= Interwebs Junkie: March 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

Wide, Weird, Wonderful World of Webcomics

Webcomics. Maybe you've never heard of them, maybe you have a list of a dozen or so you check every day (like me). Sites like topwebcomics catalog hundreds of them, and sites like the oddly named drunkduck host thousands of newer ones.

Essentially, a webcomic is the next stage of evolution of the classic newspaper print comics, like Peanuts,Calvin and Hobbes, or Bloom County. Classical comic artists like Berkeley Breathed or Bill Watterson often railed against the restrictions of the panel format, and now, with the interwebs, all such restrictions are lifted.

For those of you completely out of the loop, a comic strip is a form of art where a series of pictures, accompanied by words (usually) tells a story. Often humorous, like Jim Davis' Garfield (okay, bad example, that hasn't been funny for years... uh... Gary Larson's The Far Side) they can often be more dramatic.

A problem with traditional comics is they get too comfortable. Strips like Hi and Lois, Beetle Bailey or Hager the Horrible have been around for decades. Their humor is built on safeness, family friendliness and consistency.

With webcomics, the veil of readership approval has been removed. No longer are artists censored by publications weary of offending the very young and very old. Literally thousands of webcomics have been produced in the last two decades, with some older webcomics already boasting archives of over 2,000 strips.

One strip, active since late 2002 is Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, written by Zach Weiner. Mr. Weiner is a professional artist, and actually makes a living off of the webcomic he produces, from products and advertising.

In an e-mail correspondence, he writes (on being a webcomic artist), "It pays the rent. Seriously, everything else about it is nice, but nothing's nicer than making a living as an artist."

Zach's style is off the wall, producing non-linear comics that each produce a joke, usually in a single panel. His subjects vary, but he frequently touches on religion:

(All SMBC comics property of Zach Weiner)




And occasionally, SMBC dabbles in darker humor:




Seeing as how most webcomic readers are usually a little bit nerdy, Zach isn't afraid to go after his own audience either:




SMBC is a well-established, successful webcomic. A community of fans has arisen around the site, consisting of around 650 members, with almost 80,000 posts. Despite the community that exits solely because of his artistic creation, Zach has managed to remain fairly humble:

"Thanks to The Magic of the Internet, despite apparently having many readers, I rarely have contact directly with anyone. So, other than that my bank account is a little larger, and I eat out a little more, my life hasn't been changed by the modicum of "fame" I've received in the last
few years," he writes.

Any community needs managing, and a webcomic forum is no exception. Unfortunately, with the busy lifestyle of a self-managed, self-publishing artist, there is often only a little amount of time to work with, so helpers are often needed.

"I used to spend more time on it, but the burgeoning business has forced me to focus on writing and organizational stuff," Zach writes about his forums. "Fortunately, I have some very good mods."

Another webcomic is the up and coming Hitmen for Destiny, written by the talented Oyvind Thorsby. His specialties are strange monsters and convoluted, impossibly complex situations that slowly but surely grow hilariously out of control for the poor, confused characters wrapped up in them.

Perhaps his finest arc yet, Passion Lies and Fungus starts relatively simple, a basic case of mistaken identity and a disguised monster steadily growing into an impossible to decipher rapidly deteriorating situation.

His other specialty is describing monsters, always specified from an evolutionary standpoint, whose odd attributes are almost always relevant to the plot later, such as the Razor Spinners and Safety Hair Rabbits.

For Mr. Thorsby, the webcomic isn't a job, it's for fun. "It's a hobby," he writes. He enjoys it "When I get a good idea for the plot. Also, I like drawing new monsters."

His comic is fairly young by webcomic standards and doesn't yet have a forum or a large following. He has already been linked to by larger webcomics by artists appreciative of his storytelling talent.

A webcomic isn't easy to produce. Weiner's strips take 1-6 hours, while Thorsby usually spends around 3-5 hours per comic he produces. Keeping in mind that Zach updates usually around 4-5 times a week and Oyvind produces very long comics 2-3 times a week, you can begin to understand the effort that goes into the production process.

