Archive for June 7th, 2008

Garkov

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

It would seem there’s no end to the ways Jim Davis’s Garfield can be put to creative use.

Josh Millard recently launced Garkov which applies the Markov model (which is completely beyond me) to Garfield strips. I’m not sure about the theoretical backgrournd, but it seems that this generates new strips based on existing ones, which at least look and feel like genuine strips, but on closer look lack all coherence and plot typical for a human narrative.

Needless to say, this kind of thing tickles our interest. Josh also was so kind as to provide a full list of other Garfield experiments.

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Keep your readers reading

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

somebody

And if anybody dares to congratulate me with my promotion by saying “pleasantly surprised”…

While browsing through Vacature (see earlier) this morning, it struck me that its publishers had used an age-old solution to the problem of how to keep your readers interested, and keep them from simply skipping this huge wad of paper full of, well, quite similar ads for jobs.

At certain intervals, Vacature inserts pages with editorial content and background. A fixed feature of these pages are short strips by Flemish cartoonist Ilah (blogged about earlier). These strips always have a subject related to the workplace and employment, and more often than not feature that typical Ilah strain of humor, which is not exactly biting but not too gentle either.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Ted Benoit in advertising

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

This morning I opened Vacature, the job ads supplement to my newspaper, and this ad for consultancy firm CapGemini, featuring art by Ted Benoit, immediately caught my eye. I think it’s quite remarkable, since Benoit isn’t known to do that much advertising, and secondly, because the agency that produced this ad allowed him to sign his art.

It turns out that this is part of an international campaign, in which different illustrations by Benoit are used. My good friend Mike Rhode posted about this on his ComicsDC blog last year, and it’s a shame that I had to hear that from Entrecomics. Sorry, Mike.

Click on the ad to see the art in full size.  Also, check out Février & Co for all other art.

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