Clipping, back-formation, and affixing, that is.Clipping is a word creation process that takes a historically, multi-syllabic word and removes one or more syllables to form a smaller word. Some examples are: ad from advertisement, gas from gasoline, phone from telephone,… Read More

Bil Keane, the creator of the beloved Family Circus cartoon, has died. He was 89 years old. The AP had this tribute: “Even with his traditional motif, Keane appreciated younger cartoonists’ efforts. He listed Gary Larson‘s ‘The Far… Read More

Steve Jobs arrives at the Pearly Gates in The New Yorker Steve Jobs cover. The cover sketch shows Saint Peter checking for Jobs' name on an iPad. It is a clever cartoon even though Jobs was a Buddhist. The New… Read More

The Story Behind the Book is Literarily Speaking’s newest feature. Here we find out either the inspiration behind authors’ books or how they got published. Today’s guest is Jean Henry Mead, author of the mystery/suspense novel, Murder on the Interstate.… Read More

In the late 1960s, Muppets creator Jim Henson collaborated with comic strip artist Johnny Hart (the creator of B.C. and The Wizard of Id)–planning TV show based on The Wizard of Id with puppets and animated sets. The duo created… Read More

David Foster Wallace’s writing took the world and wrung it out, squeezed the irony and misery and joy and monotony out of life and molded it all into something quite beautiful.  Perhaps Wallace himself put it best when he said… Read More

… Read More

by Michael N. Marcus I’m happy to have a post today by Michael N. Marcus. Michael writes BookMakingBlog and is a regular commenter on this blog. In books, articles and websites, Michael has specialized in making technology easy to understand… Read More

You might have seen Kirk Demarais’ work on your birthday card, at the toy store, or in the book Life of the Party: A Visual History of S.S. Adams Company, Makers of Pranks and Magic. He is a painter, filmmaker, … Read More

Over the weekend, video artist Jonathan McIntosh mashed up the right-wing radio commentary of Glenn Beck with classic Donald Duck cartoons. The 7-minute cartoon creates a thoughtful and funny critique of Beck’s work, casting the words of this bestselling author… Read More

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire – 09/09/10) - Next New Networks, the leading next generation media company providing original Web series to millions of loyal, engaged viewers, today announced that language expert Marina Orlova, the creator, host and producer of “HotForWords,” has joined… Read More

… Read More

Perhaps you know Deborah Wiles from her moving picture books Freedom Summer and One Wide Sky, or her utterly charming novels Love Ruby Lavender, Each Little Bird That Sings, and The Aurora County All-Stars. (Some of my personal favorites.) Or… Read More

I’m a cartoonist. This is my tenth year blogging. My work has been mentioned in big media including Wall St. Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, and The Guardian. It’s been mentioned in bestselling books like… Read More

On Thursday, February 11, 2010, In Memoriam, your blog says, "The story suggests some unusually good visuals - animation, in fact - though I have learned I should not bother with illustration before submission for publication." "That is correct." But… Read More

There’s a scene in “Mad Men”, the TV drama about a 1960s advertising agency. One of the junior copywriters is showing the Creative Director an ad he’s just written. The ad is clever, flowery, and poetic. The Creative Director cuts… Read More

This is a new recurring column I'm calling "7 Things I've Learned So Far," where writers at any stage of their career can talk about seven things they've learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the… Read More

I’d like to talk about a few commonly confused words today. The usage rules for one of them had me so confused I simply stopped using the word for several years. Only recently did I realize it’s hard to go… Read More

Nothing makes a blog post more eye-catching than a great header image, but not all publishers have artistic talent. And even accomplished digital creatives often crave some found material to start from or work with in a project. Luckily for… Read More

You’ve probably read plenty of web design advice or noticed some tips around the web, especially if you have any interest at all in customizing your own theme and creating your own graphics. You want to create a kick-ass design… Read More