WIZZYWIG

[scott_H_pdx]

This web comics by Ed Piskor (which apparently began life as a conventional print comic) is a wonderful slice of life/history of hacking story that I just discovered and am quite enjoying.

http://www.wizzywigcomics.com/

dig it.

[Jon O]

I met Ed at Heroes Con this year, he's a really smart guy.  My brother and Dad love the Wizzywig books.

[barrow]

Read through the Wizzywig HC this weekend and have to say that I adored it.

I had no idea that it was previously published as a web-comic, I missed this thread.  I pre-ordered the book entirely on the write-up in Previews.  A book about the golden age of phreaking got my attention, and I figured I'd be in good hands if I trusted Top Shelf and ordered.

The book itself is physically bigger/thicker than I imagined it would be.  It's a great package, the cover has that indented feel to some of the graphics and glossy in places.   $20 retail which is great value but feels like a complete steal for what Amazon/etc is charging.

I think I might love reading collected web comics.  Since each little section in this book is only a few pages it's easy to fit into your day picking it up and putting it down.  Of course it's also easy to keep telling yourself you'll read one more section, 50 pages later you're still telling yourself one more.

I'm tailor made to be into this story.  I'm not old enough to have been on the ground floor of the scene like the character in this book was, but I certainly spent time playing around with the various color phreaking box techniques, read 2600 magazine, etc.  I eat this type of stuff up, I can't get enough of reading about the exploits of hackers/phreakers, it was such a treat to consume it in comic book form.  I like that Piskor decided to create his own character by pulling from various places.

Before I read the book I found out that Piskor wasn't into this stuff himself.  That sort of blows my mind, that he found the subject matter interesting, and then absolutely poured himself into researching the history for over a year.  I would have just assumed this was a labor of love about a subject close to him, not the case, he says himself that he's not a tech guy.

Piskor has won me over.  A hip-hop head who put out a good story on phreaking?  I'll be reading whatever he does next.