"I love Spin Weave and Cut – Homepage of Nick Sousanis"

2022-05-12 17:52:40

Skip to contentSpin Weave and CutHomepage of Nick SousanisBlog About Unflattening Comics Press Education Rss page opens in new windowMail page opens in new windowFacebook page opens in new windowTwitter page opens in new windowBlog About Unflattening Comics Press Education Blind Comics SymposiumA short update with news of an event I’m cohosting this week! First, a couple of recent podcast interviews. Back in June, I spoke with Mike Hanson for his show the Well Read Investor and we had a good conversation about how I came to do this work and thoughts about comics in education. That’s…Read MoreS21 Making Comics DocumentedA small update with tons of comics making activities that I do in classes for you to try for yourself or with students! First, I did an interview with Michael Hawley for the Podcast the Well Read Investor.  A fun conversation – we got into my back story, my creative process, and a lot of…Read MoreMaking Comics S2021CMX304 Making Comics Spring 2021 What We Did (See ALL my syllabi & resources on my Comics-Education landing page here) This is a COMPLETE account of EVERYTHING we did in my Making Comics class S2021 – online on Zoom. I do a ton of collaborative activities in in-person classes. That had to be adapted somewhat…Read MoreFirst stepsA short post – as I plug away (slowly but surely) on the follow up to Unflattening – with the working title Nostos – I wanted to send out a call to anyone who has always wanted me to draw their baby (or themselves as a baby) in a book! I’m looking specifically for images of learning to roll…Read MoreME WEI made a thing in response to the past four years and the hopeful shift represented by January 20, 2021. If you’d like to download, PDF is here. It is a successor to my 2016 election comic “WE.” I don’t get a lot of time to draw these days on my book, let alone for…Read MoreMaking ZithersThe state of things these last months has meant that I’ve posted much less about my teaching than I’d intended (though as always, I have tons of my teaching materials compiled here). But I recently shared some activities from class on Twitter, and given the response to them, I thought I’d detail them here. The…Read MoreING 2020Sharing here my quadrennial presidential election comic for 2020 “ING…” I made the first of these political comics back in 2004 (see “Security” here and “Show of Hands” here), and that occasion prompted my full-on return to comics-making as an adult. As a result, I’ve ended up doing one each election season since. This one…Read MoreNo Sides redux InterviewsDown below, you can find a number of recent video interviews I’ve done and other news. But first, I’m sharing a slightly revised version of my comic “No Sides” that I’d originally posted back in early May, as well as a version of it created for mobile devices. While I won’t go into all the…Read MoreNo SidesA bunch of things about my teaching below, but first: I made a new short comic that has something to do with now and the last several years. It’s about wrestling with divisions and connections. The pared down approach came out of something I was trying with my students on zoom – exercises to get…Read MoreNo UK Collaborative Comics ChallengeSome speaking news, publication announcements, and down below, a new collaborative (!) comics-making challenge! (scroll to bottom if you want to start with that!) First, I was set to go to the UK next week for a series of talks and workshops – including keynoting the Transitions comics conference in London and giving a workshop…Read MoreDrawn Syllabi Moons more…Some teaching resources to share – but first, speaking news! This week I’m off to Michigan State University to keynote (along with the amazing Emil Ferris) MSU’s annual Comics Forum. I’m there for a workshop Thursday February 20, Emil Ferris will be speaking Friday evening, and my keynote will be midday Saturday the 22nd. That…Read MoreTalks and Comics Classroom ResourcesA roundup of news, upcoming talks, and resources from my classes that I’ve made available (with an opportunity to participate in my class’s midterm(!) below). Past events first: the kind folks at Duke’s Franklin Humanities Institute have made a terrific video that weaves together an interview with me, alongside a workshop and talk I did last…Read MoreVisual Analysis Comics ClassBefore I get to the main part of this post, on teaching with comics, some news. I’ve done a few Interviews on the Chinese edition of Unflattening – each of them independently focused on the theme of noncomformity running through Unflattening – which is not something I’m typically asked about and makes me quite intrigued…Read MoreCfP Unfurling UnflatteningSome exciting news about Unflattening and a trio of interviews! I’m thrilled to pass on the Call for Proposals for “Unfurling Unflattening” – an edited collecting on teaching with Unflattening across disciplines and educational contexts! As described by editors Amanda Latz, Janine Utell, and Andrea Kantrowitz – this book “is meant to generate openings – to…Read MoreIDEAS and Unpacking Unflattening Some travel, news around Unflattening, interviews, and thoughts on comics in the classroom with this post… This week, I’m off to Emory University to speak (and join some classes) as part of their IDEAS weeklong event series. Looking forward to meeting with their IDEAS Fellows and talking alternative scholarship and comics with them! My…Read MoreChinese Edition Nostos moreLots of news to start the new year! First up – Unflattening is now available in Chinese, via Gingko Books! They did a wonderful job – this and the Korean edition are the only two translations thus far to have a different cover made from repurposed interior art. While I’m partial to the cover as…Read MoreThanks and ArrivalIt’s getting to that time in the semester – what began as a wave of newness, then turned to a mass of projects in multiple directions, now begins a rapid race to the finish line. When I drew up my syllabi this summer, I made a little drawing marked December 7th for the arrival of…Read MoreDetroit!This Friday October 12 at 4pm, I’ll be a guest of the WSU English Department to discuss Unflattening and thinking in comics at Wayne State University‘s Maccabees Building room 10302, reception at Tony V’s Tavern at 5756 Cass Ave to follow [Note this has changed from my original post]. I did my masters there (well, two…Read MoreHQMix UniComic SpainA short update with a little news and some travels. First, the news: the Brazilian edition of Unflattening (Desaplanar in Portuguese) from publisher Veneta won Brazil’s HQ Mix Award for Best Theoretical Book on Comics! The HQ Mix is the principal prize in Brazilian comics industry, akin to the Eisners in the US. Grateful for my…Read MoreEisner Class Grids Gestures reduxSome news first, and then below, a look at my classes, and a new Grids & Gestures twitter challenge (with a bonus twist!). Please read on… A belated update about Comic-Con and the Eisners, for which I was nominated for Best Short Comic for my comic on Columbia’s comics librarian Karen Green – I won!! Over…Read MoreSan Diego – Unflattening Symphony!This week I’m off to San Diego for Comic-Con and the Eisner Award ceremony! My comic “A Life in Comics” on Columbia University’s comics librarian extraordinaire is up for an Eisner for Best Short Story. Fingers crossed – but either way, I’m thrilled to be included and grateful to librarians everywhere for all they’d done…Read MoreEisner Nom – Comics Grads This April, I was geeked to learn that the short comic I made in 2017 on Columbia’s comics librarian extraordinaire Karen Green was nominated for an Eisner Award in the Best Short Story category! It was a huge effort, despite being a short piece, as it wound through some highlights of the history of comics as a way…Read MoreNew Scholarship PMLA ComicPublication news below with a new comic(!), but first some words about upcoming talks! I’ll be in NYC this coming week for AERA – and excited to reteam with my colleague artist & drawing professor Andrea Kantrowitz and dance professor Kathryn Ricketts to do a session on drawing, dance, and comics. (My individual component of…Read MoreDancing to UnflatteningThis week, I’m traveling to talk new forms of scholarship, and in this overdue post, I share details about that, as well as students Dancing Unflattening and other innovative responses, and some publications and other news… First, I’m