By Nominative, Commas

These cartoon characters have caught the eyes of scholars, bringing out a wave of best-selling studies by academics and scientists who say the comics are more than just escapist entertainment. bringing out a wave of best-selling studies by academics and scientists - This participial phrase...

So what happens if we were to reverse it: "My friend is Maria", are we also reversing the roles? And what if we were to add a comma: "My friend, is Maria" is that the same? Or is it now an inversion or some kind of Yodaspeak?

I would say that it's not very commonly used, but it can be used occasionally in your compositions for variety, yes. I'd say it's a variation on a relative clause. ... plays ..., none of which were great successes but all of which were worthy of note. It comes close to being a so-called...

There is also an excellent discussion on the usage of Who and Whom provided by American Heritage Dictionary: Usage Note: The traditional rules that determine the use of who and whom are relatively simple: who is used for a grammatical subject, where a nominative pronoun such as I or he would be...