On Lost Media and Dayjobs

I've been thinking about what to take up as a day-job to sustain my comics career, and I think I may have an answer: Archiving! Now, the dirty secret is that publishing does not pay well. Most people have day-jobs that help them make rent so they can make time for the job they actually want. I've known authors make big comics while making sandwiches at subway. I've seen one-man indie publishers be forced to go back to their banking day job. I myself signed a publishing deal with one of the 5 biggest publishers in the US while on unemployment benefits. It is what it is, at least for now. Efforts are being made to create organized movements for authors, such as the Cartoonist Co-op, but such efforts take time, and rent is due every month. So while we organize, we survive.

As I started to understand that this wasn't sustainable, I began attending college to hopefully find a major I could enjoy and thrive in once I entered University (College and University are separate forms of secondary education in Iceland.) Now, I am years away from actually going to university and choosing said major, but I did start to find some criteria for what a degree like this would need:- Since I'm getting a degree specifically for work, the job would need engaging. I wouldn't survive a dry desk job managing company assets. This isn't to discourage people who enjoy that type of work, it's just not for me.- It'd need to be transferable across borders (I.e. what I learn needs to be applicable in any location I move to)- The job would need to friendly to part-timers. I tend to do poorly in a 9-5 environment, so something that can be done remotely or part-time would be ideal.

Enter: Archiving.

I have always had a huge fascination with lost media, or media that has been lost, cancelled, or even destroyed. The idea that recent works that exist in my living memory could be lost to link rot or VHS degradation was such a wild concept to me. As an example, the Icelandic dub of the first season of Pokemon (the only part of the show that was dubbed) is now mostly lost media, beyond scant tape recordings. The shocking part is that it isn't alone. Most Icelandic dubs are considered lost media.This is entirely preventable, and mostly due to a mix of bad license agreements, lack of foresight, and neglect. And for a nation as small as Iceland, it really doesn't take a lot of people to save the majority of this stuff.

So, I have started to collect tapes, and am planning on getting a VHS player with a basic digitizing setup in my office.  I might end up trying it and not finding it to be my taste, I might find it too hard, or I might end up adoring it. Who's to say right now. But I genuinely think it's important enough to pursue, and I would even urge you, dear reader, to consider if there's tapes in your basement that could help out. I would also recommend The Lost Media Wiki if you'd like to know more about examples of lost media. They even have a notice board of recently rescued or discovered lost media.