off to Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles Thursday March 8, for a talk on Scholarship and the Graphic Novel at…Read MoreICAFThis week, I’m traveling to Seattle to participate in the International Comics Arts Forum’s (ICAF) annual conference at the University of Washington and the concurrent Short Run Comics & Arts Festival. I’ve been invited to ICAF to speak on my work as artist & scholar, and also around teaching comics. My plan for my talk…Read MoreComics-Based Research, MI-bound, & UF in classroomsThis week, I’m on the road again. First up, a visit to Detroit’s College for Creative Studies for a day of workshops and class visits all connected to Unflattening being their common freshman read. From there it’s off to Ann Arbor to do some workshops and work with folks as a participant in the two-day…Read MoreWhy You Should Draw Temple Penn TalksThe end of August saw me take a whirlwind trip to São Paulo for the release of Unflattening in Portuguese (as Desaplanar from the wonderful Veneta Press). I spoke with comics scholars, enthusiasts, makers, and educators, courtesy of the organizers of Brazil’s 4th Annual International Comics Conference and the folks at Veneta. Grateful for all the support…Read MoreBrazil – Unflattening in Portuguese!I’m pleased to announce that Unflattening is now out in Portuguese as Desaplanar from the Brazilian publisher Veneta! It joins the French translation (as Le déploiement), Korean, and Serbian editions (with more on the way!). In advance of Desaplanar’s publication, the major Brazilian paper Folha ran a feature/interview by Ramon Vitral. (You can see a google translate attempt here.) Other publications and…Read MoreUnflattening in Serbian!Pleased to share the news that Unflattening has now been published in Serbian!! Actually, it happened in the fall of 2016, but my copy just arrived and I’m thrilled to have it join the French and Korean editions! (A few more are on the way. The Portuguese edition from Brazil might already be out – more news…Read MoreGreen(e) AnthropoceneAs semester has finally wrapped, an update of a few things including the release of a new comic(!) I’m really thrilled to finally be able to share! And note I’ll be posting an overview of what we did in my comics classes in a post in the near future. Some quick speaking updates, I’ll be in the UK…Read MoreAERA17 AnalysisShort post – this week I’m off to San Antonio for the American Education Research Association’s (AERA) annual conference. I’m chairing a session on Arts-Based educational research, and presenting on three panels dealing with comics, drawing, and arts-based research. If you’re attending, come say hello! Among other things, I’ll be presenting with my friend and…Read MoreAngoulême Reviews MoreA bit of a gap in updates here – on account of teaching two new comics classes(!) and a new small comics project (much more on all of these things soon). Back in January, I had the lovely opportunity to travel to France to be a guest of the European School of Visual Arts Angouléme and…Read MoreAngoulêmeThis coming week I’m thrilled to be attending the 44th Annual Angoulême International Comics Festival! This yearly event transforms this town in the west of France into the 3rd largest and one of the most prestigious comics festivals in the world. I’m going as the guest of the French publisher of Unflattening (as Le Déploiement) Actes…Read MoreSolstice We ResponsesIt’s the winter solstice – shortest day of the year, longest night. From here on out we see increasingly longer days as the light returns. My family has always observed the solstice with particular significance – and perhaps it offers a reminder of hope and brighter days to come in dark times. To that end, I wanted…Read MoreComics Studies PennThis Friday, December 9, I’ll be at at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication to talk on Unflattening and new forms of scholarship. For details see Annenberg site here.This trip signals the close to a full travel schedule of speaking on the book for the fall. Most recently, I was at Davidson College, and prior to that…Read MoreWEMy full-on return to comics was for an art show in Detroit around the 2004 US Presidential Election. I’ve made a habit of doing a piece around each election since. For various reasons, this year has been a little tougher than the others – but this is what I’ve come up with. A piece about “We.”…Read MoreImage Lab & Next Gen PhDThis week I’m in the air again – first up off to Madison, Wisconsin Thursday, October 20, to do a workshop-talk connected with Lynda Barry‘s Image Lab/Applied Comics Kitchen at UW! Excited for the opportunity to share with them and work alongside Barry and her students. I’ve been sharing a lot from her recent books on…Read MoreLynd Ward PrizeThis week, I’m off to Penn State University to receive the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year! The award (which was announced this past spring) is run by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress – and past years include Chris Ware’s Building Stories,…Read MoreJaipur Boulder LitFest Korean EditionThis Friday, I’m off to Colorado to participate in the Jaipur Literary Festival-Boulder at the Boulder Public Library. On Saturday the 24th, I’m on 3 panels: First up, “Graphic Novels: The Image and the Word” alongside Ms. Marvel’s G. Willow Wilson from 12-1pm. The program reads:  “As the language of digital image challenges letters and text, a…Read MoreSFAI talkAs of July, I’ve been a resident of San Francisco where my family and I moved for me to take an assistant professorship at San Francisco State University. I will have more to say on plans for what we plan to do around the study of comics and making comics at SFSU in the coming months. But in the…Read MoreComic-Con! NGA VideoSo the end of July came along and my wife, daughter, and I packed up and said goodbye to Calgary after a great year and a half in that sunny city. From the tremendous support of comics scholar extraordinaire Bart Beaty who brought me there to all the friends we made over that time, it was a difficult goodbye.…Read MoreSketching EntropyI was delighted and honored to talk about Unflattening, comics, and the importance of visual thinking at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC earlier in June! it was an amazing experience and It’s exciting to see more and more places open up to comics. The event was recorded and the NGA has released…Read MoreNational Gallery TalkAs I announced recently, this Sunday June 12 at 2pm, I will be speaking on my work at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC! The talk is titled “Unflattening: Revolutionizing Thought in Comics,” and as with everything at the National Gallery, it is free and open to the public. Reception to Unflattening, even…Read MoreTeaching Unflattening French EditionA Big Announcement: I’ll be giving a talk on Unflattening at the National Gallery of Art on Sunday, June 12 at 2pm! I’m geeked to say the least! Free and open to the public. (News on teaching with Unflattening below, but first…) I’m pleased to announce that Unflattening has just been published in French as…Read MoreEisner Nomination Lynd Ward Prize GridsGesturesI’m pleased to share the news that Unflattening has been nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work! I’m over the moon to be part of the history of comics’ biggest awards, and thankful to all the judges for considering my work. Now it gets handed over to voters – those with some connection to the…Read MoreGrids and GesturesWith this post, I want to try kicking off a collective comics-making activity – details below. But first, a few bits of news… New interview with me by Pedro Moura on the origins of Unflattening, my process, challenges, and more in The Comics Alternative. I was also interviewed recently for Colombia’s El Espectador by Pablo Guerra that…Read MoreUnflattening Lexicon March TalksI’m excited to see “Unflattening” picked up in other fields and entering the lexicon a bit… First up, Dr. Diane Jette, the Associate Chair of Physical Therapy at Massachusetts General Hospital referred to it as part of her keynote lecture at the American Physical Therapy Association conference. This was brought to my attention by Mike Pascoe assistant…Read MorePROSE Award Detroit DukeI am thrilled to share the news that Unflattening has won the 2016 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) in Humanities!  (The work also won the sub-category, Media & Cultural Studies.) I’m excited for what it means for me, but perhaps more for what it means for greater acceptance for comics and alternative scholarship. This…Read MoreComics on the RiseSome updates… Unflattening received a lovely review in the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, by Dr. Amanda O. Latz, Ashleigh N. Bingham, and Jessika O. Griffin. I really appreciated that they drew attention to the educational themes of the work. A little excerpt from their opening and closing:  “Unflattening not only deroutinises the traditional dissertation form, it conveys the…Read MoreBest Lists MLA Student WorkI’m pleased to report, Unflattening found its way onto a number of Best of 2015 lists to close out the year! I want to share a bit of that news, before getting into upcoming conference and speaking travel, and then the continuation of sharing excerpts from my fall class “Comics as a Way of Thinking.” The roundup: Forbes (!) includes Unflattening on…Read MoreChoice, Kenyon Reviews, Student WorkThis time out, I share some work from my comics as a way of thinking course, which just wrapped. But first, some news on Unflattening. The October issue of the American Library Association’s “Choice: Reviews” kindly called Unflattening “potentially revolutionary.” The full text reads: “For more than two decades, Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993) has…Read MoreNature Moscow Best ListUnflattening made The Independent’s (UK) list of top graphic novels of 2015! It’s great company to be in, as the roundup includes Adrian Tomine and others, as selected by Neel Mukherjee who recently reviewed Unflattening for the New Statesman here. I’m pleased to have created a comic for the journal Nature on climate change in conjunction with the Paris climate conference beginning…Read MoreMaxine EugeneThis week, I’m on the road again, heading to the University of Oregon in Eugene for talks on comics and education and alternative scholarship! For details on the events Thursday and Friday, please see UO’s events page here. If you know someone in the area – send them over! Also, I’m thrilled that my comic in…Read MoreUtrecht Interdisciplinarians Notre DameSome news: If you happen to be in The Netherlands, Utrecht University is hosting an exhibition of images from Unflattening as part of the symposium Educating Interdisciplinarians. It opens Friday the 30th and will be up through the end of November. It sounds like a great conversation and given that my work very much grew…Read MoreTexas Entropy Newsarama interviewMy newest piece for the Boston Globe Ideas section came out October 3! “Against the Flow,” explores the idea of entropy and the moments when things swirl back against the downward dispersal of energy – vortices that emerge briefly. It was inspired by my dad’s physics lecture that references Robert Frost’s poem West Running Brook, and…Read MoreBerlin, Jenkins interview, Grids & GesturesLast week, I went on a whirlwind speaking trip back East, doing six talks in four days! It started at the Brooklyn Bookfest with a panel alongside cartoonist and comics educator Jessica Abel and moderator Alex Blumberg on Sunday the 20th, then back at Teachers College, Columbia, on Monday the 21st, followed by College Unbound in Providence…Read MoreEast Coast SwingThis weekend, I’m headed back East for a slew of talks and book events through the following week! First up, on Sunday September 20th at 11am, I’m excited to be a guest of the Brooklyn Book Festival! I’m doing a session titled Look and Listen: Stories of the Senses alongside Jessica Abel, who will be sharing from her new book on…Read MoreComics as Thinking ClassExcited to be back in the classroom with Comics as a Way of Thinking at the University of Calgary! See below for my thoughts on it – but first, a bunch of news from August. Really brilliant and insightful review conversation of Unflattening  by Peter Wilkins & Damon Herd on The Comics Grid. An excerpt: [Unflattening] is attempting to…Read MorePrintMag Ruts Rain SketchesLast week, I was quite pleased to be interviewed by renowned art director, design critic, and professor Steven Heller in Print Mag. It’s a lengthy conversation in which we talk about my background, process, and influences. I’m sharing a small excerpt here and the rest is on Print Mag’s site. Heller asked me about my influences – I spoke…Read MoreParis Review Brazil Interview Lifted Brow moreOn this post, excited to share a roundup of new reviews and interviews, a video conversation, plus more process sketches. First up, I was interviewed in great depth by Tim Hodler for The Paris Review. Hodler’s questioning took the conversation in a number of directions I don’t normally go, and I greatly appreciated the opportunity. An…Read MoreQuill & Quire, Midyear Best of Lists, SketchesIn this post, new reviews and detailed sequences of process sketches below. Extremely smart and insightful review of Unflattening in Canada’s Quill & Quire by Ian Daffern. He opens with the question, “Can comics inspire the next leap in the way we think about physics, philosophy, or even our everyday lives?” And closes by calling Unflattening “terrifically ambitious, and…Read MoreBoingBoing InterReviews Magic SketchesOver the last few weeks, Unflattening has received a great deal of kind attention from a wide range of outlets. Cory Doctorow’s feature on it in this article on Boing Boing introduced a lot of new eyes to the work. This bounced around the internet and was also picked up and reworked for features on Open…Read MoreNYTimes, Globe, Upwards, FlatlessnessUnflattening was featured in the New York Times Book Review! Writer Douglas Wolk said, “Nick Sousanis’s Unflattening is a genuine oddity, a philosophical treatise in comics form. ‘Flatness,’ for Sousanis’s purposes, is not the quality of abstraction that Clement Greenberg lauded in modern art, but the lamentable condition of the inhabitants of Edwin A. Abbott’s ‘Flatland’:…Read MoreDeleted Scenes 2 Sketching Rhizo MIFollowing up on my previous post, I’m sharing a second deleted scene that appeared in the dissertation but was cut from the published edition. Like that previous one, which dealt with my process of Spin/Weave/Cut, this too comes from Chapter 4: “Our Bodies in Motion,” which delves into thinking about drawing through our perception. On this page, I took up…Read MoreDeleted Scenes & ReviewsUnseen art – a deleted scene from Unflattening! I’ve been asked frequently how the published version of Unflattening differs from the dissertation. After I defended, I submitted the work to HUP and went up to Cambridge to work with my wonderful editor Sharmila Sen. We trimmed text throughout to tighten it up and keep a consistency of…Read MoreRemix Diss, Review Roundup, RITSome recent reflections on doing my dissertation in comics form have just been published as part of a Media Commons collection on doing alternative scholarship in the academy. Fellow contributors include Cathy Davidson, Jade Davis, Gregory Donovan, and Amanda Licastro. This is a continuation of a conversation we had together at CUNY in NYC last…Read MoreAERA, Aesthetics, MaxineA fun week of early feedback, as people have been sending me pictures of Unflattening on bookstore shelves and arriving in their mail! I appreciate all the support and look forward to conversations to come over the work. It’s been sighted at The Strand in NYC, Tattered Covers in Denver, Quimby’s comics in Chicago, and alongside…Read MoreArrival! PW podcast, more…With thanks to the US and Canadian postal services, I was thrilled for my very own copy of Unflattening to arrive last week! It was nearly a year ago that I defended the dissertation, just after we welcomed our daughter into the world, and as she turns one and is starting to get up on her…Read MoreNAEA 15 + into the Wild!Unflattening has been released into the wild! Copies have surfaced – and I’m itching to see mine! Last week, it got its first review from Publishers Weekly and a Starred Review at that! A little excerpt: “Sousanis has made a profound contribution to the field of comics studies and to semiotics, epistemology, and the burgeoning study of visible thinking. Essential…Read MorePW Review, Inside Higher Ed InterviewWelcome to my new site. While I’ve had this domain all along, it’s been bouncing to a blog for the past six years and it was finally time for an upgrade. This new home (courtesy of the good folks at Loudbaby.com – the architects behind