Archive for January, 2010

Ain’t Canada Great!

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010.

Look what I got in my inbox today:

Hello Dr. Musgrove,
I’m an editor for Narwhal magazine which is an online literary magazine published out of Vancouver BC. I’d like to use the image I found off of your website to run with a piece entitled “Sentence Types” by one of our authors named Igor Rybak. The piece is a collection of ridiculous types of sentences and I think your drawing would really compliment the piece. Unfortunately we are just starting so we can’t pay you, but we could create an contributor page (I’ll need you to send me a short Bio if you’d like to do this) for you on our site that links back to your website.
Please let me know if this is acceptable.
Thanks,
Ross Merriam

PS I just watched your illustrated poem “bottoms” it was fantastic!

Here’s the image Ross requested:
grammar wheel

Here’s where he found it: http://www.theillustratedprofessor.com/?p=64

So of course, I said, ”Yup.”   Kinda nice the way this internet blog web thing works.

Here’s a link to the magazine: http://www.narwhalmagazine.com/

And here’s the poem of mine “Bottoms” he mentioned: http://www.theillustratedprofessor.com/?p=1154


Distance Ed

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

January 27, 2010.

Distance Education

At times, especially with the encroaching models of corporate capitalism in higher education, theillustratedprofessor feels like a customer support representative responsible for fulfilling students’  unquestioned identities and consumer desires rather than a teacher who helps students critically reflect upon those identities and desires.

Old School

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

January 20, 2010.

Tex Tech Multitouch Device

This cartoon was inspired by an article in The New York Times on new technologies being developed for touch screen tablets.  I am fascinated by the desires of technologists to digitize the use of our digits.  See this too.

Bottoms

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Friday, January 15, 2010.

Here’s an illustrated poem starring Tex.

The Problem with Advice

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

January 13, 2010

The Problem with Advice These Days

This cartoon was inspired by a site I was poking around in: www.bigthink.com–lots advice on writing, science, art, business, etc.  Out there on that internet thing, there’s plenty of room for folks giving advice, directions on life, self-helpfulness and all.  Ted.com, too.

And this character I’ve created, “Tex,” is starting to grow on me.  I think of him as sort of my everyman, and even though he may speak once in awhile, I prefer that he be the silent film guy, like Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, mostly a physical presence, expressionless as much as possible, except when necessary.  Besides, he’s pretty dang simple to draw, which is a real bonus for me.

The speech bubble here is also a new attempt, that is, a speech bubble extending outside the frame.  Not a new idea of course in cartooning, but new for me.  One of my favorite cartoonists, Ben Sargent, has great speech balloons.

Icons for Metaphors & Responses

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Friday, January 8, 2010.

I’ve been preparing for a new course I’ll be teaching this spring called Readings in American Literature.

I’ve taken this opportunity to update some of my materials related to the 8 metaphors we read by and the 9 reading response strategies.  The icons in the last column of each of these pages are designed to give students a visual representation of and memorable cue for the metaphors we read by and response strategies I want them to learn and practice.

Let me know what you think.

Tex Rhyming Cartoon No. 1

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

January 6, 2010.