erikkwakkel:

Doodle by bored medieval school boy

This 15th-century doodle is found in the lower margin of a manuscript containing Juvenal’s Satires. This classical text was a popular device to teach young students - kids - morals. The medieval teacher Alexander Nequam stated: “Let the student read the satirists […] so that he may learn even in his younger days that vices are to be shunned” (quote here). Spoken like a true optimist, because this page shows what young school boys like to do with rules: disobey them. And so in stead of studying the student who used this book drew a funny doodle in the lower margin: a figure with a flower in one hand and what appears to be a pipe in the other. Could it be his teacher? Doodles are of all ages but those produced by bored school kids are the most entertaining.

Pic: Carpentras, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 368 (here). Here is another example of school kids doodling.

Such a great tumblr, follow and you are bound to enjoy these discoveries

myjetpack:

My book of cartoons ‘You’re All Just Jealous of my Jetpack’ is available now:
US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1770461043
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1770461043
Other stockists and info at www.tomgauld.com

Tom Gauld Forever

medieval-women:

Marie de France

Poet, 12th Century CE

Claim to fame: Author of immensely popular works that challenged societal norms.

Marie de France was a 12th century medieval poet. Details of her life are scanty but she was probably born in France and lived in England, possibly writing in the court of King Henry II.

Marie was proficient in Anglo-Norman French, Latin and English. Her most notable work is the Lais of Marie de France, a series of twelve narrative octosyllabic poems that influenced the development of the romance genre.

The Lais are captivating stories that glorify the romance and suffering of courtly love. The poems are notable for defying the traditional religious ideals of virginal love and marriage. Marie wrote about adulterous affairs with the heroines seducing men, extricating themselves from loveless or abusive marriages, exhibiting self determination and sexual freedom.

Marie’s remarkable willingness to romanticise adultery in the 12th century “reminds us that people in the Middle Ages were aware of social injustices and did not just accept oppressive conditions as inevitable by the will of God”.

English Translations of Selected Lais

Wiki

sbosma:

Polypheme and Odyssea, my combatants for Jenn Woodall’s FIGHTZINE, featuring an all-female cast of fighting game characters. These ended up being closer to Dark Souls enemies (maybe my Ornstein and Smough), but hey. 

I picture these two as invulnerable from the front and weak to the rear, with Polypheme’s shield and spear, and Odyssea’s gun keeping the player at bay. I imagine you’d get a few seconds to wail on their weaker side before being skewered on Polypheme’s flaming trident and hurled across the screen.

I knew I wanted to do a pair from the beginning, but I couldn’t really figure things out. I tried out some stuff with a tandem bow, one holding and aiming, the other drawing back the arrow, but visually it didn’t work. Things didn’t really develop until I drew Polypheme’s giant shield, and even then, it wasn’t until the shield became a face with a mouth that the pair clicks. The shield became a cyclops later, after looking at some Indian puppet masks, I think. She became Polypheme, and the other became Odyssea. The trident was a sword originally, but, Polyphemus, being the son of Poseidon, already has a link to the trident. The flaming part of the trident is a small nod to the flaming wooden stake Odysseus uses to blind the cyclops. 

I have a big reference folder full of matchlock guns from different time periods, culled from a few trips down the ol’ Google images rabbit hole, so that popped up. It seems mindlessly scanning Google images or Tumblr or whatever would just be a timesink and nothing else, but you never know. It pays off to keep track of the things you find visually stimulating, just in case.

These are two disparate examples of how I design characters — sometimes a lot of narrative choices go into the character, like in Polypheme, and sometimes it’s just a collection of interesting shapes, patterns, etc, like with Odyssea. The first is active, where I’m trying to fulfill some mental picture, the second is reactive, where I’m building the narrative after the shapes come together. They both have their merits.

I’m happy to add this piece of tonal dissonance to what is otherwise shaping up to be a very fun zine.

artbeautypaintings:

Viking feast - Harvey Dunn

This strikes me as something a Viking Feast was probably not

Tits and ass, and strategic gauze.  

(via nemetouche-blog)

hobbitfeminism:

This family won best costume at our local RenFest. And they CLEARLY deserved it LOOK AT THIS

haha oh man, that kid’s face 

Just looking right at you and daring you to have cooler parents right now

(via medievalpoc)

eshackleton:

Left to right: Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall, and Jameson Adams, aboard the Nimrod after reaching the Furthest Point South, 1909. [photo probably by James Murray, printed in Shackleton’s Heart of the Antarctic, via, and via.]

Blog: http://eshackleton.com/
Follow the adventure on Twitter: @EShackleton

Nick Bertozzi’s Shackleton is coming out soon!   I have a little blurb on the back, so I got to read it already.  I know, you being my readers, and we having tasteful similarities, that you will like it.

(via nickbertozzi)

aubreylstallard:

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I have never seen this!  Seen Bayuex Tapestry parodies, but not as commentary during an actual war.

(via aubreylstallard)

I just got back from the Stockholm International Comics Festival (signing here with fellow D&Q author Seth, photo via)

The librarians and organizers who put the show together were wonderful, and everyone visiting from Canada had a great time.  Lucky us that this year had a focus on Canadian talent.  I was pretty blown away by the beauty of they city, as well as the gifted and thriving comics scene in Sweden.  I hope I see more Swedish comics coming this way, because they’re really good.  And to anyone who would like to know, in my opinion, the festival is a gem, absolutely recommended.

And just so you know, Swedes like their coffee strong!  You can see I’m halfway through a cup here.  I’m still reeling.

This also happened at TCAF!  Lynn Johnston is the legend from For Better or For Worse, and she is funny and honest and very easy to talk to, it was great being on a discussion panel with her.  She has a great sense of humor about her work and life.  Raina Telgemeier, our moderator, is the another genius behind Smile, which just passed 100 weeks on the NYT bestseller list!  That’s huge.  You tell that to someone who believes commercial success in comics is a pipe dream, you tell ‘em.

philmcandrew:

TCAF was really fun! I had a great weekend! Thanks to everyone that came to say hi or buy a book or saw the panel I was on with my pals (picture above, from left to right: moderator Robin Brenner, Tom McHenry, Meredith Gran, KC Green, ME, Jess Fink, Kate Beaton, Ryan Pequin. Thanks to Emma DeMilta for the photo!).

I love them!   Best times.