InfoD-Cafe: _Kairos_ interview with Scott McCloud

[Deborah Taylor-Pearce]

Cafe,

This should intrigue many of you -- not just the interview itself
(which even includes a comparison-contrast of comics and ID!), but
also its unusual graphical presentation.


Scot Hanson interviews Scott McCloud
in _Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy_
Issue 14.1 (Fall 2009)

http://bit.ly/aNuUk
or
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/14.1/interviews/hanson/index.html#third


The editors of _Kairos_ advertised the interview on one of my
discussion lists as "Presented in comics form." I'm not sure I would
categorize it as such.... Certainly, I wouldn't look at the Web page
and think, "oh, cool, a comic" ... but then, I'm not really an
aficionado of comics, either. Still, the _Kairos_ piece looks to me
more like a flow chart than a comic (more analytical than story-like).

I actually found the graphic format used for the interview
distracting. It breaks up the "natural" flow of conversation, making
it harder for me to absorb McCloud's answers. I.e., I find myself
focusing on the boxed chunks of speech and their asymmetrical layout
on the screen/page, rather than actually *listening* to what McCloud
has to say. (Big surprise! ;-)

OTOH, I do like the Wordle summary of the interview at the top of
the page. Again, though, this may have more to do with familiarity and
comfort zones than anything else. (I'm actually planning to add
Wordles throughout a website I'm updating, and seeing one used here in
similar fashion confirmed me in this.)

For some reason, I find Wordles to be very engaging pictures ... but I
find fixed, boundaried boxes of chunked text arranged in simple
flow-chart fashion unappealing.

Deborah
_____

Deborah Taylor-Pearce
dtp at she-philosopher.com