Symbolic Analyst

Original photo from Wired Magazine

I don't know when this happened, but it seems that Penny Arcade is producing a webTV show. So far only the two part "pilot" episode has been made. It mostly sets up the premise of the show and goes over the things like how they understand their success, PAX and the birth of Jerry Holkins' daughter. If it wasn't for the fact that these guys are so humble and professional about their work, I'd be quite jealous of their success. But honestly, they're just fantastic people who happen to be living the nerd dream. I've thoroughly enjoyed the PennyArcade PodCast and really look forward to seeing more the show.

What I think was a really great message to me was that when they said on the show that they fully admit how lucky they are. There are a lot of guys that move in together, not attend college and try to start a business together and fail miserably. There are many who want to make it out there as a webcomic artist, and don't nearly have the fame as these two guys. What they have been able to do can not be replicated.

I've been really filling out my literature of great sociological writings and my gallery of references have increased immeasurably. One of which would be Robert Reich's "The Work of Nations" and his understanding of new globalized labor. In his work he describes one of the key professions of our age as the "Symbolic Analyst". Succinctly, Reich understands the profession to include a new exchange of information on a global scale.

...symbolic analytic services can be traded worldwide and thus must compete with foreign providers even in the American market. But they do not enter world commerce as standardized things. Traded instead are the manipulations of symbols - data, words, oral and visual representations. (1993:177)

I wouldn't assume the intention of the folks at Penny Arcade, but in a very organic way, these guys are doing just that. They have mananged to find a work around the tradition system of exchange of education for work, and work for resources, and have made a business out of grasping the nerd world around them and delivering it to a stable audience. They have created a nerd language and capture the experience in a way that is entertaining and meaningful. What is truly remarkable is that they have overcome many of the former blocks to such success.

I think the major component which has allowed this to happen would be the recent cheapness of wide reaching media. We are now in a time when one could reach a very wide audience over the Internet with a personal website with very little in terms of start up financing. I think this is the key component to understanding globalized work. Not to dispute Reich's work, but I think the profession of "symbolic analyst" has always existed; what is different now is that it is much easier for people of modest income to become one where before, one had to be very well placed and very wealthy.

Before, an aspiring comic artist to get out of distributing their comic outside of photocopies sold at the record store would have to appease the publishers at a comic book company or a newspaper. Many times this would require a vetting process and over time only artist who went to expensive art schools or were able to finance themselves would be able to get into the business. Even then, there were influenced by the whim of the publishers, a biased concept of acceptable material, and coerced product placement. Even famous and talented comic writers like Alan Moore, had his fair share of problems with publishers.

With Internet comics, there is less of these constraints and, an audience is generated commonly on the quality of their work. That being said, there are a lot of comics out there, and I would say a great majority of which are very poorly done. Below is a small list of comics that I have thoroughly enjoyed and is produced very well.

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell: A British comic artist who has a very unique fantasy setting and some excellent character development. The art is very well done with a mix of beautifully detailed work and simple caricatures which don't end up too much like "Teen Titans" in the style.

XKCD by Randall Munroe: An American comic artist who mostly works in stick figures but manages to do them with a certain style and gets by with very witty jokes based on science and nerd relationships. Occasionally he has some objectionable opinions on women, but often they capture perfectly the issues of human interaction in our world today.

Shortpacked by David Willis: Shortpacked is a spin off comic which is part of an entire "Walkyverse" I have not had the time or ability to read the other comics David made, but I am told they were quite impressive. I think what I like most about this comic is the honest representation of working retail.

Hark, a vagrant by Kate Beaton: I'm afraid that I have have fallen in love with a women I have never met. Kate Beaton a Canadian comic artist writes a fantastically funny comic on history and literature. Her references to Canadian history are often great and force me to do a bit of research on the great white north. I think her subtle touches on facial expressions works well with the perfectly set up dialog. Byron's face at the end of this comic makes me laugh everything I look at it.

There are others of course, especially ones that I haven't had the time or inclination to read for whatever reason, but as a whole there is something unique about this business of web based comics.