What It Takes To Create
I met Dorothy Gambrell briefly at last weekend’s MoCCA Art Fest, and one thing that I meant to do but neglected to, was to compliment her on her talent in bringing data to the fore. Whether its musical analytics, demographic and sociological breakdowns, or philosophical digressions, she presents it clearly and intuitively enough to give Edward Tufte cardiac palpitations of excitement.
Now she’s turned that analytic eye inwards. One of the recurring themes in webcomics has been But what about the money? Without hard data, the analyses done by every navel gazer in the community (not excluding a certain hack pseduo-journalist have fallen woefully short of statistical rigor. We just don’t have enough, or accurate enough, data from creators to draw any conclusions about things like traffic, audience size, and earnings potential. And honestly, when sharing even a bit of (what can rightly be seen as proprietary) financial information brings down the scoffing attacks, why would any creator bother to share such information?
Because it makes a really kick-ass graph, maybe? Gambrell’s put herself out in the open, for the sake of honesty and art. The fact that it’s (wholly unsurprisingly) visually appealing is merely icing on the cake. Thanks for letting us see some of what it takes to create, Ms Gambrell.
Speaking of seeing what lies beneath, you might want to check out the latest Blamimation from Messers Kurtz & Straub. The linking structure for this one was brainstormed on stage at PAX East, and a mere nineteen days later — BAM. On the web, ready for your consumption and subsequent laugh-chuckles.
I’ve long held that just handing a microphone to Scott Kurtz and giving him a stage to speak from is pretty much a guarantee of a laughter until it hurts, and much like Voltron, he only gets stronger when he combines with Straub. Hopefully, when the DVD of PAX East 2010 comes out, a good portion of this panel will be on it, because comparing between the process and the final product is entirely fascinating.
I was incredibly impressed by this yesterday. What bravery!
By Box Brown on 04.16.10 3:51 pm
[…] Gambrell has presented another in her occasional series of financial disclosures in graphical form. One may try to divine truths there, but fact is the sample size (one) means that any conclusions […]
By Fleen: Home Of The Webcomics Action News Team! » Local Fauna, Beware on 12.13.10 2:37 pm
[…] world regarding his income as a full-time cartoonist since 2007. Much like Dorothy Gambrell’s occasional infoshares, it’s a valuable tool for injecting reality into the discussion of what it means […]
By Fleen: Home Of The Webcomics Action News Team! » Time To Go Wait At The Airport on 01.13.12 3:37 pm
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