T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Monday, January 16, 2006
We Hate Phones.
A couple of my cartoonist friends have probably wanted to strangle me at some point because of my desire for phone conversations. I communicate via e-mail far more than by phone, but when the talk is really important, I want the immediacy of a voice-to-voice interface. I want to be able to hear pauses, respond to concerns, interact thought-by-thought instead of three-paragraph-e-mail-by-three-paragraph-e-mail.
Mind, I'm not anxious to start talking on the phone 14 hours a day, running up a huge long-distance tab or Skyping my ears off. But when something is important, there's just something about voice-to-voice that seems to command GETTING THINGS DONE.
I seem to be almost alone in this desire within the cartooning community. Joey Manley, Ryan North and Xaviar Xerexes are only some of the people whom I've talked with by e-mail when I would have greatly preferred a phone chat. (Joey and Ryan have accommodated me to some degree, Ryan with particularly saintly patience, but they're often difficult to reach, and Xaviar-- sorry, dude-- is just impossible.)
I guess the usual theories explain it. The reclusiveness of cartoonists. Dude, phone so last century. And when you're communicating, you have to compromise. Still. I wish more people saw this my way. Which is pretty much how I feel about everything else.
Mind, I'm not anxious to start talking on the phone 14 hours a day, running up a huge long-distance tab or Skyping my ears off. But when something is important, there's just something about voice-to-voice that seems to command GETTING THINGS DONE.
I seem to be almost alone in this desire within the cartooning community. Joey Manley, Ryan North and Xaviar Xerexes are only some of the people whom I've talked with by e-mail when I would have greatly preferred a phone chat. (Joey and Ryan have accommodated me to some degree, Ryan with particularly saintly patience, but they're often difficult to reach, and Xaviar-- sorry, dude-- is just impossible.)
I guess the usual theories explain it. The reclusiveness of cartoonists. Dude, phone so last century. And when you're communicating, you have to compromise. Still. I wish more people saw this my way. Which is pretty much how I feel about everything else.
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I guess the usual theories explain it. The reclusiveness of cartoonists. Dude, phone so last century. And when you're communicating, you have to compromise.
Or your collaborator may be eight time-zones away, and not back from his day-job until your small-hours.
Or your collaborator may be eight time-zones away, and not back from his day-job until your small-hours.
I've done interviews via email, collaborated with artists, handled all my correspondence with editors, publishers and distributors. And yet the peace of mind afforded by instantaneous contact and all the subtle advantages in understanding that a phone call has to offer undoubtedly makes it the more effective (and/or exepedient) communication for getting things done.
That said, when now I bite the bullet and suggest to a collaborator that I give them a call or vice versa, I inevitably get an emailed response instead.
That said, when now I bite the bullet and suggest to a collaborator that I give them a call or vice versa, I inevitably get an emailed response instead.
Telephone conversations cannot be time-shifted. This is why they are not my favorite means of business communication. They are preferred only in the following circumstances:
1. If you are thinking of entering into a business deal with somebody, and you want to really feel you know them as a person (even here, actual physical meeting is preferred over telephone conversations, when possible).
2. If what you are communicating is of such a confidential nature that you want no possibility of your words being leaked in a verbatim way (e.g. email forwarding). No matter how much you trust the other party, email forwarding accidents do happen.
Other than those instances, yeah, I much prefer email, for the time-shifting aspect.
Joey
www.moderntales.com
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1. If you are thinking of entering into a business deal with somebody, and you want to really feel you know them as a person (even here, actual physical meeting is preferred over telephone conversations, when possible).
2. If what you are communicating is of such a confidential nature that you want no possibility of your words being leaked in a verbatim way (e.g. email forwarding). No matter how much you trust the other party, email forwarding accidents do happen.
Other than those instances, yeah, I much prefer email, for the time-shifting aspect.
Joey
www.moderntales.com
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