If you want to cram the 4 billion-year story of the living universe onto a few CDs, you'll need to oversimplify. Cartoons are the perfect creative medium for summarizing a story, and no cartoonist is as ambitious as Larry Gonick.
Gonick's celebrated collection of history comic books successfully moves to the multimedia realm on The Cartoon History of the Universe CD-ROM. This version clarifies and reinforces the many levels of his informative drawings: visual insights, scientific facts, footnotes, jokes, and silly anecdotes.
There is nothing quite like getting the teachings of Plato in a comic strip format. And it's not all high-brow stuff either. Gonick knows how to depict life in ancient days as seen from ordinary people in sandals. One has the sense of being in Rome, BC, and spying these cartoons as graffiti on a wall. The CD format adds color and the ability to mouse around into deeper interests easily. The CD also works for younger students who can't yet read, but can listen to the excellent audio track.
In addition, there are some "interactive" elements - a point-and-click 3D trip through a pyramid, for instance - that add vividness to the subjects covered in simple 'toon style in the main narrative.
Old fogies may object that this history is too entertaining. But the best thing that could happen to this disc is to get it banned from boring classrooms by professors who don't know a revolution when it hits them. The Cartoon History of the Universe CD is the first shot at ending the teaching of history as we know it.
The Cartoon History of the Universe: approximately US$40. Putnam New Media: +1 (703) 860 3375, fax +1 (703) 860 3620.
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The Cartoon History of the Universe
