The IndieWeb Book Club

Nov 2025: Joe Crawford

In November 2025, Joe Crawford selected Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. A comic artist himself, it seems this a formative book in his creative practice.

Q1: How did you discover the book? A friend, a random bookstore, an internet wander?

Understanding Comics came out in 1993. I am old enough and lucky enough to have been in and out of comic book stores and curious about writing that I picked it up when it came out. I think it was in a comic book shop in Charlottesville, Virginia. It was also well publicized in the comics press of the day, Comic Buyer's Guide and Comics Journal.

Q2: Were there any ideas that made you see something differently?

The levels of abstraction from a realistic rendering of a person to a plain circle smiley face blew my mind the first time I saw it.

Q3: What media would you pair this book with that'd deepen or complement its ideas?

I can think of two interesting pairings: one is to Scott McCloud's fiction comics, maybe Zot! or even The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln if you were thinking silly. Those and others of his works will give you a non-didactic version of the same author.

As for a pairing by a different author, I think Filth & Grammar, a book about comics editing. It's far more recent, but about editing comics. It has a newish website.

Q4: What's one thing from the book you found yourself coming back to in your mind?

Understanding Comics stays with me always. The passages on how human beings tend to see faces in things, and the way we assemble a narrative out of the things we see and read, filling in the gaps are things I think about regularly. That's also a notion from movies and films.

Q5: When recommending this book, what would you tell someone to pay attention to?

I would tell them if they don't get something out of the first chapter, to try again. If you don't find something unique, or inspiring, or surprising from the jump I don't think you're reading it at all. I'd also say that if you enjoy it on one read, the second will be even richer.

Dec 2025: Al Abut

In December 2025, Al Abut selected The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. A foundational text that shaped his early career as a web developer, teaching him that design has underlying principles beyond just artistic intuition.

Q1: How did you discover the book? A friend, a random bookstore, an internet wander?

Honestly it was so long ago that I don't remember! I'm not sure who recommended it or how I came across it, but I do remember that it was a very distinct period in my life. I was just starting out in my career in the early 2000's and I was a broke young web developer working in a university IT department, learning my craft and soaking up knowledge from whatever I could get my hands on.

Learning from this book was one of those "core memories" that's been with me so long it feels practically baked in, not chosen.

Q2: Were there any ideas that made you see something differently?

Yeah, totally. That was the entire point of the book for me - to see that were any underlying principles to design at all, rather than just vibes or chasing the artistic muse.

Q3: What media would you pair this book with that'd deepen or complement its ideas?

If I could pick one movie, it'd be "Helvetica." It's ostensibly about just a typeface but really it's about all of graphic design and uses that one subject as a lens to see the world around us differently. That's what the book did for me - gave me a deeper appreciation for the hidden principles in the modern world that's all around us - and it's overall a really good film too. It kicked open the world of documentaries about tech and design topics that didn't really exist before then.

I think a lot of people have seen that movie though, and it also falls into a common trap of implying that "good" design is inherently minimalist, so if I had a second, it'd be "Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight." It's on the other end of the spectrum from the Bauhaus-inspired modernism in "Helvetica" and celebrates the more enthusiastic and vibrant side of the visual arts.

I love that these seemingly opposite approaches start with the same foundational goals and methods, simple rules that recombine in ever more complex patterns until they end up in very different places.

Q4: What's one thing from the book you found yourself coming back to in your mind?

The first half of the book about layout principles, especially the one on alignment. I often joke that design is just lining things up 😂

I forgot that there was a second half at all until revisiting it for the book club. The chapters on typography are a good intro too but it feels like that topic has more awareness, whereas I came back to the chapters on layout so many times that it went from theory to muscle memory over the years. I use them basically every time I design anything.

Q5: When recommending this book, what would you tell someone to pay attention to?

The exercises. They're fun! It's not heavy homework, they're really tiny micro-lessons. The best way to learn something is to put it to practice and the examples in the book are perfectly bite-sized, so you won't get overwhelmed by trying to overhaul a larger project.