the Detroit arts-mag I used to run) brings along my…Read MoreCover, Reframing InquiryAbout a month to go to the release of Unflattening! While I’ve yet to see all of it bound in one piece, I was pleased to get my hands on the proof of the cover and test prints for the interior pages! More info on Harvard UP’s site here. (Preorder available at places like Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Powells, or…Read MoreIn Print: Threads Postmodern FableWith less than two months to go, I’m eagerly counting down to March 9 and the release of my comics dissertation-turned book Unflattening – see more details on Harvard University Press’s site here! (And if you can’t wait,  I see it’s up for preorder at places like Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and Powells!) In the meantime, an essay I…Read MoreFinal Page and International TalksAs we continue to get settled in Calgary, I ended up drawing one final page for my book Unflattening (formerly-known-as-my-dissertation) due out from Harvard University Press in March of 2015. While with the exception of the cover, some additional title images, and cleanup, the drawing has been done since i defended in the spring, circumstances…Read MoreThanks NYC hello Calgary + MaxineUPDATED with more info about my presentation at Genres of Scholarly Knowledge Production in Umeå, Sweden (below).  This week my wife, our nearly 8 month old daughter, and I packed up and said goodbye to New York City. From the educational community at Teachers College and the springboard it offered in making colleagues from all…Read MoreTalking Visual Lit @ Toledo & Princeton  This Friday, November 7, I’m pleased to be giving a keynote session at the International Visual Literacy Association’s annual conference, held at the Toledo Museum of Art. As the organization puts it – “visual thinking is a form of critical thinking,” “the ability to derive meaning from images of everything that we see –…Read MoreUnflattening Harvard UPressI’m pleased to announce that my comics dissertation will be published by Harvard University Press in March of 2015! Check out HUP’s catalog here to see all the specifics about Unflattening. This has been in the works for over a year now and I’m thrilled to be able to officially share the news! I’ve been…Read MoreUpcoming Talks & Process Sketches (Multimodality)Last week (10/10/14), I participated in the #remixthediss event on New Dissertation Models at the CUNY Graduate Center here in NYC. It was a terrific gathering, invigorated live audience, and it was live-streamed to audiences around the country and the globe – and in many sites they hosted their own parallel discussions. Primary organizer, Professor…Read MoreRemix Diss and McGee at 90This site has been quiet for a little bit. But that’s not to say I haven’t been busy. I’m looking forward to sharing a few announcement as to what I’ve been up to in just a few weeks. But in the meantime, I wanted to share an upcoming event I’m participating in and a non-comics/education…Read MoreRSCON5, Visualizing References, and behind-the-scenes sketchesThis Friday, July 12 at 5pm EST, I’ll be doing an online presentation of my work and the educational promise of comics as a keynote for the Reform Symposium Free Online Conference (RSCON5). This annual virtual gathering is put on by an organization of educators called “The Future of Education,” and I offer my thanks…Read MoreThank yous & Foot Project winnersSo the dissertation is defended, finished, and I graduated. But as I prepare to move on to next steps, I thought it was important to pause here and publicly acknowledge all those whose support has helped make this possible. I’ve not only had a good team backing me on the home front, but also, as…Read MoreReflecting on MaxineThis day, I’ll sadly be attending the funeral of professor Maxine Greene. A legendary educator and philosopher, Maxine was to me my teacher, an advisor, and most importantly my friend. I wanted to share a few thoughts on my time with her here. I had the good fortune to happen upon Maxine’s lecture in celebration…Read MoreUCLA and FabricThis week I’m taking a quick trip to Los Angeles to give a talk at UCLA’s Charles E. Young Research Library. The talk is free and open to the public, Thursday May 29 at noon. See here for further details if you’re in the area or know folks who’d like to check it out. I’ll…Read MoreAERA14 and New ToesThis weekend, I’m off to Philadelphia for the American Education Research Association’s (AERA) annual conference. I was to participate in three sessions, but because of exciting news on the home front (See below), I will be making a shorter trip of it and only making the Saturday and Sunday ones. I’ll be giving away comics…Read MoreFoot WorkLeave your footprints on my dissertation – and win a signed page! (UPDATED w/deadline below) I’m nearing the finale of the dissertation, and for the final chapter I’m seeking a little help from you – specifically in the form of your feet. Throughout the work, there have been a number of significant scenes involving feet…Read MoreCoverage in the Chronicle and new page on CommutingThis past week, the Chronicle of Higher Education kindly featured my dissertation work alongside Dani Spinosa’s publicly-blogged dissertation in-progress. I’m overwhelmed by and grateful for all the support and enthusiasm this article has generated. Writer Sydni Dunn provided an indepth look into some of the backstory of how this came to be and its significance…Read MoreScheherazade, Art & ScienceFinished Chapter Five a little while back and now racing through Chapter Six, and wanted to share the page on stories I teased an excerpt of earlier. This page takes up the importance of stories, with Scheherazade as point of inspiration I build around. I had in mind book pages, frames that expanded from one…Read MoreStories, MLA, & MicrosoftI’m nearly finished with chapter Five, which takes up the imagination, and sharing a small excerpt from a page here. It’s about stories, and stories within stories – thus Scheherazade makes an appearance. Visually, i’m playing with something like the book Zoom or Powers of 10, but as the page continues to snake along, it does…Read MoreCh5 Saccades and SuperheroesPlugging away at Chapter 5, addressing the imagination as way of seeing. (I posted the opening to the Chapter here.) Given that the entire work is taking up the ways in which we see as metaphors for how we think and how we learn, for this chapter I want to explore the link between perception…Read MoreCh5 Pointland plus RumpusSo 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…Read MoreClasses and Symposium talkI’m pleased to report that this spring I’ll be teaching my comics for educators course once again, at Teachers College, Columbia U. This will be the fourth time we’ve offered this course, and each one has been a rewarding experience and I’m eager to connect with the next group of students. We talk theory, explore…Read MoreCh4 FinishedChapter Four is finished!! After Chapter Three dealt heavily with the distinction between visual and verbal modes, and some theorizing on the capacities of the comics form, this chapter dealt with perception, how drawing works, the creative process in general (and mine more particularly), and sought to expand the notion of what thinking is. I’ve only…Read MoreOxford Squared Science and ArtsSo this week, I’m excited to be (sort of) in two places and specifically two Oxfords at once!  