Author: Iain Hamp

It was around this time last century that the concept of motion pictures was developed. There were many attempts early on to capitalize on the idea, one of them being Thomas Edison’s “Kinetoscope”. Edison’s kinetoscope reflected the inventor’s determination to do “for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.” He hoped to duplicate the commercial success of his phonograph, which was then attracting patrons who paid a nickel to hear a brief recording through a set of earphones. Continue Reading →

This summer there have been a lot of movies coming out in the theater that I am looking forward to seeing.

In about six months.

Where I live, movie tickets are now $8.50, or $6.50 with a student discount or at a matinee showing. So depending on circumstances, my wife and I pay between $13-$17 to go see a movie. For that price, we will also get the pleasure of seeing 10-20 minutes of commercials before our actual film begins.
Continue Reading →

I’m finally getting around to reading Art Spiegelman’s Maus. As I do, I find myself thinking about why this work would be considered worthy of a Pulitzer Prize. I don’t mean to say that it isn’t; I just want to understand what sets it apart in that special way. By analyzing it this way, my hope is to find something to aspire to through my own work, to find another reason to continue to create comics.

Continue Reading →

When I was younger, I had a friend whose family was crazy about games. They had a linen closet filled to the brim with board games, bookshelf games, and role playing games, and had the obligatory Atari 2600 hooked up to their television. We’d play these games a lot, and we’d have an alright time. I’m not sure when this started exactly, but one time…

Making it Up As We Go.

Continue Reading →

You know those jokes about how "alternative music" isn’t really "alternative" if it’s listened to by the mainstream public? At one point, alternative music was really alternative. If you happened to be into it, you were kind of on the fringe. People thought of you as marching to your own drummer. Have you ever really thoroughly enjoyed something that not a whole lot of other people had ever heard of, then once it "hit it big" and everyone was talking about it, you sort of lost interest?

If you get what I’m talking about, if the idea of being on the cutting edge of something before the edge gets dulled from being used too much is appealing, then I’ve got something that may just interest you.

It’s called…

Online comics.

Continue Reading →