information aesthetics.
The always surprising has released a collection of quite [full resolution, xkcd.com] that show the interactions between individual movie characters in famous movies like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, 12 Angry Men and Primer.
The horizontal axis represents time. The vertical grouping of the lines indicates which characters are together at a given time.
If you like this, be sure not to miss the fabulous infographic of by Information is Beautiful. And yes, this is an ideal time to pre-order his !
Thnkx Tim.
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It's like Minard meets Hollywood!
Check out Daniel McClaren's interactive time-line for the xkcd comic at http://danielmclaren.net/2009/11/03/experimenting-with-graph-visualizations-on-a-timeline
You can scroll back and forth through the timeline and the various characters group together.
I like your comparison Marty, well observed! Tufte should/could be happy!