Physically, I’ll be traveling to the annual gathering of the Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) – taking place this year at the University of Miami, in Oxford, Ohio. At the same time, a small excerpt from my dissertation…Read MoreVaroom, Drawing, Comics Research RoundupWhile I’m about to finish up Chapter Four – racing towards a spring finish/defense (!), I wanted to share a brief excerpt from that chapter and some other news and musings. First up, delighted to be featured in the UK’s Varoom illustration magazine, in their Autumn issue. Varoom’s John O’Reilly did a lengthy interview with…Read MoreMarksAnother minimalist page, part of a five-page sequence segueing from my pages on perception (one of which I put up here) to talking about how drawing works. As mentioned last time, I’ll be sharing shorter excerpts going forward as I race to get this finished by spring! This page came out of thinking about the…Read MoreNot a GameWhile I’m plugging away on Chapter Four (you can see the finale to Chapter Three here, and the opening excerpt from the current chapter here), current discussions around war got me thinking about the page from “Possibilities,” my 2006 comic on games that takes up the subject. It’s not an attempt to offer answers, but perhaps a…Read MoreNew HorizonsI’m in the midst of drawing Chapter Four – in which I deal specifically with perception and discussions around drawing as a form of discovery. If Chapter Three dealt with the distinction between text and image, and comics as a means of uniting modes, this puts it all into practice. For various reasons, I may…Read MoreMicrosoft Video VSA DrawingA month or so back, I gave a talk at Microsoft Research to accompany the exhibition of excerpts from my dissertation. (I posted images from the show here.) They recorded the talk, as it was also being streamed to Microsoft employees not physically in attendance, and they’ve now kindly put the talk together with slides…Read MoreVSA Keynote & roundup…This week, I’m off to Milwaukee to give the opening keynote for the Visitors Studies Association annual conference “Where Innovation Meets Rigor.” I’ll be discussing my dissertation and comics as a means of presenting complex information and ideas with clarity and without reducing their complexity. Recently, Brett Terpstra interviewed me for his 5by5 systematic podcast.…Read MoreCh3 FinaleAt long last, Chapter Three is complete! Although it’s overall structure/length stayed more or less the same from my initial notes, this chapter just kept growing on me in complexity as I got deeper into it. This second half of the chapter was all about how comics work – and in this metacommentary approach –…Read MoreMicrosoft Exhibition WrapBack from an amazing trip in Seattle and sharing a little update on all that went on in the exhibition and talk at Microsoft Research – Building 99. A huge thank you to Microsoft Research, the folks behind the Studio 99 space, and especially the beyond generous support, enthusiasm, and patronage from MSR’s Donald Brinkman.…Read MoreMultimodality and Microsoft ExhibitionOk, I haven’t quite finished the chapter when I’d hoped. This page on multimodality kept asking for more thinking, and then more… I finished last week, and was hopeful to finish the remaining two before posting all together, but because of travel (see below) I won’t quite finish them till next week, so posting this…Read MoreVisual-Verbal IntermingleThe slow but steady march to finish chapter three continues. Another new page, this time addressing how the unique ecosystem that is comics facilitates visual-verbal interaction – with mentions of the work of RC Harvey, David Lewis, and Edward Tufte. These and many other references I drew on to think through this page (including the…Read MoreA unique thought-spaceThrilled to finally be able to share this page, which represents the culmination of my thinking on this medium and along with the sequence leading up to it, really gets at the heart of my theorizing on why comics are cool! For some time, I’ve been working on comics as integrating the sequential and simultaneous…Read MoreSimultaneity and process sketchesSharing just a single new page this week, along with process sketches that led to the recently released page on the sequential nature of comics. First up, this page on the simultaneity of the comics page is the only page that borrows an existing composition nearly note for note, specifically a page from my journal…Read MoreAesthetics and analysis – Conference wrapCatching up from my conference trip a couple weeks back (which ended up being six talks in six days after a last minute invitation to join Anna Smith & company for a session at AERA on emerging literacies research methods, which was a really cool and generative discussion).   The trek included a few solo…Read MoreFive Talks Six Days!Embarking today on a week long road trip with five talks about comics and my work in a period of six days! Starting out in Toronto, at HASTAC’s 2013 conference friday morning and then off to San Francisco for conference presentations Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at the American Education Research Association’s (AERA) annual gathering. The…Read MoreCh3: Sequential Art by any other name…At last, two long overdue pages! Very pleased with what emerged and worth all the time they took. The first page addresses what to call this thing? I have this conversation all the time: “I’m doing my dissertation in comics form.” Confused response, “Oh, you mean graphic novels?” “Yes, that.” It seemed like at some…Read MoreBeat Review! and arts journalismTwo weekends ago, I was pleased to participate in the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art’s annual festival. I had a great time meeting new people, talking about my work, and checking out other works when time permitted to sneak away from my table. It was a well run event all around and a healthy…Read MoreImage-Text Talk: Comics as a Tool for InquirySo last May, I presented at the SequentialSmart conference centered around comics and education at Juniata College in southern Pennsylvania. The organizers asked to include that talk in their publication, and so i created an image-text version from the images i shared and a recreation of what I said. That’s now in digital print in…Read MoreMoCCAfest 2013!This weekend, April 6 and 7, I’m pleased to participate at the Society of Illustrators/Museum of Comic and Cartoon Arts annual festival at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington between 25th and 26th. The event features 100s of local, national, and international cartoonists and comics authors, publishers like First Second, Pantheon, Drawn & Quarterly, and…Read MoreCh3 sequence Where words failAt long last, the next sequence to chapter three! Travel, teaching, and the complexity of elements I put into play for this short sequence – continued to take longer than expected, but I’m pleased to be able to share now and follow up on what was laid out in the opening to the chapter (all…Read MoreRoundup: NYC Talk, GradHacker, …An invitation for those in NYC: on Thursday, March 28, I’m delighted to be presenting on my dissertation and comics as a new form of scholarship at Adelphi University’s Manhattan campus. In addition to sharing work from the dissertation and exploring distinct ways that comics can present meaning – I also plan to engage attendees in…Read MoreTalking Comics and Education: Texas and NYCThis week (storm permitting), I’ll be off to Fort Worth Texas to participate in the National Art Educators Association’s (NAEA) national conference. On Thursday March 7, I’mpart of a panel talking comics, education, and research that stemmed from the special issue of the Journal of Visual Arts Research devoted to comics. My piece “The Shape…Read MoreFlatness, Ch1, and Detroit exhibitionAs I’m plugging away at Chapter Three (the first sequence of which can be seen here), an excerpt from Chapter Two is on view as part of an exhibition opening Friday, March 1st at the Detroit Artists Market (Ch2 in its entirety can be found here). In thinking about Detroit, I’m realizing that while I’ve posted parts…Read MoreCh3 opening: Amphibious Refraction…At last, I’m able to share the opening sequence to Chapter Three! In this sequenceI make a specific turn to the heart of my argument for comics and the importance of considering modes other than the verbal. The chapter title takes its name from my article in the Journal of Visual Arts Research, and in…Read MoreDim Sum & DescartesRecently, the team behind the Dim Sum Warriors comic/app, Yen Yen Woo and Colin Goh, invited me along to say a few words on the workings of comics as part of their interview with Patrick Cox of Public Radio International’s “The World in Words.” The Dim Sum Warriors comic-app is a pretty neat merger of…Read MoreTalking Comics as Way of ThinkingNew interview with me courtesy of the iTeach Podcast! Some background…. Back in late November, I was pleased to be contacted by Chris Malmberg of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks about a podcast he and his colleague Brooke Sheridan had made in which they devoted their inaugural session to a discussion of my work and the…Read MoreChapter Two – In Full!Happy New Year! This post was set to go out on the solstice until an internet outage prevented it. So with the new year upon us, I’m pleased to be able to share the entirety of chapter two here. While all but the title page have been