Comments on: Hey, Professor! I Got A Question!

By: Draconis

Draconis — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:20:34 +0000

I used to hang out on irc on #oekaki-hell with dave kelly aka “Dave Bunny” and I cant help but think this is yet another bizzare attempt to get attention. Back then he would setup these complicated things to make himself look like a victim for sympathy then go about soaking it all up. When he was exposed that he made the comments or oekaki drawings about him then he would do even more pity me im sowwy type stuff. At one point he made an entire fake webpage devoted to hating himself and bashing his baby fur fetish which he had recently taken to a secret friends only oekaki draw board.
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/Dave_Kelly
has more I used to think he was a kinda cool guy who did some mildly funny webcomics but the man is a manipulative monster. Of course no one wants to hear that its like he trains people to defend him in droves just like he did on IRC.

By: Jeff Lowrey

Jeff Lowrey — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 01:28:47 +0000

I think Wikipedia itself would have to be taken seriously by academics before the notion of academia lending notability to a subject would have any impact in wikipedimentia.

By: J. Baird

J. Baird — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 21:45:02 +0000

It’s really interesting to see all these academic papers springing up on the subject. I’ve only seen a few papers on comics in education (such as the Comic Book Project from Columbia and Dark Horse); it looks like the academic investigation into the field is getting much deeper.

I’ve been planning to some day write a paper on the “Create a Comic Project.” It’s good to know I’ll be able to find places to publish it!

By: Andrew Janssen

Andrew Janssen — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:39:33 +0000

And, consider this: the fact that webcomics are getting mentioned in serious academic research papers might go a long way towards putting an end to some of the webcomic deletions for lack of notability on Wikipedia.

By: Mitch Clem

Mitch Clem — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:27:33 +0000

Off-subject, more webcomic plaigarism, new as of today (this time Threadless ripping off Theater Hopper):

http://tombrazelton.livejournal.com/148891.html

By: Michael Kinyon

Michael Kinyon — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:50:22 +0000

Chris: Touche. Now if only I could write.

Wombat: Yes, ’secret handshake’ is the currently fashionable euphemism for what it takes to get a conference paper accepted. I’d rather not mention the one for getting tenure.

I’d say that xkcd is a webcomic for mathematically sophisticated computer scientists (the kind who sleep with Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming, all four volumes, under their pillows) and electrical engineers (the kind who, uh, …, crap, I can’t think of a companion joke; see, I said I couldn’t write).

By: wombat

wombat — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:17:36 +0000

No, if you want to get a conference paper accepted - oh, wait ’secret handshake’ - is that what you kids are calling it nowadays?

I thought xkcd was already a webcomic for mathematicians? I was hoping that’s why I don’t understand it half the time.

By: Christopher B. Wright

Christopher B. Wright — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:35:12 +0000

Michael, I can tell you from personal experience that a lack of drawing ability isn’t really a handicap…

By: Michael Kinyon

Michael Kinyon — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:21:36 +0000

I thought MLA was all about the secret handshakes, at least if you want to get a paper accepted to a panel. Certainly comics are becoming academically mainstream. McCloud has been anthologized in a freshman composition text, although I cannot for the life of me recall which one. I sometimes refer students to PhD or xkcd, and once heard them discussing Dresden Codak. On the print side, Prof. E McSquared is still charming, if a bit long in the tooth. Just as Barnes and Ambaum found their niche amongst librarians, so too is there a niche of mathematicians awaiting a webcomic of their own. Hey, that gives me an idea! Oh, wait, I can't draw....

By: wombat

wombat — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:59:42 +0000

No one’s ever taught you the secret handshake?

I used to use comics (both print and web) in a sociolinguistics class I taught. The only one that comes to mind is that I used a Wigu for a homework analyzing the syntax of Black English - hoping it would be more attention-getting to think about a sentence spoken by a character than the same sentence boringly typed on the page. It never occurred to me to ask for permission, though. Sorry Jeff! I love you! Forgive me!

As for asking students to look at websites - I’ve been out of the business for at least five years but even back then I’d give out links to websites. All the students had university-provided email addresses and some kind of computer access - is this really not true everywhere?