Cartoonist Jordan Crane and his excellent What Things Do site

Date
4 April 2012

What Things Do is great, really, I couldn’t spend enough time on there. It’s a stopping place for full-length comics complete with impossibly great cover art, and the names and work that sit on it read like a register of the new and old school of cartooning and comics influencers.

The motivation of its creator, Jordan Crane, could not express my own sentiments more: “We want to read comics, good comics, a lot of them, and all the time.” Somehow WTD brings together, regularly and without a blink of the collective curatorial eye, a brilliant resource and worthy platform for the medium.

"We want to read comics, good comics, a lot of them, and all the time."

Jordan Crane, What Things Do

Looking at the work of Jordan himself is evidence enough that he practice what he preaches. He has a crafted an aesthetic that uses every panel in an effortlessly articulate way, his narratives are touching and occasionally wildly emotive, and there is a subtle yet consistent emphasis on sound that feels that much more sophisticated – like abstract shapes that occupy a space rather than the ambiguous “zaps” of popular super hero comics. His illustration style is clear and unpretentious which is kind of great for the sprawlingly-emotional and situational leaps the frames take you through.

With a illustrative career spanning… well, a long time, the value of Jordan’s work is well worth reimbursing with a few of your own hours.

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Page of Only a Movie © Jordan Crane

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Cover for Uptight No.3. © Jordan Crane

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Crop of Keeping Two © Jordan Crane

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Crop of Keeping Two © Jordan Crane

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Crop of Keeping Two © Jordan Crane

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Cover for chapter two of Unravelling © Jordan Crane

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About the Author

Bryony Quinn

Bryony was It’s Nice That’s first ever intern and worked her way up to assistant online editor before moving on to pursue other interests in the summer of 2012.

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