Cul de Sac creator Richard Thompson’s affinity for nibs is no secret. Unfortunately he’s on the wrong side of America to witness and try out the new giant seven-foot nib pen created by Seattle Cartoonist Jim Woodring.
The nib is sixteen inches long and made of brass-pated, hand-engraved cold-rolled steel. The handle is lathe-turned poplar, painted with black lacquer. The ink is a specially formulated acrylic blend. A vase functions as an inkwell.
When this project was announced earlier this year it was met with heavy skepticism. Many felt a pen this size could not function because the relationship between scale and fluid dynamics. Woodring was convinced it could be done and the nib has performed well in tests with prototypes. This will be the first public demonstration of the finished product.
Glenn Fleishman (he wrote THE Oatmeal article for The Economist) was on hand when the pen was debuted to the public Sunday and has uploaded photos to his Flickr account.
Here is video of Jim using the pen. Yes it works.
That might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen.
Just in time for my 12 ft by 14 ft Bristol board!
Now to get into a sword fight with that thing to see, once and for all, which is mightier.
@3: Stephen, you could do some serious damage with this pen, so I think this pen is 1000x mightier than the sword.
I will note that Mr Scott Kurtz was there, I was informed later, but I didn’t know what he looked like, otherwise I would have said hello! (He’s in at least one of my pics.)