Comments on: self-documentary

By: L

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:39:29 +0000

Alison, any chance your debilitating self-archiving disorder extends to the point where you would have done or would want to do a transcript for this documentary? Thought I’d check before trying to hunt down an interpreter for this YouTube video.

–a deaf fan, who has been reading your strip for years

By: Ellen O.

Ellen O. — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 13:44:29 +0000

I could benefit from watching my own work habits as closely as this. A fantastic way to sort the clear requirements of my work and the intangible, necessary extras from the time-wasting, non-socially redeeming (as my 8th grade English teacher used to say) pure procrastination.

Maybe I could bring in a film crew. Or just keep a time journal….

By: jude

jude — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:45:59 +0000

so grateful for a chance to see your process sketching/drawing/inking. amen to the woman who could just watch you ink. ( and how happy the fly on the wall of yourSelf when you are writing. sigh)

for so many years you HAVE been the voice that synthesized the political scene for me – i could trust you to find the skeleton on which the doublespeak obscenities were draped, and always the beating heart of laughter.

you are so relentlessly encompassing – and i am so glad you knew when to quit.
it is no surprise – and something of a delight – to begin to take in the compulsiveness. you have done so well by your demons, alison, and by all of us.

By: Noominal

Noominal — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:28:35 +0000

I did wonder what the heck u did before digital cameras. Polaroids make sense. Must have been a huge expense in film and bad shots and extra time… Did you ever use a “Lucigraph?”

I see you have made the leap to Wacom for time-saving clean ups. Not that u need to run out and buy this, but the latest VERY COOL thing if you get a chance to play with one somewhere is the Wacom Cintiq.

http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/20WSX.cfm

Draw directly on the screen. It costs as much as a Mac laptop, but it’s worth it for some.

While us pre-digital diehards will never lose the love of crisp lines by india ink on paper, I have seen a lot of converts… No scanning if you can get the hang of it! For me, I doubt I can ever get past leaning heavily on one elbow while the other hand inks as I turn the paper. Plus, I’d miss the smell.

By: a lurker

a lurker — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:29:46 +0000

wow. this is like those parts of books I don’t like to think about, when things end…but I hope you have a great sabbatical, AB!
I love it that you watch TV while working-I do that too. I wrote my dissertation to reruns of The Office.

By: Susan Stinson

Susan Stinson — Sat, 31 May 2008 13:38:51 +0000

Okay, it’s a little heavy for a sabbatical, but when’s not a good time for a poem by John Donne? Here’s a link to “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” which ends:

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like the other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15468

By: Pam I.

Pam I. — Sat, 31 May 2008 09:07:39 +0000

@ Ian, not only did I see Julie Walters’ version of Mary Whitehouse, I met the woman herself several times when working at party conferences. She was utterly charming, as the TV programme showed.

There have been a spate of “was she right?” articles published lately. I always did agree with her re questioning the selling of sex, but it came across as objecting to sex per se, and she couldn’t get past her homophobia. So the argument was lost, and now we have five-year-olds wearing Porn Queen T-shirts. I guess those kids’ parents are too young to have caught any of the discourse.

To bemused/bored non-UK readers, Mrs Whitehouse created a powerful lobby group, the Viewers and Listeners Association, which aimed to Clean UP TV. It became a classic clash-of-values Sixties struggle which is still not over. But she would haved hated GodHatesFags.

By: Ydnic

Ydnic — Sat, 31 May 2008 02:33:56 +0000

I could watch you ink for hours.

By: The Cat Pimp

The Cat Pimp — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:32:02 +0000

Thanks, Ian. I figured it was something that came default with more current laptops and OSes. Mine is run by steam, bugs and coal.

By: kris dresen

kris dresen — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:20:30 +0000

Watching you ink really fulfilled my inner process junkie. I don’t know why the crowquill surprised me, though, since your line work clearly reflects that quality.

Still, fascinating to see!