The space I'll be writing about is a blog that is connected to a webcomic. I've been following Penny Arcade for quite a while now, and have formed a very strong impression of particularly the writer/blogger Jerry Holkins. Penny Arcade posts a new comic strip every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Most of the strips feature the characters Tycho and Gabe who take on the personalities of Holkins and the artist Mike Krahulik respectively. Each strip is accompanied by a blog post by Holkins, often giving some background to the strip but then continuing into other subjects.
Given the "geeky" topics of Penny Arcade (primarily games) the initial impression is that he would be in his early or mid-20s. This is reinforced by the character Tycho who is drawn as somewhere in that age range. A picture of Tycho is at the top of each of Holkins' blog posts (the posts actually are signed Tycho, although it's understood that the posts are not meant to be the character). As a result, despite being aware of a difference between the character and the writer, I picture Holkins as looking like Tycho. Yet while Gabe and Krahulik do have a degree of resemblance, Tycho and Holkins look absolutely nothing alike: Holkins in fact is a little overweight, bald, and now 31 years old with a son. The presentation of the site makes it difficult to form a more accurate impression even after knowing what he really looks like.
Holkins' most defining trait is his over-the-top prose. He admittedly delights in large, unusual words and his posts are filled with bizarre metaphors. One of my favorites was:
" 'niche' may be insufficient to describe the tight, sunless, deep sea crevice such a product might reside in. Not that it matters to me, of course: I am the pale white lobster that makes such cracks his home."
As a result of his writing, Holkins comes across as fairly neurotic and introverted, while still being very warm and agreeable. I find that the CFO perspective is inaccurate in this case. Rather than a lack of cues resulting in a negative, neutral, or un-developed impression, I extrapolate his entertaining writing to create the impression that he himself is very entertaining and clever all the time. Over-attribution is definitely present and Holkins, in the asynchronous medium, has the luxury of carefully sculpting his self-presentation. He might choose to exaggerate some of his own traits so as to blur the line between himself and Tycho. The Hyperpersonal Model seems to fit the best with how my impression formed. I think it would be very interesting to have a conversation with Holkins to see if he creates a different impression during synchronous online communication.
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3 comments:
It’s funny how you consider Holkins neurotic and introverted, since I find him just the opposite. If you’re taking his character in the comics into consideration, one must remember comics are usually caricatures of their creators. That, or maybe Holkins really is used to dining in hell or being forced into a Pokeball (which would be amazing, by the way). It’s ironic, since he not only has the option of self presentation as a blogger, but also as a comic character, and still he chooses to parody himself and the world again and again, while the rest of us mortal beings opt to show our more positive traits.
And while there are exceptions to the rule, most comic writers and artists actually make frequent convention appearances, and if I recall, Holkins is very well known in the online community. I’m curious as to why you think he seems introverted, but seeing how I haven’t read many of his blogs nor am I a big fan of Penny Arcade, I’m at a disadvantage here. Anyhow, good post! :-)
Hey,
I think you picked a very interesting point about webcomic artist, being a webcomic fan myself. I've always wondered what the actual artist looks like for comics were the character kind of portrays them, and for the most part they look similar. But with drawing it is kind of like "sets and lights" because the artist can chooses how to make themselves look and can draw any self they want.
Being that I haven’t read that much penny arcade, or any of his blog post I would probably fall under the CFO theory forming a neutral opinion of his personality. But being that you’ve had more experience I feel you are correct in choosing the hyper personal model, very well done post.
Elliot,
Yay, Penny Arcade! I was actually thinking about taking this route when writing my own post, but I wasn’t sure about how I would go about doing it. I think your post did the “analyze a webcomic artist” idea justice.
What I like best about your analysis is your inclusion of the webcomic character himself. Tycho could definitely be a potential avatar, though not in the typical sense. There are definitely artists out there who throw themselves in their own stories and actually look nothing like their characters (e.g. Fred Gallagher's Piro of Megatokyo), and it was interesting to see your analysis of how the artist possibly portrays himself. Did knowing the difference in physical appearance affect the way you observed Holkins’ personality? Does the fact that Tycho looks significantly younger than his real “counterpart” alter your sense of how neurotic or extraverted Holkins might actually be?
Fun read…a definite good job in my book. :)
-Kristie
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