The death of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax earlier this week wasn’t just a loss for gamers and fantasy fans, but for creative types and undependents all over the world. Some of the web’s best and brightest undependents have been remembering the role-playing game titan as only they can.
According to some highly-regarded scholars of the intersection of music and popular culture (by which I mean, whoever wrote the first entry that came up after my hasty Google search), David Lee Roth once said that the reason most music critics love Elvis Costello is because most music critics look like Elvis Costello. (For those who have never really gotten over the nerd vs. jock tensions in high school — Hi! I’m Mike! — it should be pointed out that Costello later got nominated for an Oscar and commissioned by the Danish Royal Opera, while Roth is now doing this.)
The point is — or should be — the relative acceptability of nerdiness is a somewhat recent phenomenon, and the Internet is helping the bespectacled and pallid among us finally convince the world that knowledge is actually pretty cool. There’s a whole slew of webcomics out there celebrating, and not apologizing for, their creators’ love of periodic tables, quadratic equations, obscure art history, and all other kinds of fancy-pants book-learnin’. Here’s two of them:
Micropersuasion.com’s Steve Rubel recently described the revolution underway as (i.) content production and distribution explodes and (ii.) creators bypass intermediaries to go direct. Providing an apt metaphor, he called for Digital Curators to help audiences discover, experience, and understand the best “finds” within this ever-increasing flow of content.
Nice call, Steve. Thank you.
We help audiences (all of us) find, follow, and enjoy the best work from the emerging class of self-sustaining Internet-based artists, aka the Undependents or Undies, who are telling amazing stories within podcasts, video, webcomics, machinima, animation, etc.
As curators, we feature these programs:
The Undependent Universe’s Collection continues to grow. It currently includes the following, in no particular order (visit the site for links):
Thanks again, Steve, for your great post and ongoing work. And thanks, too, to all the Undies and especially all the fans who support them. Without you, this revolution doesn’t happen.
First, if you are not yet a loyal reader of Fleen, please grab the RSS feed and get on board.
Second, check this great interview with webcomicker Aaron Diaz:
Fleen: Your Favorite Faux-Muckrakers Since 2005 » Being A Discussion On Life’s Changing Priorities
Fleen: Does leaving the rent job shift any of your plans forward?
Diaz: If sales remain stable I’ll continue to make a little more than I do at my regular day job, so I still plan to move out to Portland next year. Even if it fluctuates a little bit I still have some side commission jobs that should help supplement my finances.
Fleen: Now that you rely on your readers for things like rent and food, is there a particular level of nutrition that you’re hoping to maintain? Are your tastes modest, or will you be looking to purchase the premium cat chow?
Diaz: It helps to be used to a very low standard of living. I don’t usually eat any meat or expensive things; a few canned vegetables can keep me going for weeks. In general, as long I have an internet connection and running water, I’ll manage.
You gotta admire Aaron’s spirit and commitment. He’s literally banking on the appreciation of fans. After all, creators are not so undependent that they do not need the support of fans. They do, in fact, rely upon it.
Undependent™ tracks the emerging class of self-sustaining Internet-based artists. By artist we don’t mean artiste. We mean those content creators whose self-expression originates in and emanates from the Internet itself. The compelling ones attract audiences and in so doing are capable of creating completely self-sustaining businesses with total artistic control. (Read more here)
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