Shady Characters

@shadychars
914 Followers
60 Following
627 Posts
Keith Houston's blog about unusual marks of punctuation. Author of SHADY CHARACTERS, THE BOOK, EMPIRE OF THE SUM and now FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY: A NATURAL HISTORY OF EMOJI (https://shadycharacters.co.uk/books/).
Bloghttps://shadycharacters.co.uk
Facebookhttps://facebook.com/shadychars
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Personal accounthttps://mstdn.social/@orkneydullard
Show threadShady CharactersJun 12
Many thanks to Ollie for getting in touch and for answering my questions! You can find him at https://olliewagner.com and https://yapstudios.com.
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Ollie Wagner

American designer and engineer. At Apple he designed Safari, Contacts, Media Player, and Settings for the original iPad, and drew 323 of the original Apple emoji. At Facebook he shipped both design and code. Since 2013 he has run YAP, an independent studio working at the intersection of AI and design.

Ollie Wagner
Shady CharactersJun 12
When I was writing “Face with Tears of Joy”, I got very little response to my questions from Google, Apple, Meta and so on. Recently, though, I managed to speak to a real, live Apple emoji designer - Ollie Wagner, who helped design Apple′s very first set of emoji. https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/06/ollie-wagner/
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An interview with Ollie Wagner, Apple emoji designer

Shady CharactersJun 10
Show threadUnderwareJun 10
@typotheque Does the family contain an irony mark? 👀
Shady CharactersMay 31

Inventing a new punctuation mark turns out to be very hard. Mostly, they fade away, never to be seen again - but the “quasiquote” does not deserve that fate. Read more about this ingenious but precarious mark at the Shady Characters archive: https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2014/06/miscellany-49-quasiquote/

(Image courtesy of Ned Brooks.)

Shady CharactersMay 24

RE: https://glammr.us/@overholt/116630450277627159

An excellent example of this practice. This is how the pilcrow lost out to the indented paragraph, too.

Shady CharactersMay 24
John OverholtMay 24
In the transition from illuminated manuscripts to printed books, printers often left space for well-heeled purchasers to have traditional decorative touches added. https://wordpress.library.illinois.edu/rbx/2026/05/21/an-illuminating-comparison/
Shady CharactersMay 15
Miscellany № 111, now up! Catch up with goings-on in the world of punctuation, starring ‘<’, ‘>’, ‘‽’, ‘.’, ‘,’ and ‘¶’, at https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2026/05/miscellany-111/. .
Shady CharactersMay 14
Glenn FleishmanMay 14
Who has three thumbs, received an Eisner nomination for *How Comics Are Made* (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2025) in Best Comics-Related Book, and needs to recheck his thumb count? This guy! https://www.comic-con.org/awards/eisner-awards/ So many people to think, starting with @drawmark and Michael Chabon
Eisner Awards - Comic-Con International

Nominees Announced for 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Comic-Con is proud to announce the nominees for the 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The nominations are for works published between January 1 and December 31, 2025 and were chosen by a blue-ribbon panel of judges. Once again, this year’s nominees in 32 categories reflect […]

Comic-Con International
Shady CharactersMay 13
Apropos: https://shadycharacters.co.uk/2025/12/advent-calendar-2025-sparkles/
Shady CharactersApr 27
The calculator renaissance starts in Fort Worth, Texas! “Independent bookstores have been on the rise since the pandemic ... A surprising number of people come in looking for books on the history of the calculator, such as author Keith Houston’s ‘Empire of the Sum.′” (https://fortworthreport.org/2026/04/24/independent-bookstores-in-fort-worth-begin-writing-new-chapter-as-customers-return/)
Independent bookstores in Fort Worth begin writing new chapter as customers return 

Retail trend shows growth as bookstores emphasize service, human interaction and a genre focus.

Fort Worth Report