Overeducated & Unemployable

Some stories transport you to a different world. Some stories change the world you know in such a way that when you emerge from them what you see stands in a whole new light. The story of Dodola and Zam, as told in Craig Thompson's graphic novel Habibi, has that ability. It's set in a fictional Arabic world that's our world's past and future all at once. Dodola and Zam are slaves, finding each other in an attempt to escape. Searching for guidance on their path they turn to stories, mainly from the Koran, but also from other religious and well known texts. Fate has bound the two protagonists together. Through story-telling their love unfolds.
With his black and white drawings, Thompson creates a mystical realm wherein Arabic calligraphy is a magical formula*. He weaves his own tale around the stories told by his characters, moving in and out of their conscious. On the way we learn about religion and how it gives meaning to a person. Habibi is thoroughly researched. The reader doesn't always know where factual Koran-knowledge ends and interpretation begins – as is the case in any reading of holy scripture. Unlike holy scripture, though, one can't separate image from text. As is common in Arabic, text becomes the image**.
Thompson has created a work of art that neither is a true comic, nor a true novel. He has a voice of his own – which a reader might not expect from a graphic novel. It deserves several readings, even, for lots of details and meaningful words are hidden below the surface of a first glance.

*Suras are used as cure for illness or other problems.
**Muslims are forbidden to draw living things, since no drawing can honour the perfection of Allah's creation.

• Research on Social Network Sites (e.g. LiveJournal and MySpace), compiled by danah boyd.

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• Flight: Great comicsblog from equaly great comic books. (Or does this fall under the name graphic novel?)
• abandonedplaces and deadmachinery: Two rather strange, but interesting photo-communities. Both ask for posts of pictures representing abandones places and decayed machinery respectively. It gives off a rather eery atmosphere.
• Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: When stuck with a boring story to tell in your comic, use one of these panels to get the suspense going. I think it also works when film-making.
  

• The Best Media in Life is Free: Music, audio-books, e-books, all for free to download. No illegal stuff going on here, because this blogger links to downloads licenced with Creative Commons, or that have fallen into the public domain.

• The Saddest Thing I Own: Stories and pictures from people about the saddest thing they own. Don't forget your hankerchief.
• How To Do Video: Don't know how to do stuff? Here are some handy videos that explain all from changing your car's oil to doing a backflip.