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Wordplay and cartoons: Inside the making of 'AB@C,' with Rob Meyerson and Dan Misdea

Jan 30, 2025

Rob Meyerson, author of the playful book 'AB@C,' teams up with Dan Misdea, a New Yorker cartoonist known for his humor and creativity. They dive into the quirky world of gramograms—innovative wordplay using letters and symbols. The duo shares their journey of blending visual art with language, recounting the unique creative processes behind their illustrations. They explore the parallels between personalized license plates and gramograms, showcasing the fun in decoding language and the joy that cartoons can bring to words.

18:14

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Episode guests

Rob Meyerson

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Quick takeaways

Gramagrams cleverly combine letters, numbers, and symbols to create playful word representations, showcasing linguistic flexibility and creativity.

The collaboration between Misdia and Meyerson emphasizes the thoughtful pairing of illustrations with gramagrams to enhance reader engagement and delight.

Deep dives

Understanding Gramagrams

Gramagrams are cleverly designed combinations of letters, numbers, or symbols that sound out words when read aloud. For example, 'IOU' is a well-known gramagram, where the letters represent the entire phrase 'I owe you.' Their playful nature includes using abbreviations in unexpected ways, such as 'K9' for 'canine', demonstrating the flexibility in creating these playful linguistic puzzles. The concept has evolved over time, but the core idea remains to engage readers in a unique form of wordplay.

Intro

2min

The Evolution and Creation of Grammograms

3min

Crafting Clever Gramograms: A Collaborative Journey

6min

Decoding Creativity: License Plates and Grammograms

8min

Creative Inspirations in Cartooning and Wordplay

3min

1052. What do “CDB” and “U11 2” have in common? They’re both examples of gramograms!

This week, I chat with writer Rob Meyerson and New Yorker cartoonist Dan Misdea about their book "AB@C," a fun collection of gramograms—letters, numbers, and symbols that form words when read aloud. We look at the history of this quirky wordplay and the artistic process behind the book’s illustrations.

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