Related Resources
If you’re interested in web design, dinosaurs or unicorns, The Oatmeal is pretty much the best site ever.
The guy behind it is a comic artist who used to design websites, and uses a lot of his personal experience as fodder for his hilarious blog. Like this little diddy that went viral today:
3 Lessons from The Mantis Shrimp
1. People like learning.
At least, people no longer in school do. And if you are in school, learning via comics is like a paid vacation to Fun Town. Either way it’s a win-win. Comic-styled information is more attractive, is easier to digest and probably easier to retain and remember. Studying for a biology exam? Would you rather read about macrophages in a thick textbook that’s survived generations of coffee stains, or in a free online comic book showing these immune system defenders ruthlessly protecting their host against invasions from virus enemies? (Don’t answer that).
2. People like colors.
COLORS! Fire engine red. Ultramarine blue. School bus yellow. The primary colors have long been associated with classic comic book-style art, and for good reason. These are the basics. Primaries, some may say. Superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man….all those guys sport outfits in classic primaries. (Batman went all postmodern with that goth get-up of his).
3. People like short but compelling text.
Action and adventure are the two more popular genres of comic books and graphic novels. Packed with high-impact visuals, the dialogue and captions show what’s happening NOW. No nonsense. Any excess is cut out, left for your imagination to fill in.
The comic-book aesthetic (bright and bold) and dialogue (short and impactful) is the perfect recipe for quick entertainment. Add a legitimately interesting, factual subject matter and you’ve hit the sweet spot. Did someone say…Biowars?
