisco native Rube Goldberg made his mark creating comics of complex devices for simple tasks. In 1995, the U.S. Post Office released a stamp featuring his 1931 cartoon 'Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin.'

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Comics in the Golden Age's avatar Comics in the Golden Age @comicsinthega.bsky.social
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Today is the birthday of cartoonist, author, inventor, & engineer Rube Goldberg (July 4, 1883-Dec. 7, 1970).

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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I'll make it explode by feeding Finnegans Wake into it

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Harvey Pekar on the potential of comics, from The Comics Journal 123, July 1988:

“Comics is as good, as expressive, as versatile an artistic medium as any other, including the novel, theater, and film. You can write as well in comics as in any other form…"

notes.arkholt.com/pubs/thecomi...

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NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER 's avatar NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social
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SLUGGO’S SATURDAY

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Floyd Gottfredson on portraying emotion in comic characters, from The Comics Journal 120:

"...your characters... act with their whole bodies... Whatever it is he's portraying in that particular panel, he feels it from his heels up."

notes.arkholt.com/pubs/thecomi...

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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It's always great when I read some back issue of The Comics Journal from the 90s, such as a couple I just read with editorials about how awful Dave Sim was, and then go to social media and see posts about similar things, such as how awful Dave Sim still is.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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It feels like every time I criticize something about a game, either it's story or gameplay or mechanics or overall design, there are lots of people ready to say "Yeah, but it sold this many copies" as if how profitable it was is an objective measure of quality.

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Alex Tomlinson's avatar Alex Tomlinson @alextomlinson.com
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Black-and-white warbler!

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Floyd Gottfredson on how he started drawing Mickey Mouse comic strips, from The Comics Journal 120:

"He said, 'Well, just take it over for two weeks until I find someone.' ... So I continued for 45 and a half years."

notes.arkholt.com/pubs/thecomi...

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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I don't think that disagrees with UC at all, since the point of that section is that abstracting focuses on details and doesn't necessarily eliminate them. But sometimes it can seem like certain important details *are* being eliminated by particular artists and writers in order to be "relatable."

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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I think the issue was that while a more abstracted and simplified face *can* be something that someone can project onto, certain details need to be present for certain people to relate to it. People's identities and experiences aren't tied just to their face, and those traits need to be represented.

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Tom Heintjes 's avatar Tom Heintjes @hogansalley.bsky.social
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Happy Father’s Day from Hogan’s Alley! Here’s our tribute to cartoon fathers and father figures.

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Mike Peterson's avatar Mike Peterson @csotd.bsky.social
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Happy Bloomsday. (Always a good day to remember Richard Thompson)

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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I'm very confused. Every library, bookstore, and comic book store that I've been to in at least the past 10 years has had a sizable manga section. I would think people who enjoy word games would also be people who like to read and go to bookstores and/or libraries.

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NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER 's avatar NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social
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The Best Of Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller, October 24,1945

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Tom Gauld 's avatar Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social
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My latest Guardian Books cartoon.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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He doesn't have an "arc," per se, but there's often one or two strips at the end of a story where Calvin discusses with Hobbes what has happened and what he gleaned from it. It's not always the correct lesson, but it shows he thinks and ponders what happens to him. That's how growth occurs.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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That's true, though that was just a fantasy he created in his own imagination. Calvin actually does learn things from many of his experiences. These things are mainly an appreciation for nature and a disillusionment with people, but it does happen.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Right, you can certainly go too far. You don't have to start out as an absolute jerk just to change. Changing and learning can happen in smaller, subtler ways.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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The only people who would learn absolutely nothing from that are either horrible people, who do have stories written about them but they tend to be about the fact that they're horrible, or people who are already perfect, in which case it's just a power fantasy.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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I guess this is true, but most people don't have things happen to them that are interesting enough to write a story about. If you go through a conflict that is exciting and interesting and overcome it, odds are you will learn *something,* at the very least how to overcome that kind of conflict.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Always love the old strips with some kind of "movie" theme in the strip itself or in the title, when it's clear that, by their very nature, comic strips do not move

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NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER 's avatar NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social
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Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller June 5,1941

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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The fascinating thing about this is that most people will look at it and say it's broken, or that it's not functioning properly. Yet it's performing exactly as designed. It was designed to approximate human language, not give accurate information. Why is it being employed for that purpose?

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Good thing Son is an immovable object

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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Technology should be used by humans to accomplish things humans can't do. Instead, AI is being used to replace the work humans do best. Forming connections with other humans is probably the most human thing possible. What happens when we try to replace that?

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secondlina // Lord of Crows's avatar secondlina // Lord of Crows @secondlina.bsky.social
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The only valid thief is a magpie.

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NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER 's avatar NANCY COMICS BY ERNIE BUSHMILLER @nancycomics.bsky.social
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Nancy By Ernie Bushmiller May 21,1952

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Tom Gauld 's avatar Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social
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My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

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Arkholt's avatar Arkholt @arkholt.com
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I don't know if anybody really means that they *want* worse graphics, but that if they have to have worse graphics in order to get better planning, budgeting, working conditions, and respect, they'll gladly take it. And I agree. But I also agree those need not be mutually exclusive.

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Tom Heintjes 's avatar Tom Heintjes @hogansalley.bsky.social
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Happy Mother's Day from Hogan's Alley! Here's our tribute to great mothers (and mother figures) in the comics, and I posted a legend to the image on our site: www.hoganmag.com/blog/4990

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