How do you like it so far?

Experimenting with Comics with Clifford Johnson and Dan Goldman

Episode Summary

We’ve got another one in store for you How Do You Like it So Far? team! This week we have another episode in our series about comics with Henry at the helm (Colin is unfortunately away in Spain this week). We have Clifford Johnson, a Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at USC and author of The Dialogues, a non-fiction science book for non-experts with a twist -- it’s written like a graphic novel! We also have Dan Goldman, a writer, an artist, producer and founder and narrative lead of Kinjin Story Lab, whose work spans from graphic novels, TV and videogames. Johnson and Goldman discuss this “origin” stories of how they became comic book fans and how it influenced their current work. Both Johnson and Goldman have visions of the use of comics for social change. Johnson created his work in order to model conversations that were happening around him about the scientific method to normalize science in the general culture. Goldman, on the other hand, created works of political fiction or transmedia storytelling while using digital platforms to promote messaging. Johnson and Goldman discuss how storytelling is fundamentally at the heart of comics and engages people. They posit that comics provides an alternate medium for people to disseminate information and take them to new levels with various ideas. Listen in as Johnson and Goldman discuss their work and the differences between digital and traditional publishing.