reconsidering carl… is a quick piece I did as a student in Georgia Tech’s Digital Media Master’s program. Here’s how I described it then:

When Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics was first released the lovable, but eternally doomed, Carl (pg. 84) attracted an interesting cult following.

Originally developed as a brief illustration (pun potentially intended) of the additive and subtractive qualities of comics, the strip was ultimately expanded as the result of a collaborative effort to creating Choose Your Own Carl.

‘reconsidering carl…’ asks that we look at page 84 in a different light.

Sampling 4 random panels from the original strip, ‘reconsidering carl…’ creates the events that lead to Carl’s death. Sometimes the generated narrative flow will appear to be a natural progression. At other times the flow will seem disjointed or even incomprehensible.

It is, however, the assumption of this piece that the viewer’s subconscious will impose a sense of narrative cohesiveness onto the composition as it has been conditioned to believe that comics always proceed in a logical and linear fashion.

So generate a comic or two and ask yourself, “How did Carl die?”