posted previously, this is a chance to read them…Read MoreCh 2 Finished – Odyssey Final SequenceChapter two is complete! This thing kept growing on me somewhat outward and frequently inward. The sequence here concludes the chapter. It’s a journey with a few references to the Odyssey (from cyclops, to Ithaka, and more), a lot of triangles and tetrahedrons, and a weaving together of a number of diverse philosophical perspectives (as…Read MoreDid it flow? Connectedness in JoyceWhile I still have one more page to draw to finish Chapter two, I wanted to share a single page from the final sequence of the chapter. This page plays off the faucet passage in James Joyce’s Ulysses from the Ithaca episode. I first read this in high school (twice forward and once backward at…Read MoreComics class & ConversationsI’m pleased to announce that the comics course for educators i developed at Teachers College will once again be offered in the Spring term. It’s under a new name and department, but a similar focus on understanding, making, and exploring ways to incorporate comics into the classroom. More info below and on my comics classroom…Read MoreUAF Podcast – “Why can’t my dissertation have pictures”Out of the blue Monday evening, I received an email from Chris Malmberg, a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, sharing a podcast he had done with his colleague Brooke Sheridan titled “Why can’t my dissertation have pictures too?” on the use of comics in education and was in large part a discussion around…Read MoreNY Comics & Picture-stories SymposiumTonight (November 26) at 7pm, I’ll be talking comics at the 27th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-stories Symposium hosted by Ben Katchor. I’ll be talking on my dissertation and comics as a means of legitimate scholarly discourse. Also, first up tonight, Mark Lerer will be talking on the history of comics fanzines. The…Read MoreTesting, testing… extended sequence from Ch 1As I’m putting together the final pages of Chapter Two, wanted to share a few unseen pages and a complete sequence from Chapter One – reflections on being stuck and how systems perhaps built with the best of intentions, end up becoming a trap. I shared two pages on “Boxes” before as they were on…Read MoreSpeaking at Kutztown UThursday, November 15, I’ll be talking comics and my dissertation at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania thanks to professor Lynn M. Kutch. Should be fun! – Nick Read MoreA dog’s view…As this entire second chapter (and the dissertation in total) has been a discussion of ways of seeing, I sought to clarify that by “ways of seeing” i also mean to be inclusive of means of perception beyond the visual in a literal sense. To that end, I thought of no better example than my…Read MoreLabels…My return to making comics was triggered by an invitation to participate in a political art show in Detroit on the eve of the 2004 election. That piece, “Security” was quickly followed up by with a second piece “A Show of Hands” immediately after the election. Much that emerged in that second piece shapes the…Read MoreRhizomatic, Kaleidoscopic, multiperspectival…After a great trip to Ohio State for a conference with arts educators and a chance to share my work, snuck back to NYC just before the storm hit. Fortunate to have dodged most of the effects of the storm, and have been plugging away on new pages. At the conference there was a lot…Read MoreDiscussions of interdisciplinarityOk, off today for the third conference of the month – another chance to talk comics! In the midst of this, I’ve been getting pages done, albeit a bit more slowly than I’d like. Sharing an entire sequence here, that’s the middle of Chapter Two, and focus specifically on the concept of interdisciplinarity – which…Read MoreConference Wrap-ups – Expanding Forms of InquiryThe last two weeks saw a full schedule of conferences with a public talk in between. I’ve had terrific experiences all around, and each gathering has provided an excellent opportunity to share my work, and explore with audiences the ways in which we think and make meaning beyond text for learning and scholarly work. First…Read MoreInterview in Russian Journal – Theory and PracticeWow – so a few weeks back I was contacted by Katya Korableva a journalist working for the Russian arts-education magazine Theory & Practice to talk about my dissertation in comics. The interview with images of the work now appears on their site – entirely in Russian! Please see here for the interview with images.…Read MoreTalking Comics at Oakland UNext week, I’ll be talking comics and my dissertation at Oakland University. It’s open to the public, so if you’re in the area… Thanks to Ben Bennett-Carpenter for making this possible. – Nick Oakland’s web-announcement and flyer. Nick Sousanis: Visual-Verbal Artist-Academic presents his work in comic books on “Creative & Critical Minds” Wednesday, October 10, 2012,…Read MoreCopernican Revolutions…New pages from Chapter 2! These two were not part of my working outline, and as I finished the previous pages on ways of seeing and Eratosthenes’s unflattening of the earth and was looking ahead to the next pages, I kept feeling there was a missing transition visually and conceptually. Copernicus’s reenvisioning of the known…Read Morethe Shape of Our Thoughts in VisArts JournalMy piece “The Shape of Our Thoughts” a meditation on thinking and how comics work has just seen print in Visual Arts Research Journal, Vol.38 No.1, Issue 74 Summer 2012 (whew!). The entire piece is devoted to the graphic novel and art education – all scholarship in comics form. You can check the full issue…Read MoreParallax and EratosthenesI’ve begun Chapter Two in earnest! Pages are roughed out and starting to assembled finished pages. The first page here is a reworking of a piece i did some time ago called “Mind the Gaps” as a chapter for a book by my advisor Ruth Vinz on narrative inquiry. One side note, in the earlier…Read MoreOn Exhibit: Quantified SelfThis week, i’m revealing two pages from Chapter One of the dissertation. They’re a couplet (as many have been throughout Ch1 and the Interlude) and will be on display starting this week as part of the exhibition “Quantified Self” at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor, MI. The show features local and national artists, and apparently…Read MoreFlatland Interlude concludes…With these three pages, I wrap up the Flatland-related sequence (Part one here) that bridges the gap between the heavily metaphorical Chapter One and the slightly less so Chapter Two. I’ve also included a process photo as I was working to figure out the “tear” effect on the first page. In my sketches, the sandals…Read MoreDistrict ComicsA while back, award-winning science comics writer and great guy Jim Ottaviani invited me to collaborate with him on a story he was writing for the anthology District Comics – an unconventional history of Washington, D.C. edited by Matt Dembicki, who had previously put together the award-winning Trickster anthology. The chance to work with Jim…Read Morevisiting EA Abbott’s FlatlandLast post, i shared an incomplete preview page to accompany an article professor Morna McDermott wrote incorporating some of my work on flatness. Now I’ve got a complete segment of pages, that comprise the first half of the interlude spanning Chapters One and Two. They pick up the themes of the first chapter, but start…Read MoreFlattening education – preview imageThe other day, i had the opportunity to connect with Prof. Morna McDermott and the two of us went to visit with Maxine Greene (see my comic on her here). The ensuing conversation sprawled all that’s going on with education and possibilities for change. Morna wrote up her reflections incorporating some images of my work…Read MoreTops – Chapter One Complete!Chapter One is completed!! This first chapter has been a long process to say the least – but excited with how it’s all come together. This pair of pages is essentially the close of the chapter, there’s a brief coda that follows, which i may post here. I’ve actually not posted very many of the…Read MoreComics & Education – News/interviewsBriefly: the Denver – Rocky Mountain Comics/Ed conference rocked! Got to hang out and learn from folks like Maureen Bakis, James Bucky Carter, Charles Hatfield, RC Harvey, and Scott McCloud! Plus met a lot of new folks doing great work in comics along the way. Thanks to Christina Angel and crew for hosting