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Nick Sousanis

@nsousanis.bsky.social

5.5K followers 1.4K following 5.3K posts

Comics as thinking. Eisner winner. Unflattening from HarvardUP (http://bit.ly/1vENIO7). Former Detroiter/NYer/YYC/now assoc prof SFSU-Comics Studies! https://spinweaveandcut.com/ Tags #comics #Unflattening #Nostos

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · Nov 15

I kept my twit-act in part because I’d been documenting progress on my new book since its beginning. As I fully phase out twix, sharing some past posts here as I go. This was the first finished spread - part of 22pg 15ft long continuous sequence retelling the Odyssey! Onward! #Nostos #Unflattening 2

A 2-page black and white comics spread, with imagery continuing beyond the side boundaries of the pages as it’s part of a longer sequence. The center is a tapestry that stretches through the page displaying Odysseus’s ship with the lighthouse of pharos, Penelope weaving a pharos, and the bag of Aeolus. The image of penelope emerges from the tapestry, near it there's a meta-tapestry with warp and weft of threads that make the page, all woven by hands from the reader’s perspective. They hands unwind at the wrists to merge with a labyrinth that fills bottom of page metapmorphosizing from greek key patterns that make the boundary of the tapestry. At top the moon in three phases and a double headed axe spins through the page - in one instance mirroring the full moon with crescents on either side. The axe transforms into a monarch butterfly across the page. Also there’s an owl who moves backwards across the page until it comes to rest on Penelope’s loom. It’s a complicated page... (oh, and I have twice as many characters as Twitter here - but that’s probably enough)

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 3h

Such a great book!

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 4h

no time to draw on this today (grrr) but thinking about the text - so pleased with the way the images stand out, want to figure out if I can cut even more words. I'm currently at about 125 words for the whole page - well shy of Alan Moore's maxim of 210 word maximum. So we'll see what I can do...

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 5h

Discussing Maxine Greene's The Dialectic of Freedom today in class: "...personal freedom refers to self-dependence & self-determination; it has little to do with connectedness or being together in community." Student articulated this as "Selfish Freedom" - which I think perfectly fits this moment...

Text from a book that reads:
Talk of personal freedom refers to self-dependence and self-determination; it has little to do with connectedness or being together in community. Americans assume that they were born free. If they can function with any degree of effectiveness, they feel entitled to do as they please, to pursue their fulfillments on their own. To be autonomous and independent: This seems to many to be the American dream.

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 6h

The red light is actually from the bike of another person out in the rain who stopped to look at Naga…

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 8h

Biking home on a cold, dark, rainy night - nice to be greeted by a friendly face on my most traversed route in SF…

Photo of sea serpent statue lit up in the night

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Reposted by Nick Sousanis

Sam Logan @samandfuzzy.com · 15h

Was trying to do some inking when Hilde grabbed the pen

Photo of a black and white illustration on a sheet of paper, sitting on a wood desk.

The illustration is formatted like a four panel comic, two rows of two. Dipper the corgi is in the top left, looking down at Hilde the wizard cat in the bottom right. The top right panel features Poppy, and the bottom left features a pile of bones. Hilde has grabbed the actual real life pen that is sitting on top of the piece of paper they are drawn on, and is using it to draw a closed panel border around Dipper.

Dipper is brandishing his sword as he glares at Hilde. The sword extends outside of the panel he is in, and into the neighbouring panel, in which Poppy the dog leans to the side to avoid the sword tip.

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Reposted by Nick Sousanis

Megan Piontkowski illustration @meganpiont.bsky.social · 1d

@emilylhauser.bsky.social in case you haven’t seen, I have yet another zine out! It was commissioned to be distributed during the No Kings 2 protests. It’s called “We Marched! Now What?” and is filled with stuff people can do. drive.google.com/file/d/1TJnH...

Hand holding black and white illustrated zine of two people holding up signs saying “We Marched! Now What?”

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 18h

Starts today!!

Reposted by Nick Sousanis

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 20h

Special education isn't a "nice thing to have." It isn't "charity" or doing something to make us feel better. It is a right. The right to a Free Appropriate Public Education is codified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, signed by a Republican president.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs that began Friday, according to the union representing the agency's employees. www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 19h

What exactly does he pretend his job is? And why don’t reporters immediately grill him further on how it’s possible he hasn’t seen, whatever he hasn’t seen that particular day…

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 20h

REPORTER: We know the president moved forward with mass layoffs. We're also learning there were significant cuts to staff at special education services. Are you comfortable with those cuts?

MIKE JOHNSON: I haven't seen the specifics of that and I don't know

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

minor tweak, hope to hit the next tier of panels tomorrow night...

10 panels from a comics page in progress - in two rows of 5 each. Top row, panel one a gaseous cloud. 2-4 - supernova, its shockwaves colliding with that cloud. 5th panel see the cloud collapsing beginning to turn. Second tier - first panel - spinning gases, center warming. Panel 2 - great cloud of gas spinning and partly obscuring proto star within, panels 3-5, other side of protostar seen in prior panel - it's later in the solar system's evolution, we see no gas near the star, then a thin layer of rock and farther out gas - a differentiated disk swirling around the star...

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Reposted by Nick Sousanis

Luigi de Guzman @ouij.bsky.social · 1d

The fact that protests now feature people who don’t normally have to worry about what might happen to them in an adverse encounter with security forces is a HUGE DEAL.

