map of visual iconography

i've been meaning to post this for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it. Some of you may recognize it as the map of visual iconography Scott McCloud uses in Understanding Comics to show the range of iconic abstraction to photographic representation (horizontal axis) and the range of "pure" abstraction to representation (vertical axis).

But I went to a meeting of geowankers last week or so and somebody mentioned this map, reminding me that I should post about it. There's not that much to say about it, though. The map itself is becoming iconic. You can see it, and an explanation, here on McCloud's website.

While revisiting McCloud's site for this post, I saw that he and his family are taking advantage of the release of his new book Making Comics and resulting inevitable book tour to tour all fifty states. It's gonna take 'em nearly a year, and they're gonna blog about it.

To bring this whole thing back to mapping, here are the maps of McCloud's planned tour, because you just can't not map when you're planning your trip. Looks like he won't make it out to California until next year. I'll be waiting.

Plus, I can't wait until I have a long-suffering wife and kids so that I can buy a mobile home and take them on a year-long tour of the country. We're off to look for America!