Living Above the Fold

Romy Mimi Ilano, 34, draws comics. But her work doesn’t look like the strips in the daily newspaper. Instead, it’s brimming with surreal, free-associative images—cat-headed women, killer cupcakes, a living scarf that eagerly whimpers, “Meep! Meep! Meep!” as its wearer stuffs it into his coat pocket. Then there are the strange storylines, which segue smoothly into totally unrelated plots, each a hodgepodge gumbo with its own dream logic. Ilano, who lives in Oakland, names autobiographical cartoonist Lynda Barry as inspiration. Clearly, though, her fluid, meandering stories and blunt, aggressive linework are all her own.

You Call This Funny? (East Bay Monthly, July 2010)

I was inspired to investigate this topic after hearing Cardinal Sean Brady of Ireland called on Irish Catholics to spread positive prayers via Twitter, texting or email.  It made me wonder about the other ways that people of faith might use social networking to reach out and proselytize.  It seems like the Internet, not being a push medium like TV, might not be the ideal way to reach people who aren’t already interested in a topic.  What I found was quite the opposite!

Religious Evangelists Spread Faith Through Social Media (PBS Mediashift, June 4, 2009)

When I used to work as a copy editor for the Fairfield Daily Republic, we must have gotten at least a letter a week complaining about what was happening in the funny pages.  Sorry, people, but just because I work the copy desk at the local paper doesn’t mean that I have a direct line to Cathy Guisewite. I can’t pass along how upset you are about Cathy marrying Irving.  I recommend that you contact King Features or whoever is in charge of that.

In this article, I took a look at how newspaper cartoonists, like editorial cartoonist Daryl Cagle and “Sally Forth” scribe Francesco Marciuliano, are dealing with the brave new world of the Internet.  This article was also fun because I had a chance to speak with one of my favorite bloggers, Josh Frulinger of The Comics Curmudgeon.

Newspaper Cartoonists Engage Audience (Even Haters) Online (PBS Mediashift, March 30, 2009)

In retrospect, I don’t think that title really captures the essence of the article, but oh well. Hindsight, eh?

This is one of my favorite articles.  There are blogs dedicated to everything these days, but this is one blog subculture that I didn’t know much about going in.  I have a sneaking suspicion that some of you may find it interesting to learn about the thriving world of zombie blogging…

Zombie Bloggers Create Communal Horror Stories (PBS Mediashift, June 29, 2009)