Dancing Geek

I’ve always liked comics, they’re incredibly accessible mini pieces of art.  It’s art + story in explicit form, and the way that they work is a fascinating subject that Scott McCloud argues is not just words plus pictures in his book ‘Understanding Comics‘.

Combining this enjoyment with the internet then is a win-win for me, and I have more than a few webcomics in my feed reader.  But it’s not just their entertainment value that I enjoy, it’s also what they represent as a successful example of adapting to the internet as a new medium.

Some webcomic artists are people that like simply to draw for fun in their spare time, some more regularly posting that others, some higher quality finish than others, but all enjoyable as examples of a passion shared.  When the subject material itself is also a passion, as in Rich Morris’ series ‘The 10 Doctors‘, the community that builds up around it provides as much, if not more, of the enjoyment than the comic itself – which personally I’m loving to pieces.

Community however, is not limited to fanfic.  Many artists who create unique material will also have a forum such as XKCD and Questionable Content.  These provide valuable feedback for the artist, a place for informal artwork and out-of-story imagery, as well as providing a way for people to connect with each other and create a Godin-tribe.

It is this tribe that then supports the successful artists, and enables webcomics to provide income to artists without resorting to the alienating practices of selling advertising space or indeed charging for their work.  This is where the real demonstration of a working internet model occurs.  The creator provides regular, quality content and in return fans not only will pay money, but demand to be able to do so.

Requests for merchandise often come from the fans who want a t-shirt or poster with a particular piece of artwork on it (yes, artwork).  The creation of a tribe means that clothing that will allow others in the tribe to recognise each other offline is desirable to promote the exclusivity and branding of the tribe we know so well in mainstream fashion today.

As well as the demand for memorabilia is the demand for experiences, comic conventions are an obvious place for webcomic artists.  Fans want to meet the artist, ask them questions, get a signed book of their work, and simply meet other fans.  Providing an offline, real world version of the online forum allows the best of both worlds.  The ongoing benefits of internet connectivity and presence, with the enjoyment of realtime, in-person interaction to solidify and augment relationships.

All of the money given by fans is for extra services that revolve around the main product, all is considered of value and yet none of it could happen with the sense of community that is built around a free product online.  It is this that excites me – the creative material is shared with anyone and everyone around the world, and supported by those who wish to be part of the community or tribe.  Others are free to access the product, but not the sense of connection that has grown around it.

Both the creative product and the community are valuable in their own right, but by allowing the community to support the work, everyone can benefit from the creative product without restriction (except obviously internet access, which by no means is a given yet).  This free sharing of creative output is something I am very interested in, and having even just one example of it to learn from gives me hope that we may find more open ways of interacting in the future.

If you’re interested, here’s a list of my current webcomic reads (warning – possible NSFW content for some of these):

• The 10 Doctors (finished)
• XKCD
• Questionable Content
• Looking for Group
• Least I Could Do
• Calamities of Nature
• JEFBOT
• Tasty Flesh
• Geek Loves Nerd
• AppleGeeks
• Able and Baker
• The Joy of Tech
• Penny Arcade
• Sinfest
• Girls with Slingshots
• Ctrl+Alt+Del
• Two Lumps

And thanks to the way webcomics link to each other, this list is sure to grow.

There’s this pile of yuck hanging around that I’ve been ignoring, or side-lining or whatever, and rather than try and sit with it and talk to it or anything like that I’m just going to mention it here.  It’s a first step, it gets some (indirect) attention and I get some accountability around it.

I’m not earning any money

I’m living off savings at the moment, and I’m lucky to be able to do that so I try and tell myself that I should feel lucky and grateful and happy about it.  (Did you spot the should?)  Of course, we all know that means that I don’t feel lucky or grateful or happy about it.

Well, ok, I’m definitely grateful, and luck has played a part if I’m honest, but I also feel icky about it.  Like I’m wasting money that I’ve saved, that I don’t deserve this and that I’m being a total leech on society at the moment since I’m not out there doing my ‘great thing’, whatever it is.

Now I’ve talked about the guy in the jungle – forging on if he can’t see how his path is helping.  I can apply that to myself, and remind myself that I’m following my heart AND intuition here, they both say I’m doing the right thing.

So why doesn’t that solve the problem?  I still have a little voice casting doubt, I still remember times that I’ve fooled myself before.  What if I’m wasting time & money and being a total waster?!  Aargh!

So ok, there’s some issue about being a waster there.

Again, I can come back to the Byron Katie stuff and remind myself that I doing what I need to be doing right now.

I’m not earning any money

Hang on, everything else I just wrote was about spending savings (which is my frugal me kicking off) or doing stuff (which is my fear of boredom kicking off) or not being a waster (which is my fear of rejection kicking off) but actually, the bold letters are what’s really going on here.

I’m not earning any money.

This is a money issue.  I’ve had a steady income since I started getting pocket money and when I stopped being a student and getting a monthly allowance from my Mum (thanks, Mum) I had a job to cover that instead.  Suddenly I’m trying to base my income on my value and there’s a whole pile of new stuff coming up to meet it.  Inadequacy and lack of social value along with a bit of self-disgust for being focussed on money.

And there was me pretending I didn’t have money issues.  Except I knew that wasn’t true which was why I’d been avoiding it.

The good

I noticed it, I didn’t bury it but circled it in a safe way.  It didn’t take someone else, an outside force or explosion to make me notice it.  Hurrah for progress!

What next?  Maybe give it some space to cool down again and then a conversation or some shiva nata or … well, I know lots of ways of dealing with stuff now.  I guess it’s just a case of lining them up and meeting them one at a time.  Me thinks I need a place to keep them all, a pattern waiting room as it were.  Hmmmm.