Graphic Novel Granddaddy: Lynd Ward’s Woodcuts

Iconic engravings, or what The Great Depression has to do with the art of light and darkness.

For many, last year’s mega-hit Watchmen validated the notion of the graphic novel as a formidable creative genre. But perhaps the most compelling, aesthetically and conceptually innovative work in that genre was done more than seven decades ago.

In the 1930′s, American illustrator and storyteller Lynd Ward “invented” the genre when he created a series of wordless graphic novels in woodcuts, using dramatic wood engravings to create a style that was part Art Deco, part Expressionism, part something else entirely.

At the dawn of the stock market crash in 1929, he released his first novel, God’s Man — a masterfully illustrated, articulate, and thought-provoking semi-autobiographical story about struggles of self and life.

Ambiguous and abstract, these visual narratives lend themselves to the reader’s own interpretation, which makes them all the more engaging and powerful.

The woodblock, whether cut with a knife or engraved, develops its image by bringing details out of darkness into the light. This seems to give it an advantage over ways of working that start with an empty white area. In a sense, what is happening is already there in the darkness, and cutting the block involves letting only enough light into the field of vision to reveal what is going on.

Ward followed up with Mad Man’s Drum (1930), Wild Pilgrimage (1932), Prelude to a Million Years (1933), and Song Without Words (1936).

These last two are so rare and precious they are only available as collectors’ editions, with astounding pricetags upwards of $500 — a hard-fact indication of just how iconic Ward’s work is.

It has always been a matter of some surprise to me that this process can go on for a considerable period and all take place silently. I hear no sound; there is never a word spoken.

His last graphic novel, Vertigo (1937), was an absolute masterpiece, a pinnacle of this unique art of contrast, of light and darkness, both literally and metaphorically.

Brimming with powerful Depression-era images, it is also ironically relevant today, illustrating this same urgency unrest in the context of our contemporary economic downturn.

Get yourself a copy (while it’s still priced at the measly $11.53) and indulge in the real heritage and art of the graphic novel.

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Visualization of Global Bottled Water Consumption

Why de-bluing the developed world makes the whole world a greener place.

For this Friday’s short-and-sweet, we’re doing a Brain Pickings original — after stumbling upon some data on global bottled water consumption in The Guardian, we did a quick visualization of it. Because we hate (HATE) bottled water and all of its environmental implications, and the data was striking in a number of ways.

The bluer an area, the more plastic-chugging takes place there - the cyan value in CMYK is set to the percentage of total bottled water consumption each geographic area accounts for. (Click image to enlarge.)

There are two curious pieces of insight here:

First, it’s obvious the developed world is by far the bluest. Which is unsurprising, yet ironic — because the whitest parts are not only in climates where water is that much more integral to survival, but also areas where the lack of safe drinking water is among the leading causes of death.

Secondly, the data is quite old — the visualization is based on the latest data in the set, but even that is from 2004. And while there’s a marked increase in consumption between 1997 and 2004, with the recent backlash against bottled water, it would be interesting to see how not only total consumption, but also the ratios change. Because the developed world, while still no doubt the most massive plastic-chugger by far, is also the target of all that media attention to the issue. So we can expect — or at least hope for — a significant de-bluing of North America and Europe over the next decade.

Until then, though, please get yourself a water filtration pitcher and a reusable bottle, eh? We like Brita and Sigg.

Google Groupies Galore: Goollery

What album covers have to do with shoe shopping and Renaissance paintings.

The open-source movement is among the great cultural feats of our time. And the move towards open API’s, inviting derivative, often collaborative work, is a major force driving this new paradigm. Google was arguably the pioneer there, releasing the Google Maps API in June 2005, and following up with API’s for many of their other products. More recently, the Android API has generated a number of fascinating independent developments in today’s white-hot area of augmented reality. So: How does one keep up with all the API wonderfulness out there?

Enter Goollery, a comprehensive gallery of Google-related projects from around the world.

Inviting you to browse by Google product or project date, the collection features such gems as a map of where iconic album covers were shot, to an artist who paints scenes and locations he has only experienced via Street View, to Layar, the new critically-acclaimed augmented reality browser for Android.

Among our favorites is the Tate’s mashup, which lets you explore locations depicted in artwork from the National Collection of British Art using Street View. Looking at place from a Renaissance painting and seeing it today somehow captures our cultural evolution on a multitude of levels, from the aesthetic to the social to the environmental.

Explore Goollery for more fascinating celebrations of voyeurism and the freedom to roam around in other people’s data.

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