On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Attended my first ever InDesign User Group session tonight. We got some explanation on how to link other programs' files into *.indd projects so that updates in their software-of-origin can be automatically reflected in the InDesign file as one goes. It is basic stuff and while you can do this with other software suites, where CS4's abilities are concerned...learning how to do anything the Adobe way after years of Corel is all still fairly new to me.

I'll be attending the November Comix Jam tomorrow night at the Shanghai Restaurant. Suzanne Marsden's announced that this'll be the last one of 2009, so...

Noticing that CBC's TV arm has improved its Nielsen performance of late. I'm glad to see it, and I'm also fully convinced that the privately-owned TV networks' leaders will never forgive this "sin" by the Crown-owned broadcaster against them. At least no more than they have any of the previous instances.

My favourite retail-bought calendar is getting the go-signal for a 2011 edition: Star Trek: Ships of the Line. Word straight from one of the participating artists, Doug Drexler! *happy dance!*

Sitting down to shut up for a minute...

Some comic books I've read over the years distinguished themselves by sticking as closely as possible to a "grid" system of panel layout. The "base" number of panels would vary from artist to artist, book to book, but within a book, it would almost never vary unless you really wanted an attention-getter moment in the book in question. Ditko-era Spider-Man, Watchmen, Miller's first Dark Knight series, Legion of Super-Heroes during the "Giffen-Bierbaum-Squared" era...these stand out as some of the best examples of the method I recall reading to date.

So, I've got a question to throw out to you to answer with your opinions: Is this a method of layout for beginners to stick to as a survival tool, or hardcore pros to show how they really excel under self-inflicted pressure, or both?