A few days ago, I got finished with a grad school Statement of Intent that basically outlined a plan to study the relationship between comics and (information) design. Since there are no coincidences in life, two days later, somebody on Drawn! made a post, “Comics and Information Design.” That post was a brief mention of how Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is widely used in the information and interaction design communities. (Proof: it’s on Edward Tufte’s Analytical Design reading list.)
What interests me is not the one-way relationship of comics informing information design, but the two-way relationship of comics informating info design, and info design informing comics. In other words, the way comics and information design can inform each other.
Essentially, I see comics and information design attempting the same feat: one brain showing something to another brain.
I’m not quite ready to get into the nitty-gritty just yet, but here’s a mind-map I did on the subject:
Also, I’ve posted it before, but don’t miss the COMICS, CARTOONING, AND INFO DESIGN thread on ET’s site: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000023&topic_id=1
You might be interested int he work of XPLANE. I company that I used to work for that specialized in comics and almost entirely was staffed by people in the indie comic book industry.
http://www.xplane.com