The Specialists

Until now, I’ve only featured other long-form comics in the Webcomic Spotlight. It just seemed that they would be most likely to appeal to our readers. But today I’m going to talk about a comic that I think just about anyone can appreciate.

In Zen Pencils, Gavin Aung Than takes inspirational or clever or funny quotes (and sometimes all three) and turns them into awesome comics. The sources of these quotes run the gamut from scientists to athletes to philosophers to politicians.

Some comics are simple, single-panel affairs, like this beautiful sentiment from Helen Keller. Others weave a narrative around a longer and more complex quotation, like this one from the late, great Carl Sagan. It’s always interesting to see how Gavin dramatizes each quotation. Oftentimes, the illustrations will give the original text a whole new life, as with this mantra from Frank Herbert’s Dune. Gavin uses the Bene Gesserit litany against fear as a backdrop to the story of a woman’s struggle to leave an abusive marriage. The combination of Herbert’s words and Gavin’s illustrations makes for a beautiful and powerful comic.

There are currently 46 installments, and two more are added each week. So if one of these examples doesn’t touch you, I’m sure you can find one that does.