"If it's just 2 characters that sit and talk, I draw almost nothing new, but if it's an action sequence I tend to draw new stuff for every panel. Maybe 15 hours for the longest ones," Thorsby writes about his creative process.

For some, the work pays off. Large t-shirt companies like topatoco sell merchandise for beginning webcomics, and money from that and advertising allow some to live off of their art.

In a way, this is the newest form of art. Rather than separation of artist and publisher, the artist is now in charge of the advertising, hosting and business aspects of his work.

Yet another permutation of society brought upon by the advent of the interwebs, webcomics have an enormous potential to build communities around them. These can act as centers of society for the growing interwebs proto-nation.

For every possible taste or interest, there is a webcomic about it. The sites at the top are great places to start, and google can help too. Finding a webcomic that suits your interests is easy, and they can be quickly checked with e-mail and facebook on a daily basis. I would encourage anyone to check up on this interesting new art form.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Turning Off the Interwebs

Turning it all off is surprisingly easy. Just go to http://www.turnofftheinternet.com/ (make sure you have pop-ups enabled.)

But in all seriousness, there is a senate bill out there threatening to place a kill switch on the interwebs. Though I am loath to link to the sensationalist Fox News, they have a story on this phenomena here. (Also, check out that pic of Obama... man, they did not catch his good side).

Now, we can argue until out browsers run out of ink about whether this is a good or bad idea, but my question is simply, how would one do this?

First, let's examine the irony of the situation. For those of you out of the know, the interwebs was initially founded by ARPANET. Great wiki explanation of it here.

Long story short: these guys made the interwebs so that once the nukes fell, they'd still have a way to commnuicate. Apparently when nukes go off, it messes with radio waves, making any sort of transmitter useless.

Yes, back in the day, they had plans for surviving once they nuked themselves to oblivion. Our grandparents were nuts.

So, basically you have the most indestructable form of communication ever made by man. The interwebs has grown way beyond the capacity of what anyone at ARPANET could've dreamed of. Just check out this "map" of the interwebs, provided by andreae.com:

Each intersection of that light grid is a service provider. Each line is a connection. Each tiny little pixel represents a hundred computers or so. How could you destroy such a massive structure?

Imagine a spider on its web. To get from one side to another to feast on a juicy fly. It walks right through the center to the other side and gets its fly.

Now imagine the same web, only a bat has flown through the web, destroying the center. Now the spider must traverse to the other side, but by alternet routes along the edge. Is it slower? Sure. Is it destroyed? Not even a little bit.

That's what would happen with nuclear war, or a kill switch. The interwebs would be slowed certainly, but not nearly taken down. To me, the entire idea seems not just a little silly.

Basically, we've made an Aasimov-style super computer of such great complexity no man (or woman) can even understand a fraction of it. We can only manage it effectively as an entire species.

If it ever becomes sentient, we're going to have one heck of a time putting it down. I'd make that into a Science Fiction movie, but it's probably already been done about 400,000 times.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Interwebs Addiction

So, I've been reading that some people are actually addicted to the interwebs. In a bad way. This makes me feel kind of guilty about the whole flippant attitude to being an interwebs junkie.

The all-knowing wiki has more on the subject.

I, of course, immediately wondered if I was at risk. After all, I am the interwebs junkie, and counting cell phone use I spend probably around 6-12 hours on the interwebs per day.. So I took this test.

Fortunately, I only got a 38, meaning regular interwebs user. Probably because I lied to myself and the questions. But moving on, a few simple tips can help you to avoid becoming too interwebs addicted.

Try to take breaks from time to time. This should be obvious, but can be hard to realize when you're really addicted. Try to develop some hobbies that don't involve computers, like sports, board games or real people friends.

Ah... who am I kidding... the interwebs is everything now. Any hobby we can develop has an online presence which will draw us in for entirely innocent reasons. Communication with real life friends mainly takes place via interwebs (facebook, messaging) or phone, and phones have interwebs access now.

