RedPen/BlackPen

A six panel comic of a man and a woman where their word balloons are actually other panels (there are no words) indicating future actions and explaining why they did what they did.

a three panel comic about Søren Kierkegaard in which the text of the man reads backwards and the dog forwards "Life can only be understood backwards" and the dog "but it must be lived forwards"

It's that time in my Making comics intro course when I talk image-text relations, which gives me an excuse to share 2 favorite comics that do bewildering things that can only be done in comics! Ibn Al-Rabin's seminal Le Verbe Prophétique alongside the always brilliant @tomgauld.bsky.social. So good!

Cartoon: Imposter Syndrome Resistant Lab Coat. Drawing of a lab coat with arrows pointing to different features "Exterior impermeable to offhand humble-brags", "H-index protective factor of 20", "Padded layer prevents bruising after tripping over your own tongue", "Outer layer protects with the power of 10 (mid-tier) publications", "Reflects positive thoughts back inward to warm the core of your frozen academic heart", "Functions up to two subfields out of your depth!"

Some days I feel like I really need one of these

"Shared Document" - a new horror movie from A24 in which a graduate student working late at night in their offices begins to suspect they are not alone in MSWord.

Two panel comic. Panel 1: a figure points at a screen and says "It's a shared document. I can *see* when my grad student is actually working and not goofing off." - someone out of frame says "Brilliant!". Panel 2: another figure points at a screen and says "It's a shared document. I keep it open and just type random stuff every now and then so my advisor thinks I'm working." - a voice out of frame says "Brilliant!"

I won't tell you which side of this comic I was on when I thought of it...

And while you're at it subscribe to my substack where I always post content about the comics I draw - sometimes quite long - almost never boring.
open.substack.com/pub/redpenbl...

procreate has a massive opportunity if they manage to expand to other platforms, like, right now

genuine question: is there a way for us to explicitly express our interest in procreate ports NOW? they need to hear it more than ever

And while you're at it subscribe to my substack where I always post content about the comics I draw - sometimes quite long - almost never boring.
open.substack.com/pub/redpenbl...

Two panel comic. Panel 1: a figure points at a screen and says "It's a shared document. I can *see* when my grad student is actually working and not goofing off." - someone out of frame says "Brilliant!". Panel 2: another figure points at a screen and says "It's a shared document. I keep it open and just type random stuff every now and then so my advisor thinks I'm working." - a voice out of frame says "Brilliant!"

I won't tell you which side of this comic I was on when I thought of it...

a young man is making a funny face and saying y all have a meeting ? Alt: a young man is making a funny face and saying y all have a meeting ?

You get reviews? 😅

Yeaah - great point. A good way to protect yourself against bad reviews these days is to submit a paper. Not a fast review process at all.... by the time you get the reviews back you've forgotten all about the paper. Problem solved!

Here's a little nugget too: I made a video for this comic (one of very very few so far)

A four panel comic. Panel 1 is labeled 'My Idea' - a chrysalis hangs from a branch. Panel 2, labeled 'My Project' - the chrysalis breaks on the bottom revealing a colored wing. Panel 3, labeled 'My Manuscript' - a butterfly emerges with it's wings spread on the branch. Panel 4, labeled 'My Reviews' - a flyswatter splats the butterfly.

I haven't posted this one in awhile - but yeah, that's the feeling right there

Objectively scary

New substack just dopped. Why don't you check it out?
redpenblackpen.substack.com/p/my-favorit...

A cartoon with a series of nested boxes (ToDo lists) looking like overlapping pages: outer box is labeled 'My BIG ToDo List' with the start of a list under the next box, 'Monthly ToDo List', and another start of a list covered by, 'Weekly ToDo List', where the list is covered by 'Daily ToDo List' then 'ToDo- hourly', then 'ToDo by minute', then 'This Second', then the top tiny box/paper in the middle is in red 'NOW! 1) DO, 2) IT, 3) !!!'

My executive function be like...

Check out my substack on weird zombie AI cartoons and the deeper meaning of creating art.

open.substack.com/pub/redpenbl...

You got the idea!

ugh - I love sepia tone too. But sadly... you're right.

If I hadn't drawn the original I wouldn't have picked it up as AI TBH

see also:

Ok - if you look at the ladder it’s pretty easy to tell it’s AI. Not a sensible drawing of a ladder in the physical world

I mean - it is? But just heavily based on my drawing. Or some other artist spent some time to rip me off the old fashioned way. But 90% sure it’s 🤖 AI

The weird thing is that… it’s not awful? Like it’s a *very* gentle treatment of the original. Which then: why? Why do it then? It doesn’t really add anything so I can only guess that the person who did this wanted to take credit or something? I’m at a loss (but same goes for all image AI really)

Hi-lar-AI-ous I tell you.

Little did I dream when I posted this on Twitter 12 years ago (nearly to the day) that one day machines would eat it up and spit it back out as partly rewarmed slop and the slightly less amount of soul AI copy of my work would live on as a cartoon zombie....

This poster is outside my little lab. There is nothing else like it. Please support this artist! @redpenblackpen.bsky.social

A cartoon with a woman in a labcoat looking in a microscope saying "The best part of science is knowing, for a moment, something that nobody else in the world knows."

Still true

Comic showing three panels at the top with a large underlay 'panel' at the bottom (it doesn't have any borders and underlays the other panels to a small extent). The first panel is a figure pushing a large boulder up a hill saying 'unhhh!', second panel, still pushing but getting slightly dark. Another figure stands above the boulder on the hill 'What are you doing?' firrst figure 'Pushing this rock up this hill... but it'll just roll back down anyway'. Third panel, now more dark first figure leans against the boulder holding it in place, second figure says 'Well, if it's going to roll back anyway why don't you come watch the sunset with me?' - bottom, two figures sitting side-by-side on a hill looking at a beautiful sunset. One figure says 'that's nice' - the other 'it really is'. @redpenblackpen- artist

Take a break whydontcha?

Reminder that I have a substack and occasionally post semi-coherent screeds on academia and science. Please read me.
open.substack.com/pub/redpenbl...

A cartoon with a woman in a labcoat looking in a microscope saying "The best part of science is knowing, for a moment, something that nobody else in the world knows."

Still true