Gutter Space
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Gutter Space #11: Imagination as a Coping Mechanism in Comics Essays
Gutter Space #11 by Leslie Salas Imagination as a Coping Mechanism in Comics Essays Perhaps many of you have heard of an Internet entity known as The Oatmeal, a man (Matthew Inman) who writes funny webcomics, draws posters everyone wants on their cubicle walls, and even fundraised enough money to save Nikola Tesla’s lab and Continue reading
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Gutter Space #10: Narration in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
Gutter Space #10 by Leslie Salas Narration in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home Many of the graphic novels that I’ve talked about so far on Gutter Space are missing something that Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, excels in: narration. And not just normal narration in captions—heavy narration. Narration that accompanies nearly every single panel. Continue reading
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Gutter Space #9: Flashbacks in Will Eisner’s A Family Matter
Gutter Space #9 by Leslie Salas Flashbacks in Will Eisner’s A Family Matter We’re going a little bit old school this week by taking a look a cartooning legend Will Eisner’s A Family Matter. Before we jump in, I’m going to take a moment to be honest. As you can see by my previous Gutter Space Continue reading
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Gutter Space #8: Interactivity in Randall Munroe’s XKCD
Gutter Space #8 by Leslie Salas Interactivity in Randall Munroe’s XKCD I’ve already talked about xkcd, “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” before, but I think Randall Munroe merits a second post for comic 1110, “Click and Drag.” Regular readers of xkcd will tell you that xkcd is known for a certain level Continue reading
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Gutter Space #7: Hybrid Comics and Prose
Gutter Space by Leslie Salas Comics and Prose: Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half Hyperbole and a Half is one of my favorite things on the Internet. Written and illustrated by Allie Brosh, this site mostly comprises of personal essays presented as a combination of standard prose (typed out sentences) and child-like MS Paint drawings. As the Continue reading
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Gutter Space #6: Art Spiegelman’s Maus
Gutter Space #6 by Leslie Salas The Mice Behind the Masks: Art Spiegelman’s Maus Art Spiegelman’s Maus is a framed narrative graphic novel in which the relationship between the author, Artie, and his father, Vladek, is exposed and intertwined with the author’s attempt to capture and relate his father’s experience as a persecuted Jew during Continue reading
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Gutter Space #5: Less is More in E Horne & J Comeau’s A Softer World
Gutter Space #5 by Leslie Salas Less is More in E Horne & J Comeau’s A Softer World A Softer World, written by Joey Comeau and photographed/designed by Emily Horne, is a webcomic that is “sometimes … sad or harsh … in the tradition of George Simenon’s ‘romans durs’ (or ‘hard novels’).” Each of these comics Continue reading
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Gutter Space #4: Worldbuilding in Megan Kelso’s Artichoke Tales
Gutter Space #4 by Leslie Salas Worldbuilding in Megan Kelso’s Artichoke Tales Worldbuilding—whether in graphic novels or prose novels—is the long and arduous task of creating and enriching social, cultural, and economic setting of a narrative. Worldbuilding is done best when it is invisible to the reader. When an author establishes a foreign setting through the Continue reading
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Gutter Space #3: Pushing the Boundaries between Comics and Animation in Randall Munroe’s XKCD
Gutter Space #3 by Leslie Salas Pushing the Boundaries between Comics and Animation in Randall Munroe’s XKCD No discussion of comics on the Internet would be complete without taking a look at Randall Munroe’s xkcd. Self-described as “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” xkcd is known by its substantial following as “the smart stick Continue reading
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Gutter Space #2: Thompson’s Narrative Braiding in Habibi
Gutter Space #2 by Leslie Salas Thompson’s Narrative Braiding in Habibi In the graphic novel Habibi, Craig Thompson uses the theme of willing- versus forced-sacrifice to effectively braid narratives from the Bible and the Qur’an with the coming of age stories of orphans Dodola and Zam. This juxtaposition of stories and images emphasizes influences the Continue reading
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The Drunken Odyssey is a forum to discuss all aspects of the writing process, in a variety of genres, in order to foster a greater community among writers.
Recent Posts
- Episode 696: The Kerouac Project of Orlando Book Club Discussion of William S. Burroughs’s Interzone (with Matt Peters)!
- The Curator of Schlock #351: Oh. What. Fun.
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- Coloring Book Club: Peter Kuper’s Insectopolis!
- Episode 695: Loose Lips December 2025!
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