Addiction is going to become more and more commonplace as time goes on. I suppose I'm not one to offer good advice about this, seeing as how I am the self-title interwebs junkie.

So much of this advice seems rather arbitrary anyways. Most of this advice boils down to "go outside and hang out with extroverted people." For an introvert like me, this doesn't sound particularly fun.

Now, yes, if the interwebs is harming your health, education, job or relationships, you should lower your use of it (note: this applies to everything). But other than that, it's just another hobby, and no worse for you than a love for music or a particular sport (although, a sport would give you a better workout...)

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Dark Side of the Interwebs

The interwebs isn't all fun and games. There is some truly unpleasant stuff out there, and every good interwebs diver knows sometimes you have to put on the blinders and have a vat of brain bleach handy.

So, join with me, fellow interwebs divers, as we go through some choppy waters into some unpleasant places. I present to you: the interwebs diver's guide to the dark side of the interwebs.

Dark Side #1: Soapboxes for Nutjobs

There have always been crazies in the world. From the flagellants of olden times to the witch hunts of Salem, nutjobs have hounded us from day one. Usually, they can be safely ignored, ostracized and locked in the asylums that are probably best for them and us.

Unfortunately, the interwebs is an excellent place for crazies to get out their message of madness out to the world. David Icke is one. He starts small in this video, talking about small things leading up to the grand finale: Jewish people are actually shape changing lizards who live among us.

Without the interwebs, he's just another homeless man raving on the street. With the interwebs, he's a celebrity. Another one is timecube. I warn you not to go to that place, as therein only madness and sorrow live.

Something about how negative one times negative one is negative one. Then they go on to ascribe sides of the earth to races. What is it with crazies and race? It seems like nutters are attracted to bizarre racial theories like nerds to the interwebs.

Of course, there are a few more widely accepted ones, too. Zeitgeist is a big youtube video some worship like the religion it tries to disprove. And everyone knows of Loose Change, the youtube video that claims 9/11 was an inside job.

Dark Side #2: Providing support groups for horribleness.

Everyone is different, right? And these differences should be celebrated and encouraged, right? Wrong. There are some weird, messed up people in the world who should be ashamed of who they are.

In the past, they've lurked in basements (their parents') and back alleys, rightfully ashamed of who they are. Now, thanks to the interwebs, they can meet others like them and form supporting groups, encouraging them to be all freaky and awful.

I sound really mean right now, but I'm sure you'll agree when you realize I'm talking about groups like NAMBLA. Seriously, go check that out, then curse at me for getting that on your browser history. You're probably on a watch list... sorry.

These are people that could never meet in person. How would they start talking about that subject? But thanks to the anonymity, here they are, in all their freakish raiment. This category also includes pro-anorexia blogs and websites for white supremacy groups (though, sadly, they existed way before the interwebs).

Dark Side #3: Avenues for Illegal and Unethical Actions

Okay, sure, you can e-mail your drug dealer, but that's not what I'm talking about. Go on down to Craig's list and look under the job section. There is usually an adult area, in which all sorts of actions which aren't technically prostitution can be found.

How do I know about this? I'm not on trial here!

Also, as the Renaissance Woman found, marriage is far from a sacred institution on the interwebs. Just check out Ashley Madison. Sure, I've seen worse, but man, that is one heck of a website.

Imagine if you found that on your husband/wife's history. Even if they were curious or incredulous, how much would that hurt the old trust factor? I can't help but wonder how long it will be until divorce courts start demanding to see membership lists from them.

Dark Side #4: Creepy social networking sites, and other forms of data mining.

I've already covered this pretty well here. But this also applies to google, (I don't think a link is necessary, do you?) and their creepy e-mail reading algorithms.

Dark Side #5: All the gross stuff.

I'll do us both a favor and leave this description blank.

The dark side of the interwebs... a horrifying look at humanity's ugly side brought into the light. Beware, my fellow divers, and avoid looking directly at it. If you have any other knowledge of dark sides of the interwebs, please please please please don't tell me.