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James Sturm To Quit Internet – How Many Of You Will Follow?

Published Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:12:38 -0500

Last updated Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:13:38 -0500

Well here's at least one man who won't be reading comics on the Apple iPad.

James Sturm, creator of a number of my favourite comics including The Golem's Mighty Swing and Unstable Molecules with Market Day on its way, has announced to the world, via the internet, that he is quitting it. The internet that is, not the world (although I can't quite tell the difference.) He writes for Slate;

Over the last several years, the Internet has evolved from being a distraction to something that feels more sinister. Even when I am away from the computer I am aware that I AM AWAY FROM MY COMPUTER and am scheming about how to GET BACK ON THE COMPUTER. I've tried various strategies to limit my time online: leaving my laptop at my studio when I go home, leaving it at home when I go to my studio, a Saturday moratorium on usage. But nothing has worked for long. More and more hours of my life evaporate in front of YouTube. Supposedly addiction isn't a moral failing, but it feels as if it is.

Yeah yeah yeah, James Sturm, you may be an accomplished ghraphic novelist who wrote the single greatest comic book that Marvel have ever published, and expanded both the reach of the medium artistically and in terms of audience, but you come onto the internelike some moaning minnie telling us you just can't hack it? While subtly implying that none of us can hack it either? I'll oy Oy! Sturm! No! I enjoy your whimsical take on reality, a kind of Dan Clowes/Chester Brown cross without any of the nasty bits, but you do not suggest that there is something wrong with the medium that is both saving and dooming comic books as we know them. I'm not listening, la la la la la…

Oh go on then what else?

Two years ago, I was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, a retreat for artists, writers, composers, and other creative types. Although the main lodge was wired, the studios were not, and for three weeks I worked on Market Day, a graphic novel, without any intrusions. (Lunch was dropped off by my door in a basket.) I realize that I can't replicate that ideal setting for sustained focus in my daily life, but I can certainly improve my current situation.

The graphic novel that's only just coming out now? Doesn't sound like it improved your time keeping by much Mr James Sturm, you arrogant prick (Check – has he gone offline yet? He has? Oh good, then he won;t have read that.)

There's some whining about having three retinal operations, only having one good eye without contact lenses, but for heavens's sake who says eighteen hours a day online will affect your eyesight, eh? Eh?

And it also appears he's only actually taking four months off. Which is nothing.

So here I am, two days away from exile and apprehensive as hell. I am probably making a big mistake. On Friday, I will have someone change all internet passwords on my computer to prevent online access. I'll still have my cell phone, but won't use it to receive e-mail or even send texts. I know there's no going back to the pre-Internet days, but I just want to move forward a little more slowly.

Hang on, two days? Um, of course when I said "arrogant prick", I meant that in, um, a self-reflective way.

If you want to contact James, you can. By snail mail.

The Center for Cartoon Studies
Attention: James Sturm
P.O. Box 125
White River Junction, VT 05001

Of course some people may think I'm biased in their judgement, that I'm relying on the internet for my very job these days, as well as an online audience which justifies my existence here. To those people I say, damn right.