Monday, June 22, 2009

Beanworld in Science!



Beanworld has the best fans!


Not so long ago, I received a an email that included the following:

My name is Leigh Boerner, and I'm a freelance science writer and longtime Beanworld fan. I'm VERY excited about the re-releasing of the Beanworld series, and about the new material you're coming out with. I think it's a great series (obviously), and I find it really sad that a lot of people I know, even people who are into comics, have no idea what Beanworld is.

Leigh asked me if she and I could have a chat about Beanworld in advance of her pitch and I agreed. She and her husband, Nels, clearly have given Beanworld a lot of thought over time and the conversation Leigh and I had was lengthy and different than many of my previous interviews.

Science's book editor, Sherman Suter commissioned a review and Between Leigh, Sherman, Jacq Cohen at Dark Horse, everyone had copies of Beanworld stuff and the article came together very, very fast.

It's a terrific article directed a highly select scientific readership. I think Leigh did a tremendous job hitting all of the essential Beanworld notes.

I just got a note from her that everyone can now s
neak under the edge of the Science tent through her website.

So, if you are curious, use this link.

It will take you to Leigh's blog and from there if you hit the link titled "A Story of Symbiosis" you will get to read the review without having to pay at the door.

I don't believe that I ever really did much better in any science course in high school than a C- (and often did worse). In art school we were required to take art OR philosophy and I bet you can guess what courses I took.

What I learned in school, and it was later constantly re-enforced by studying Duchamp, is that an artist can take whatever he likes from of the disciplines of science, pick and chose the bits and pieces, and stir it into the recipe of the art piece he or she is baking.

So, not too shabby for me, of all people, to end up getting a good review in Science.



4 comments:

bob said...

Very cool. I was going to see if my local library got the magazine, but this is so much easier.

Vernon said...

ain't beanworld thought provoking? I love the idea of beanworld's fanbase growning

carol said...

It's an interesting concept--"The Beans and the Hoi-Polloi, although enemies, need the other to live." But is it really symbiosis? There's that part in the Snoopy Anthropologist when one of the Hoi Polloi asks Proffy, "How do we know you ain't gonna open yer OWN sprout-butt processing business? What if you CUT us outa the foodchain action?" Proffy thinks it's a joke, but another Hoi Polloi thinks, "This IDIOT is putting dangerous IDEAS in HER beanbrain." And then there's that print from 2003 with the Beans pulling chow from whateveritis. Which makes me wonder what'll happen to the Hoi Polloi once the Beans don't need them any more.

Monique R. said...

CONGRATS! A write up in the most prestigious science journal of all time!!!!

I loved the article.

SO EXCITED FOR NEW BEANWORLD!

p.s.: Larry, Twitter?