Josh Mirman
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Josh Mirman (b. 1984) Author/artist of many webcomics, more recently Stubble and Punks and Nerds. He began his webcomic career in the late 90's with an "autobiographical" comic, Joshbabes. Though hardly accurate to real life, the recurring motif of insanity found within Joshbabes would be the basis of many comics to come.
Recently he declared he'll be shifting his focus from online comics to illustrator and children's book author.
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[edit] Webcomics List
[edit] Joshbabes
(1998-2000) Joshbabes began on September 3rd, 1999. Originally, it was posted on forums and was poorly made. But because it was new for its time, people complimented it, which led Mirman to create a website specifically for the comic. Joshbabes featured friends (which Josh knew both online and offline) and himself. Originally, the cast consisted of Josh, David, Lesia, Eji, and Ian, but later introduced Evil Josh and Timmy.
Joshbabes began as simple life occurrences blown out of proportion, but quickly became a wild ride of identity crisis, and simply put, insanity. The cleverness of the comic wasn't always in the joke, but in the creative way the story was told. Josh drew events that could take place in real life, but in such a ridiculous way, it was funny. Mirman showed the webcomic world that quick wit wasn't all it takes to be good; that being good also involved creating mememorable characters which people could relate to (such as "evil" forms of oneself).
An interesting anecdote derived from Stubble took its roots from Road Waffles. 8 from Road Waffles made a week of comics for Mirman, while Mirman wrote and Lesia drew a week of Road Waffles in return. Afterwards, Mirman used Louie, one of the characters he wrote during his guest week writing for Road Waffles. Louie was then used multiple times in 8's other projects, such as Road Waffles 2 and even in Stubble. It is suggested that Louie is a shared character created by 8, and matured with Mirman's aid.
Joshbabes ended towards the end of 2000, as a result of Mirman's lack of interest and talent in writng about himself. Stubble was created as result. Because of Josh's foundation with Joshbabes, he was able to reintroduce previous characters into his new comics. Josh and Timmy became supporting characters in Stubble, where Ian, David, and Louie were featured every now and then.
[edit] Stubble
(2000-) Stubble hit off on October 23rd, 2000, after Mirman grew tired of writing himself as a main character. Mirman created Clint Wilson, a character he which wanted to put down a roller-coaster of a life. Clint began as an angst filled teenager. Mirman felt that it would be interesting to always have Clint depressed, and just when things were getting better, he would throw a curve ball into the plot, making things worse than before. However, Mirman saw that after a few months of doing so, Clint's character would grow stale. Ever since this realization, Stubble has become a story focused more on overcoming things in life, using surreal and abstract settings/plot devices. One such example was the introduction of Clint's arch-rival, Roland, and then Evil Josh being reused (from Joshbabes) in 2004.
Recently, Mirman has abandoned the panel format and replaced it with a novel approach in order to speed the story along and finish faster. He has stated that no matter what he wants the story to end properly and will finish it regardless of "burning out." Interstingly, despite his statement and his change in format, he has produced a handful of updates, the last one having occurred on November 14th, 2006, and the one before that on August 21st. The most recent plot arc revolves around Clint's interaction with the afterlife.
[edit] Punks and Nerds
(2004- ) Started on September 6th, 2004. Mirman's most recent and most popular comic to date. After years of experience in webcomics and beginning to become burnt out from Stubble, Mirman was influenced to work on the story of Mike and Brad as an outlet to make whatever he wants. As a result, Punks and Nerds was formed with no boundaries and no limits to what Mirman has on his mind.
This comic has become a gag-a-day humor strip, often involving satire and commentary on how Mirman sees things pertaining to pop culture and hobbies he is interested in. Mirman has written in his Punks and Nerds comic that Mike is originally based on his old roommate Jeff Himmelman, and Brad is originally based on himself. However he refuses to say that Mike and Brad are Jeff and himself because they are too different from the characters. He is proud that they have their own voices so he can screw with them as much as he wants.
[edit] Disposable Parts
In late 2004, early 2005, Mirman assembled, invested, published, organized, and participated in the anthology comic book known as Disposable Parts, featuring eighteen people. He split the roster between webcartoonists and peers of his at school, in order to try and mix up the styles found within. Disposable Parts has constantly received positive feedback ever since it was publicly released at Mocca 2005. Mirman has suggested making future anthology books once he graduates college, and no longer has to worry about creating a portfolio.
