Pencils and Brainz

If you don’t know me IRL, you probably haven’t heard me gush about this comic. If you do know me IRL, chances are I’ve made you sit down and read through it.

I started reading this when coming out of some major Hanna Is Not a Boy’s Name feels, but Strange Investigations grows higher on my list of favorite things in the world each time a page comes out. I’m pretty sure I shrieked when I saw it had updated last. 

It’s an incredibly beautiful comic with some of the prettiest lighting I’ve ever seen drawn, and an intro to the last chapter that made me laugh aloud. 

I have a lot of feels about the last page, but rather than keyboard smashing, I figured a mini-review/promo would be a better way to convince you guys to read it.

Go forth and delve in.

niiicethings:

“Noun is a playful artist’s book about words and their definitions. It is like an exquisite corpse with words. Starting with 27 real English words, each word and its definition has been divided into two parts. By turning the pages, you get to mix and match the word halves to create humorous and nonsensical new words and meanings. With over 700 different combinations, this book is the perfect item for bibiophiles, lexicographers, writers, and any lover of words. Here are a few examples of words and definitions you can put together: whisper + umbrella = whisbrella: A low sibilan utterance for sheltering one from rain and sun. banana + onomatopoeia = bananpoeia: A large herbaceous perennial tropical plant that bears fruit imitating the sound of the thing or action signified. muffin + tyrant = muffrant: A quick bread made of batter unrestrained by law or constitution. nomenclature + ancestry = nomencestry: A system or set of names for things derived from, or possessed by, an ancestor or ancestors.”

One day in March, staff at the Scottsh Poetry Library came across a wonderful creation, left anonymously on a table in the library. Carved from paper, mounted on a book and with a tag addressed to @byleaveswelive - the library’s Twitter account - reading:

“It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… … We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)” 

Next to the ‘poetree’ sat a paper egg lined with gold and a scatter of words which, when put together, make “A Trace of Wings” by Edwin Morgan.

Nobody knew where it came from, nor was anyone forthcoming with information in person or online, despite a fair amount of local news coverage.

Mysterious paper sculptures found in Edinburgh, addressed to twitter accounts…