Less than twenty-four hours of being twenty-four to go...

This panel is from chapter three, page nine of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell. I recently spoiled myself with the softcover and after the mandatory re-read I feel like I may have found a format that sits at just the right point along the line from rigidity to flexibility. The above panel is the standard size used throughout the work in a 3x3 grid. Always, the page can be split along those lines and throughout Campbell cleverly chooses to merge different combinations of these panels in various manners which change the rhythm and flow of a page - as well as simply allow larger illustrations!

If I run with this then I suppose it is a theft of sort, but honestly I think that technique is one thing and style another. To me, "stealing" the former is always acceptable because otherwise nobody would ever learn how to do anything but by reinventing it entirely from scratch. The latter is much less so, with cherry-picking being widely accepted as another method of learning but flat out copying being just as wisely frowned upon. Unless, of course, it's an homage or you're being postmodern.

Meanwhile, if the Adam Curtis documentary I posted below got you interested in the man and his work, there is an rather good interview with him that has the headline "Our anger is being ironed out of us".