The Morning Improv

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The Morning Improv is a series of webcomics created by Scott McCloud from 2001 to 2004. The series was entirely improvisational, as McCloud wrote one or two panels every morning. The title of each of the 26 webcomics McCloud created for The Morning Improv were selected by his readers.

Scott McCloud American cartoonist

Scott McCloud is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: Understanding Comics (1993), Reinventing Comics (2000), and Making Comics (2006), all of which also use the medium of comics.

Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation, in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines; see Applied improvisation.

The title of a book, or any other published text or work of art, is a name for the work which is usually chosen by the author. A title can be used to identify the work, to place it in context, to convey a minimal summary of its contents, and to pique the reader's curiosity.

Contents

Development

Scott McCloud's The Morning Improv initially ran from August 2001 to June 2002, during which McCloud spent an hour or two every day of the week to slowly develop an experimental webcomic. For each webcomic in the Morning Improv series, McCloud picked a title that was sent to him by one of his fans and based the rest of the story around it. McCloud continued The Morning Improv in July 2003, after a year-long hiatus, using a slightly different mechanism to select a title. Rather than picking a title himself, McCloud set up a system to allow his readers to "vote" for one of ten submitted titles by donating small amounts of money to McCloud through BitPass. The series stopped in June 2004, finishing with a webcomic using Daniel Merlin Goodbrey's Tarquin Engine. [1] [2]

BitPass was an American company from 2002-2007 that developed an online payment system for digital content and services including micropayments. One of its best-known projects was the Mperia online music store catering to unsigned artists.

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey is an English writer known for his work in webcomics and the British small press.

A few of McCloud's The Morning Improv webcomics have been critically praised. His October 2001 webcomic, "Brad's Somber Mood", combines existential despair and nihilism with references to Vladimir Nabokov and Ingmar Bergman in only 11 panels. [3] In December 2003, McCloud created "But No One Ever Noticed the Walrus", which tells the story of an everyman in the form of an anthopomorphised walrus stuck in a waiting room, ignored by personnel. [4] On the morning of the September 11 attacks, McCloud posted his Morning Improv webcomic as usual, describing it as a "tiny act of defiance." [5]

Nihilism is the philosophical viewpoint that suggests the denial of, or lack of belief in, the reputedly meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not exist at all. Nihilism may also take epistemological, ontological, or metaphysical forms, meaning respectively that, in some aspect, knowledge is not possible, or reality does not actually exist.

Vladimir Nabokov Russian-American novelist, lepidopterist, professor

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, was a Russian novelist, poet, translator and entomologist. His first nine novels were written in Russian (1926–38), but he achieved international prominence after he began writing English prose. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945.

Ingmar Bergman Swedish filmmaker

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer, and producer who worked in film, television, theatre and radio. Considered to be among the most accomplished, acclaimed and influential filmmakers of all time, Bergman's films include Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), The Seventh Seal (1957), Wild Strawberries (1957), Persona (1966), Cries and Whispers (1972), Scenes from a Marriage (1973), and Fanny and Alexander (1982); the last two exist in extended television versions.

Reception

The Morning Improv won a Web Cartoonists' Choice Award in 2004 for the "Outstanding Use of Infinite Canvas" category. [6] Dani Atkinson of Sequential Tart said of McCloud's viewer participation set-up that it had an "addictive pleasure", stating that "watching the daily rise and fall of a title in the polls has the same thrills as a horse race." [4] Jaideep Unudurti of Livemint stated in 2015 that McCloud's experimental webcomics still work well over a decade later. [3]

Related Research Articles

Webcomics are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or in comic books.

Sprite comic Type of webcomic

Sprite comics are webcomics that consist primarily of computer sprites from video games. Popularized by Bob and George, the style is considered relatively easy for amateur cartoonists to get involved in, but sprite comics are generally looked down upon for being of low quality.

Cartoonist Visual artist who makes cartoons

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<i>Understanding Comics</i> comic book album

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 1993 non-fiction work of comics by American cartoonist Scott McCloud. It explores formal aspects of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in which these elements have been used. It expounds theoretical ideas about comics as an art form and medium of communication, and is itself written in comic book form.

Patrick Farley Freelance illustrator

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<i>A Softer World</i> webcomic by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne

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The infinite canvas refers to the potentially limitless space that is available to webcomics presented on the World Wide Web. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book Reinventing Comics, in which he suggested that webcomic creators could make a Web page as large as needed to contain a comic page of any conceivable size. This infinite canvas would create an endless amount of storytelling benefits and would allow creators much more freedom in how they present their artwork.

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References

  1. ↑ Teel (2003-06-13). "Scott McCloud's Morning Improv is Back!". Comix Talk.
  2. ↑ "The Morning Improve". Scottmccloud.com. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03.
  3. 1 2 Unudurti, Jaideep (2015-09-16). "Web comics: Beyond the panels". Livemint .
  4. 1 2 Atkinson, Dani (2016-09-12). "But No One Ever Noticed the Walrus". Sequential Tart.
  5. ↑ Johnston, Rich (2010-09-16). "Saturday Runaround: The Origin Of The Yellow Ring Batman". Bleeding Cool .
  6. ↑ "2004 Results". Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards . Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
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