New illustration/comic blog

[kizma]

I have been considering starting a blog project for a few months, if not years, and now I have both the time and ressources necessary to do it.
This blog will be about Buddha Dhamma and will be illustrated. I have yet to decide if it will simply be illustrated concepts and quotes or a web comic.
The goal will certainly be to explore ancient buddhist practice and how it applies in the modern world.
This project can take many forms, so I thought I'd ask people here what they would enjoy seeing.

Is there anything Dhamma-related you would fancy seeing illustrated on a weekly basis?
Would you prefer reading a web comic or looking at individual illustrations/infographics?
Any crazy ideas?

Thanks

[DNS]

Here is Dharma the Cat:

http://www.mahabodhi.net/dcat/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

in case you have not seen that before and/or if you don't want to repeat what is already out there.

[Kim OHara]

Is there anything Dhamma-related you would fancy seeing illustrated on a weekly basis?
Would you prefer reading a web comic or looking at individual illustrations/infographics?
Any crazy ideas?

Thanks

A webcomic is probably the best idea, because it allows you to dramatise the teachings as they apply to daily life and (hopefully) lighten people's day a bit - which is always a good thing in itself.

Good luck!

Kim

[kizma]

Ooh, I have seen Dharma the cat before, but I had lost track of, and forgotten about it. Thank you for the link!

Good point Kim. It will be easier to get into pragmatic and practical aspects of the teachings through character interactions.
One thought I had was to illustrate some suttas.

What could happen is that I may do a combination of different approaches.
For example, on one week I could make a comic that builds up the storyline, then the next week illustrate the various aspects of a pāli word, then make an infographic on a characteristic of ancient India's culture (I truly appreciate learning more about the historical aspect of the canon to put it into it's context.) etc.

Any more ideas?

[Kim OHara]

What could happen is that I may do a combination of different approaches.
For example, on one week I could make a comic that builds up the storyline, then the next week illustrate the various aspects of a pāli word, then make an infographic on a characteristic of ancient India's culture (I truly appreciate learning more about the historical aspect of the canon to put it into it's context.) etc.

Any more ideas?

I think you will have different - though overlapping - audiences for the different kinds of approach. You could keep them separate the same way (e.g.) xkcd does - visit http://xkcd.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and you will see the "what if" posts are quite separate from the webcomic.
But look at the workload, too - you need a constant flow of new material, updating each stream at least weekly, or people forget to check and you lose them.


Kim

[kizma]

So!

I've been actually making these comics for a while now. (http://www.jesaispas.ca) I'm at #120 today.
It's more in the line of poetry and art but it is definitely Dhamma-inspired.
About half of it is in french, and I am intending to continue only in french.
However, I'm trying to get sutta-inspired comics published on an internet magazine.

I wanted to share the first one with you.
If it ever gets published I will have to take it down, but I'll just replace it with a link.

Here it is


taken down - read below


I would love feedback and constructive criticism. I intend to do more of these and want to get better at it.

[Kim OHara]

Congratulations! I am glad you went ahead with the project.
I spent a few minutes looking at your site and I think it is going well.
Just from the point of website functionality, I suggest you look at http://xkcd.com and adopt some of the ideas: keep navigation close to, but beneath, the comic; add links like "Permanent link to this comic: http://xkcd.com/1448/ and Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/question.png" and maybe the kind of stuff he has in the bottom panel, i.e. search, etc.
Looking at it from a design point of view, the only thing that bothers me is your choice of font for the title of each strip. I think it is far too big and black, and it's the only big design element which is not hand-drawn. Why not hand-letter your titles? If you don't want to do that, one of the hand-writing or script fonts may suit you.

But the main things now are to keep going and to tell potential readers that your comic exists. You could post a link to it in our "Non-English Resources" forum http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewforum.php?f=46 and similar pages on the other DW and similar forums.

Good luck!


Kim

[kizma]

Kim, thank so much, this is all very helpful!

I am redesigning the website as we speak, so I will definitely consider your advice in the process.
The first version was thrown together real quick in an effort to get going with the project.

So, I am taking down the comic I posted up there because it will be published on an online magazine. (Yay!)
I'll share the link as soon as it gets posted.

[Nicolas]

I've been actually making these comics for a while now. (http://www.jesaispas.ca)

Poetic!

[kizma]

@Nicolas: I'll take that as a compliment

The comic I mentioned earlier got posted on elephant journal!
It's an adapted from the Kimsila Sutta.

You can read it here:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/11/ ... -practice/