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Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Cartoonist's Sea Shanty
posted by clake at 3:37 PM
One notable chapter in the story of the internet is the birth of the "web comic" - that is to say, a regularly-updated comic strip that is exclusively (or at least primarily) on the web. My own Randy the Cat is one, and the internet is literally lousy with them. The internet is literally lousy.
I've followed several of these comics for a number of years, most notably Chris Onstad's Achewood and Jeffrey Rowland's Wigu (which has since left the internet to exist as an occasionally-published, "paper" comic "book") and Overcompensating, and I have to say that the idea of making your living from pictures and speech balloons uploaded to a web page has always had a certain romantic aura to me. In fact, for a brief time - during the period of my life when I was a low-paid video editor with seemingly no job prospects in the "real" world - I flirted with the idea of making Randy the Cat a daily affair with its own dot-com and merchandise and really make a go of it. I eventually decided that I much rather prefer the freedom to draw Randy at my own pace and not have my income dependent on him. I also eventually got a better paying job, then later obtained employment at a state institution with nice benefits and all.
While occasionally the glamorous life of a web-cartoonist still enters into my imagination, reading some interviews and articles about my favorites has taught me something interesting. I essentially live the life of a web-cartoonist, only easier. Instead of toiling every day at a job in a poorly-climate-controlled warehouse packing and shipping t-shirts and then going home and drawing comics all night, I work as a secretary at a state hospital. I believe I enjoy this job a lot more than I would enjoy printing address labels and talking on the phone to t-shirt companies. Then I go home and do pretty much whatever I want, be that drawing comics, doing some chores, watching House, riding a bicycle, juggling, shopping, attempting to learn to play the ukulele, or any other such thing my heart desires.
Also, web cartoonist is one of those careers that seems to fall under the heading "famous, but not rich." It's like being M.C. Hammer.
The world needs these people, though, with their pencils and Wacom pads and pirated copies of Photoshop or whatever, trying to keep the world awesome with pictures of cats and dogs cussing. I just feel safer knowing they're out there, and I try to do my part in my own, weekly-updated way.
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