Artist draws the fun into of physics
Rina Piccolo helps scientists illustrate science behind time travel and antimatter
Picture a creative way to explain complex science.
Toronto cartoonist Rina Piccolo, familiar to Star readers for her syndicated comic strip Tina’s Groove, channelled her interest in “all the weird stuff like quantum mechanics,” into co-writing an illustrated science book, Quirky Quarks (Springer Publishing).
Subtitled “a cartoon guide to the fascinating realm of physics,” German physicists Boris Lemmer and Benjamin Bahr provided the “fun, non-technical explanation(s) of the science behind things like time travel, wormholes and antimatter.” Piccolo wrapped them in her trademark humour-laced illustrations and hand lettering.
Along with Science Comics series author MK Reed, Piccolo will be part of a Toronto Comic Arts Festival Librarian & Educator professional day panel Friday, where she’ll talk about how comics can help get readers interested in science, technology, engineering and math.
It’s followed by the two-day TCAF exhibition and vendor fair Saturday and Sunday at the Toronto Reference Library.
A self-described skeptic (the scientists liked that, she said), Piccolo has no formal science training, although she’s always been intrigued with the scientific world.
Along with the subject, she was enthusiastic about being given carte blanche to illustrate the pages as she liked. “They said ‘go for it, all the comics and cartoons are yours.’ ”
Of course, Piccolo had to stick to the science, which is explained in a fresh and often humorous style. Case in point, the chapter titled “Invisibility Cloaks: Walk like a magician,” which details bending light and refraction before moving into more complex physics.
Piccolo created three cartoon guides to take readers through the chapters: Erwin the cat and dogs Maxwell and Emmy, who are based on real scientists Erwin Schrodinger, James Clerk Maxwell and Emmy Noether.
“It’s not a textbook,” said Piccolo, adding it still has its place in a classroom. “I think it would be good for education because the articles do read like a textbook, if it wasn’t for the comic-book cartoons and smiley-face electrons. The science is really up to date. If you gave this to a library or a teacher, they would absolutely use it.”