It means that the “real” victims don’t have to suffer alone. It means that some people care about something more than themselves

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Someone in my mentions is upset because these people haven’t suffered the worst at ICE’s hands and therefore they shouldn’t be praised for being out on the streets?

Yeah, no. To push back on these people we need everyone — especially those with relative privilege — to get up and get involved.

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Portland, you magnificent weirdos

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Reposted by Nick Sousanis

scott⚡️mccloud @scottmccloud.bsky.social · 1d

Select all squares with
GOD

If there are none, click skip

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 2d

gaseous cloud collapses, gathers into itself - heats up - remaining material thinly spread outward - only rock nearish, gas/ice farther still. Solar system is forming... Panels 10/30...
#Nostos #Unflattening 2

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Reposted by Nick Sousanis

ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 3d

You should read @joanwalsh.bsky.social on the utter vindictiveness of the Tish James indictment

www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Trump’s Vendetta Prosecution of Letitia James Is a New Low

The New York attorney general has led the legal fight against Trump, and now he has mobilized the Justice Department to go after her.

www.thenation.com

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

Ha - thanks, Scott! (I missed this earlier). 20 squares to go… stay tuned!

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

This page 30 panels several of which have simultaneity of imagery across multiple panels, so this is by far the fewest separate drawings per page in the book in some time…

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

Ha - thanks, Shawn! Only 20 panels to go on the page - I’m practically there!

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

I’m aware of the trouble with the ellipse on the seventh panel - will tweak. Again, seeing it small helps catch things. And I suspect I’ll be having a lot of fun with all the ways I can manipulate the grid in the coming chapter…

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

hear hear

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not super versed in manga - but this show made me want to rectify that. We offer a manga course, but with university budget cuts, we don't have anyone to teach it - I'm tempted to take it on - just to make sure we have it (students want it!) and to teach myself a lot along the way. We'll see.

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

Perhaps not as massive or comprehensive at the centre Pompidou comics exhibition last year, but on par with it in terms of depth of examination and richness of the work bsky.app/profile/nsou...

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · Jul 26

As high as my expectations were for the comics exhibition at Centre Pompidou - was still completely blown away! Family and I spent a few hours exploring - each of us had a great time - amazing collection, smart videos to accompany, great narrative holding it together 1/3

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing too old. 90s and forward I think. It’s not a history of manga show. I posted a link to the catalog in the thread

Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

I’ll say this, the show just didn’t quit, so much stuff on display - bravo to all involved!

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

One piece fans will be over the moon! There’s a whole room on process of one piece (which I didn’t get to see). All in all a terrific show, great display - highly recommend! www.famsf.org/audio-tours/...

Art from the exhibition - hawk grabbing a girl

Art from the exhibition - catalog statement

Manga is one of the most dynamic and widely read forms of visual storytelling in the world. Originating in Japan, influenced by Western and Eastern prototypes, and embraced globally, manga blends image and narrative through a distinctive visual grammar that emphasizes line, framing, pacing, and spatial composition. Unlike Western comics, manga is typically read from right to left and top to bottom, with two-page spreads (mihiraki) often composed as unified wholes. Story rhythm unfolds not only through dialogue and panel layout but also through expressive use of sound effects (giongo, or onomatopoeia), screentone, and brushwork.
What distinguishes manga is its ability to evoke emotional and visceral responses through formal structures. Panel placement, line density, and onomatopoeia create a uniquely immersive expe-rience. Its performative qualities— gesture, composition, and visual rhythm-allow manga to communicate across language barriers with immediacy and impact, offering a powerful, intuitive form of storytelling.
Spanning subjects from sports and romance to science fiction and historical drama, manga is not a genre but a medium. Its vitality comes from a collaborative ecosystem of artists (mangaka), editors, publishers, and readers, where feedback can shape stories as they unfold. Whether manga is produced digitally or in ink, its stylistic innovations and emotional directness reveal the enduring power of line, gesture, and imagination.

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Nick Sousanis @nsousanis.bsky.social · 1d

I’m a big fan of Jiro Taniguchi’s walking man - really cool to see his range of work (though all about meditations not the living world) - very cool! 2/3

Art from the exhibition - closeups of nature

Art from the exhibition - description of jiro taniguchi

Taniguchi
Jiro
C
谷口ジロー
Taniguchi Jiro (1947-2017) was a prolific mangaka, known for work that explores the intersection of human emotions and the natural world. He is celebrated for his refined
draftsmanship and his ability to bridge Japanese and European graphic traditions. He often worked in the seinen (young adult) genre, and his manga feature realistic imagery and introspective themes.
He grew up in Tottori, and he drew inspiration from bandes dessinées (comics of Franco-Belgian and Francophone countries) and Japanese visual culture. His fine line work, layered screentone, and controlled visual rhythm lend his pages a stillness that holds emotion without sentimentality.
Taniguchi's narratives sometimes focus on memory, place, and quiet transformation, as in A Distant Neighborhood. He moved across genres, from slice-of-life and crime fiction to science fiction, as in his visionary Ice Age Chronicle of the Earth. He also collaborated frequently, working with Sekikawa Natsuo on the award-winning The Times of Botchan and with Kusumi Masayuki on the beloved food manga The Solitary Gourmet. Honored in Japan and abroad, Taniguchi continued to experiment artistically until his death in 2017.

Art from the exhibition - man walking through city

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