The Other Byrne

David Byrne is not coming out with a new comic. He was affiliated with some group called the Talking Heads. Apparently, they helped to inspire the name of some obscure website.

However, Byrne has produced a book/dvd about the cultural impact of PowerPoint. In the conclusion to a recent interview on the subject, he appears to go into Scott McCloud territory.

I think we communicate graphically, through icons and imagery much more than we realize. And I think, for the most part, we are communicated to graphically, whether in advertising or movies or on television. And because it's not primarily text, and we don't have a grammar and understanding of it, we've never learned to talk about images and icons -- at least the general public hasn't learned. So it becomes one-way communication: We're being talked at but we can't talk back. We can talk back verbally but that's in a different language and it pushes different buttons. That's part of what draws me to this and the other things I do: I want to learn the language that is being spoken to me.

I have to admit that when I analyze a comic book story, I usually think more in terms of plot and dialogue. I may like or dislike the artwork, but I’m not usually conscious of how the images contribute to the story.

Some writers like Chris Claremont are so dialogue heavy that their scripts almost crowd out the art. Others like Warren Ellis frequently sit back and let the artist do the talking.

While I’ve gotten tired of the overuse of minimalist dialogue, I wonder if I’ve become so dependent on text that I’m not really reading the comic.