the Onda

I had a wonderful time last night with Daniel Pink's new book, "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need," not because I was looking for career advice, but because the book is written as a manga, a form of comic book popular in Japan for all sorts of ages and audiences. Apparently the author spent some time in Japan last year studying the manga industry out of which came a great Wired article that touched on some interesting points about copyright as well as the appeal of the art form in Japan.

The actual advice is very motherhood and Apple pie— don't have a plan, focus on what you are good at, focus outward instead of inward, work really hard, make smart mistakes, and try to leave a mark— but it is the story-telling that really stands out. The use of the visuals make the points of the book much more memorable (for instance, the 6 "principles" I listed above came completely from memory despite having ready this quickly late last night) and the subtle interplay between the details of art and the side comments make the overall experience really compelling.

I've long been a fan of well-written and drawn comic books. Back in the day Herge was my first English teacher, as I would take my brother's Spanish version Adventures of Tintin and read them side-by-side with my English paperback ones, thus learning English "one bubble at a time" ("blistering barnacles!" was an early favorite way to ask for things). Much later I discovered Alan Moore's incredible Watchmen (source for the best mashup ever seen here in this picture) and was absolutely blown away by how rich a story could be told in the graphic novel format (though at that critical pubescent time in my life, the prospect of getting near the opposite sex required that I read it tucked inside of my biology textbook).

And perhaps the biggest testament to the art of comics was that, back at day zero of Tabblo while I was researching what we knew about visual story-telling, my friend Jerry recommended Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," a wonderful book which I have referred to often over the last few years.

Even if the pundits are right and the future of the Internet is about ever richer forms of media (video, 3D worlds, etc.), Johnny Bunko is a good reminder of how much we still could learn from an old and mature art form.

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