When a writer puts a story down on paper, one version of all possible outcomes becomes the final version. The ending is part of a carefully constructed framework of theme and comment and all that good literary stuff, and it’s never going to change. For example, the evil […]
Scott McCloud is doing a crazy road tour for his new book, Making Comics, complete with family blog and entertaining video podcasts (with interviews of writers and artists) done by his kids.
If you play Civilization IV for three months, your next novel will probably be late — it happened to Iain M. Banks.
Like the singer/songwriter — a lank-haired warbler in patchouli-stained flannel — the artist/writer in comics is a very peculiar bird. Our logographer resembles a forked tongue, licking in two directions: to the left, where Staedtler crumbs and ink spills lie, and the right, to a boundless thicket of […]
When people find out that I like science fiction (and write about it), they often try to find a familiar example to talk about. This is a better reaction than to say, “Oh, that crap?” or something along those lines. But recently, the example has inevitably been Star […]
If he feels vindicated, he doesn’t show it. As Marc Laidlaw waits for his co-workers to finish a talk, we sit down at a table in San Francisco’s cavernous Moscone Center and talk about Half-Life 2 (Valve, 2004). Its 1998 predecessor is legendary for pushing the form both […]
Find t-shirts, mugs, totes and more at our new Guttermart location at Teepublic!
The Cultural Gutter 