a fantastic…Read MoreRocky Mt Comics conference and Rabbits at GLCThis week, I’ll be hitting the road for Denver to present at the Rocky Mountain Conference for Comics and Graphic Novels – attached to the Denver Comic Con. I’m giving a talk on my dissertation work entitled “Comics as a Tool for Inquiry: A Dissertation in Comic Book Form Reimagines Scholarship”, which builds on previous…Read MoreArts & Humanities…This past year I’ve served as a PAGE fellow (Publicly Active Graduate Education) within the Imagining America consortium. A little while back in the midst of presidential candidate debates, PAGE hosted a tele-conference to discuss the importance of the university experience and Arts & Humanities education to push back against some of the candidates’ views. After…Read MoreBoxes – dissertation pagesWanted to share two recent pages from the first chapter of my dissertation. These are around pages 8 and 9. When i finish the chapter – I may post the earlier pages and all of it in its entirety. Anyhow, this has to do with the boxes we find ourselves in and the boxes we…Read MorePresentations this week…A full week ahead of talking comics. Tonight (Monday, May 14), i’ll be sharing briefly about my dissertation with the newly formed NY Comics and Picture-Stories Symposium. It’s a great group of creators and thinkers on comics, just formed by NYC cartooning legend Ben Katchor. Catch the second session tonight and be part of whatever…Read Moreelaborate structuresThis is about the 7th or possibly 8th page of my dissertation! I’ve done all the pages leading up to it, and as things get finalized, I’ll post more of them – in order as well. This has text, but it’s not quite finalized yet. Figured there’s enough here sans words… Also, this page revisits…Read MoreA page?So, I’ve finished several pages from the first chapter of the dissertation – and will post bits of it soon. Today, I was stuck with what will roughly be the seventh page – and started playing with alternative versions of what I had in mind. One, I got so excited about, I decided to do…Read MoreMoCCAfest ReflectionsOf late, this blog has started to transform into a blog proper – instead of solely serving as a repository for new comics. As I’m in the midst of a very long form comic in the form of my dissertation, this trend will continue for a while (and also, i have a proper site in…Read MoreAfter MoCCAfest Day One – B4 Day 2Finished up a long first day of MoCCAfest – plenty of good conversations and interest in expanding what comics can do. The Beat’s Torsten Adair was kind enough to post a few words about what i’m up to in his reflections on MoCCAfest day One column here! He mentions the Rabbit page from my Possibilities…Read MoreCollection in Print and MoCCA Fest!!This week sees the release of the collection of nearly all my comics over the last several years! Thanks to the good folks at Wooden Horse, this volume puts my works from 2004 to 2011 in print chronologically and serves as a primer to where I’m going with my dissertation (and look for more excerpts…Read MoreSpin, Weave, and Cut gets a Logo!!Why “Spin, Weave, and Cut?” Invented to describe my creative practice (and give this site a name), S/W/C describes a kind of visual-verbal DJ’ing – a notion initially prompted after seeing the documentary “Scratch” in 2001(articulated in the virtual pages of thedetroiter.com here).     Spin = revolution and continuity; Weave = intersect and integrate;…Read MoreThe Shape of Our Thoughts (Final V)Off to the American Education Research Association (AERA) conference in Vancouver today. I’ll be talking my dissertation and comics with educators – along the lines of the presentation I did at HASTAC in December. I’m posting here, the final version of the piece, the Shape of Our Thoughts, as I draw on it heavily for…Read MoreInterview on Microsoft’s Daily EdventuresMicrosoft’s Anthony Salcito’s Daily Edventures has done a feature profile on me and my dissertation in comic form as part of their daily look at educators around the world. They’ve been featuring some amazing educators and I’m humbled to be included among them. The interview is here. (Thanks to Bridget for her kind words and…Read Morean image…There’s been a lot of talk about what I’m up to of late, but not a lot of pictures. I have been drawing a lot – road mapped the whole dissertation, laid out about a third of it, and have now drawn several pages to completion. I’ll be sharing selectively as I go. Wanted to…Read MoreInterview in Chronicle of Higher EdBrief interview with me regarding my dissertation, now up on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s site. Curiously released on April 1, but thankfully there’s no “Pow!” in the title… Thanks to interviewer Nick DeSantis for his kind words and making this happen. Formore info, check outMaureen Bakis’slengthy interview here andcomic-like version of myHASTAC talkfrom December.–…Read MoreOverview of some comicsSince the minor twitter outbreak stemming from Maureen Bakis’s original article fueled by Cathy Davidson’s subsequent post, (a huge thank you to both!) numerous folks have posted links to the interviews or other excerpts from my work. Very cool – grateful to all for the support. Occasionally though some of the reposts have been misconstrued…Read MoreDiamond Interview and…A while back, Maureen Bakis, author of the Graphic Novel Classroom, visited my class at TC, and followed up with an e-interview of me. It’s just now published on Diamond Bookshelf’s site here. In the work, I share on my thoughts on comics and education, resources for teachers, and what i’m up to with a…Read MoreIn the news!A brief interview on my work in comics and creativity at Teachers College in the school’s monthly publication. Check it out here. Thanks to Siddhartha Mitter for the writeup. For more on what i’m up to on the dissertation – check out this pdf of a December talk i gave. More new comics to come……Read Morequick updateA lengthy stint of jury duty has delayed some updates here – but a few things. First up, check out this interview on graphic novel reporter with the super cool Maureen Bakis – teacher and author of the Graphic Novel Classroom, who visited my class back in the fall. Maureen was a great guest and…Read MoreHastac TalkHappy New Year! Fall of 2012 saw few updates to this site – but not because i wasn’t making new comics. Rather the opposite, I was immersed in two big projects that i’ll post more on soon, as well as lots of thinking on comics through the course I developed and taught this fall at…Read MoreIn Print: “New Maps” – Interdisciplinary StudiesAs with the recent “The Importance of Seeing Double,” “New Maps” was created for the Association of Integrative Studies’ newsletter for their October edition. They should be seen as companion pieces, and likely I’ll find a way to integrate(!) them into a single piece as part of my dissertation.  Wanna know more about the study…Read MoreIn print: The Importance of Seeing DoubleThis piece was created for the Association of Integrative Studies’ newsletter Integrative Pathways March 2011 edition. It’s also being reprinted in a textbook on integrative studies due out soon. I’ve got a related piece in the forthcoming edition of AIS’s newsletter this fall. I’ll post it after it appears in print. Interested in interdisciplinary studies?