Boosterism: Wizzywig Volume 1: Phreak
After Pat Lewis made mention of Ed Piskor's biography of a fictional hacker, I hopped over to his site and after reading the very extended preview of Wizzywig Volume 1: Phreak, I kinda fell for it hard. Piskor's taken all the juicy bits from a couple of different hackers' stories and blended them into a lively and dare I say informative frisson. His composite character of Kevin Phenicle displays many of the alternately charming and annoying aspects these young men had in the golden age of hacking, from the willingness to dive into a telephone company's dumpster illegally just to grab some "interesting" information to screwing up their personal relationships because of their unwillingness to step out of their comfort zone.
Making a character like Phenicle work on the page is something it takes a fairly subtle touch and Piskor's writing and art both ensure this happens. There are long-ish interludes that show Kevin's various hackerly obsessions and the reader gets a sense of the real joy behind them instead of feeling like they're stuck in a lecture. There's a bit of Clifford Stoll or Neal Stephenson in the narration, and there's not a damned thing wrong with that.
This is a damned fine graphic novel, and with three more volumes promised, I'm eager to watch Phenicle grow and make the mistakes that will make him a hero to a few, and a pariah to the rest.