…Read MoreOn View: Seeing Red Feeling BlueThanks to an invite from Gan Golan (co-creator of Good Night Bush), my piece about the ridiculousness of red states and blue states made during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election is now on view as part of the Po Boy Art Gallery’s “The Comic Show/People’s Art of Portland” in Portland, Oregon. (Info here: http://poboyart.com/). I…Read MoreHold Close (Tsunami Essay)In the midst of the initial batch of headlines coming out of Japan, I found myself viscerally compelled to respond in some way. Perhaps on the second or third night after the tsunami hit, I had jotted down some notes about an initial idea for this piece, before going to sleep. I couldn’t sleep, and…Read MoreIn Print!: Mind the GapsAnother piece sees print this month, this time “Mind the Gaps” (which I first posted here) specifically created for my advisor Ruth Vinz’s (and co-author David Schaafsma’s) text Narrative Inquiry: Approach to Language and Literacy Research. My piece serves as the final chapter, initially a sort of “fable for the future” (as Ruth terms it)…Read MoreIn Print!: Maxine SaysWhile I’m in a bit of a slowdown on comics-making (mostly due to my organizing the upcoming conference on Creativity, Play, and the Imagination at Teachers College), there’s an upsurge of my work appearing in print of late. I thought I’d share a few links to the publications and to the work. First up my…Read Moreof consequenceContinuing my attempt at a weekly comics piece for Robbie McClintock’s course… Not sure i’m going to make the weekly part. But still going to work through some ideas conceptually and visually as I go. – Nicklearning pathways (untitled)This term, I’m sitting in on my advisor Robbie McClintock’s final  course – a look back at his formative educational experiences. I set myself a small goal of making a short piece inspired by something that occurred in the class or the reading. I include the quote from Robbie to start it off, and then…Read MoreThe Shape of Our ThoughtsSubtitled, “a meditation on and in comics,” “The Shape of Our Thoughts,” is an exploration of how comics work, what their potential for conveying and exploring meaning is, and a tiny bit on implications for art/and comics education. It’s intended as a journal article and culled from material from my dissertation proposal. As this visual-verbal…Read MoreDissertation Preface to UnflatteningMy dissertation proposal was handed in this week and defense is around the corner. I prepared this preface for it – which gives a hint at where i’m heading with the dissertation itself, “a visual-verbal inquiry into curiosity” – that is a comics narrative as academic dissertation. In starting this with a nearly all verbal…Read MoreFive Critical Senses with professor Tim EatmanThis piece was produced for and with Professor Timothy K. Eatman, of Syracuse University and the director of research for Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. In the midst of a conversation in which Tim was taking me through his presentation on the five critical sense of engagement, i was struck by his use…Read MoreMind the Gaps- Narrative Research as Drawing…This piece was created for my advisor Ruth Vinz’s forthcoming book on Narrative Research, co-authored with Dave Schaafsma. Given that i just finished it and that it’s going in a book, there may be some changes before the final, final version. Essentially, it’s a piece about approaching research using a metaphor of seeing, or drawing,…Read MoreMy EvolutionAs a final project for Visual Explanations – thinking about the concept of visual analogies in comics with colleague Andrea Kantrowitz. Created this quick overview of how my process has developed over the last few years and what issues i’m interested in exploring in the medium. – N Excerpts from my work include: “Security“; “Show…Read Morequilt of student storiesI was asked by Erick Gordon head of TC’s Student Press Initiative (SPI) to do a comic corresponding to the project they were doing in 5 schools with all English as a second language students. SPI works with schools and students to produce books of their own writing. This group of students came from all…Read MoreSketchingThis piece is prepared for a project for Dr. Barbara Tversky’s Visual Explanations course in collaboration with Andrea Kantrowitz. Full citations to follow.Threads: a spinning fableThis work was created for Dr. Ruth Vinz’s course on Postmodern Textual Practices. We were asked to draft a postmodern take on a fairy tale or myth. At the same time we’d been mapping out our definition of what postmodernism means. Mine includes a lot of developments in science and mathematics and music – sampling…Read MoreA Cosmology of Ideas TextA little text about the creation of the two versions of a cosmology of ideas, and a few more samples of the sketches/scribbles/notes that led to each piece. See here for Version 1. And here for Version Two. – NA Cosmology of Ideas V2A second version of the cosmology of ideas idea – in slightly more traditional comic book format – in 2 pages. See here for Version 1. And here for a textual explanation with sketches. – N  Read MoreCosmology of IdeasA sort of comic, prepared for a catalog for a forthcoming exhibition at Macy Gallery at Teachers College. The subject of the show is studio practices, and so i focused on how ideas are generated, or born, in my notebook. It was in part shaped by a conversation with my dad on how stars form.…Read MoreLittle Boxes (Final Version)Created in conjunction with Graeme Sullivan’s “Visual Arts Research” class at TC. Closely related to the recent “Bi(bli)ography” as well as a spiritual cousin to “In the Box/Out of the Box” from some time ago. – Nick Little Boxes is also designed to be put together as a cube – or little box itself. Arrows…Read MoreBi(Bli)ography – Final VersionAt last – the final version of “Bi(Bli)ography: A Life of Privilege.” This replaces previous, in-progress versions. I welcome your feedback. – Nick  Read MoreBi(bli)ography – text onlyOk, it’s been a long time since there’s been a new piece. Not because i’ve not been working on new projects, but rather because of how each project has grown as i’ve delved into it. This is the case with the following – intended to be a two-page, quick essay, it blew up fractal-like as…Read MoreOld and New againI’m in the process of adding some older short comics I made to this archive. To preserve the continuity of when they were created, they appear earlier in the blog posts, even though they’ve only been added now. – NickChildren’s Artistic Development TwoThe sequel to the first installment on artistic development in children prepared for Dr. Judith Burton’s class on that subject. – Nick (You can find the initial one here)Maxine Says…An essay on legendary education philosopher Maxine Greene. Learn more about Maxine here: http://www.maxinegreene.org/. (completed 11/7/08) – NickSeeing Red, Feeling BlueA comic about divisions and over-simplification in four pages. Created in October of 2008. – Nick Children’s Artistic Development – Early StagesComic made for Judith Burton’s class on artistic development. – Nick (September 2008) In the Box, Out of the BoxThis piece was first created literally out of a block (box) of wood sliced in 8 pieces (drawn on with a Sharpie) for an art fundraiser in Grosse Pointe, MI. It occurred at nearly the same time as a box show fundraiser at the Detroit Artists Market. Boxes and blocks were on my mind. In…Read MoreChrysalisThis comic created in summer of 2007, was the first one I made entirely digitally. Mostly just a test of the tools, with the hopes of speeding up some elements of the process and making my lettering legible! – NA Conversation with CharlesThis piece was created in Spring of 2006 for an exhibition at the Detroit Artists Market. I am currently working on a biography of Charles McGee for Wayne State University Press – due out as soon as I can finish the text!Possibilities: The Rabbit Page and more…This comes from the graphic essay “Possibilities” that accompanied Game Show Detroit (www.gameshowdetroit.com) Produced in the spring of 2005, it’s 16 pages long with full color cover. I may add other pages from it to this archive at some point. Also, for those curious, this is the piece I used as part of my interview…Read MoreShow of HandsThis was created for “Defending the Tree of Liberty,” part two of the exhibition at Detroit’s Zeitgeist gallery – which was post-Presidential Election 2004. Along with the piece for part one “Security”, i credit these pieces as getting me back into making comics after a rather lengthy hiatus. – NSecurityThis was created for an art show “Defending the Tree of Liberty” at Zeitgeist Gallery in Detroit immediately preceding the 2004 Presidential Election. Participating in this project (with very short notice), helped get me back into making comics in a very real way again. – N Read More12345…6789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839Nick Sousanis is an Eisner-winning comics artist and educator, and a professor of Humanities & Liberal Studies at San Francisco State University. Read more →Blog Categoriescomics(83)dissertation(53)education(29)exhibitions(24)interviews(57)Nostos(7)political(15)process(21)Publications(27)Talks(63)Unflattening(54) © 2015 - 2022 Nick Sousanis | webmaster Loudbaby Purchase Unflattening from Harvard University Press Go to Top.tp-caption a{color:#ff7302;text-shadow:none;-webkit-transition:all 0.2s ease-out;-moz-transition:all 0.2s ease-out;-o-transition:all 0.2s ease-out;-ms-transition:all 0.2s ease-out}.tp-caption a:hover{color:#ffa902}