PhD Comics

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PhD Comics is an American comic series about life (or “not” life) at a ( US ) university . The abbreviation PhD stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper" (English for: "Higher and lower stacked") and at the same time alludes to the Ph.D. -Title, which corresponds to the German " Doktor der Wissenschaften" in the Anglo-American education system . The main characters are a few students in the advanced semester (mostly doctoral students ) who are already integrated into research. The series is mainly about the everyday life of doctoral students as helpless playballs of all-powerful, cynical professors . A constant motive, however, is also the lack of motivation of the characters, who fritter away day after day with Internet surfing, e-mailing, university activities and the like and ultimately not only resigned themselves to their ineffective and frustrating academic biotope, but even feel comfortable in it (also if they never admit it).

Jorge Cham

The author Jorge Cham earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University . This is rarely mentioned explicitly in the comics, but characteristic parts of the Stanford campus can often be seen in the background, which implies the famous university in the US state of California as the location of the series.

distribution

The comics appear in print in the university newspapers of Stanford , MIT , Caltech , Carnegie-Mellon and other US universities. However, they have found the most widespread use as a webcomic .

In the meantime five books have been published:

In 2012 there was also a film adaptation: "The PHD Movie" ( ISBN 978-0972169592 ). The script was written by Jorge Cham. The 67 minute long film was produced by Meg Rosenburg under the direction of Vahe Cabuchian. The main characters are Raj Katti (Nameless Guy), Alexandra Lockwood (Cecilia), Evans Boney (Mike Slackenerny), Zachary Abbott (Prof. Smith) and Crystal Dilworth (Tajel). In 2015 the sequel "The PHD Movie: Still in Grad School" was released.

meaning

The comics enjoy cult status among doctoral students around the world. In just three to four pictures, a certain issue is often presented more concisely than would be possible in pages of lengthy treatises. Since the main characters represent completely different basic types, practically every student can identify with one or more of them.

Jorge Cham, who temporarily held a research position at Caltech after completing his studies (2003–2005) , is now working full-time with comics. In addition to his work as a draftsman, he gives lectures on "The Power of Procrastination" at universities and research institutions around the world.

The topics

  • The main topic is procrastination : the constant postponement of the actual tasks of the doctoral students such as writing articles, conducting experiments, data evaluation, programming, preparing lectures or preparing for exams. The English word "procrastination" keeps coming back and is sometimes even glorified as a virtue. The main feature is the characters' constant willingness to start work “right away” or “in five minutes”. Just look again for the email, just one click on the web ...
  • The cynicism of the professors and their indifference to the doctoral students. A good example is "Meeting of the Minds", the comic from May 28, 2005: We see one of the students who presents the work of the previous week with a panicked expression on his face, only a shaky jumble of formulas and graphs in his speech bubble. Professor Smith, sitting across from him, simply says, “Hmm, I see ... interesting.” The PhD student's thought bubbles say, “Now he's got me, he knows very well that I haven't done anything these weeks ... he looks so dissatisfied ... he thinks I'm worthless. ”In the thought bubbles of Prof. Smith, however, it says:“ Mmm, squash with Prof. Jones today, the bastard ... I have to think about getting the laundry from the dry cleaner afterwards ... what's his name again Type?"
  • The long study period . Some of those stories here revolve around Mike Slackenerny, who has come to terms with eternal student status. Cecilia, on the other hand, suffers from how the years go by. She reads the invitation to the class reunion with horror (“I'm not ready yet!”). When she discovered gray hair, she had a nightmare the way she was giving her doctoral lecture as an old woman (question from the audience: “Cecilia, do you realize that your supervisor has been retired for 30 years?” - “Come on not so to me, young man, I corrected your grandfather's math problems! ").
  • References to elements of geek culture (e.g. films like Star Wars or Matrix )
  • Chronic lack of funds among students. The characters feed mainly on ramen noodles, an extremely cheap ready-made meal. Free food is also of particular importance , for which the main characters constantly sneak into seminars or receptions.
  • The low proportion of women in technical subjects and the pathetic advances made by budding engineers and scientists.

The main characters

  • Cecilia , an attractive, ambitious, and intelligent graduate student in engineering who has realized that she is ultimately a geek too . She is addicted to chocolate, spends every waking minute in the laboratory and notices how life just rushes by her.
  • Mike Slackenerny was introduced as the group's oldest student at the beginning of the series. Nobody knows exactly how long he's been here. His day consists only of napping, internet surfing, emailing and hunting for free food . After the comic ran for eight years, the author decided to finally get him a PhD.
  • Tajel is the only one of the main characters who comes from the humanities and social sciences. She can't do anything with other people's geek topics and doesn't suffer from their interpersonal deficits. Hence, she often appears as the sensible one in the comics. On the other hand, she has been “working” on her doctoral thesis for years, but has still not decided on just one topic. Instead, she organizes demonstration after demonstration and gets exposed to political activities.
  • The Nameless Guy , the guy with no name, is actually a completely normal student. He tries to do his job as best he can, but repeatedly succumbs to the bad influence of Mike or his own resignation and therefore has a permanent guilty conscience. The fact that his name is never mentioned shows how absolutely unimportant he is in the cynical university machinery. His frequent appearance and the enormous potential for identification (he doesn't even have a name) make him the unofficial hero of the series. In the 2011 film adaptation of the series, he is asked by Prof. Smith for his name, whereupon he introduces himself as Winston .
  • In the early comics, Prof. Brian S. Smith appeared off-screen at best (only his speech bubble was visible), but after a while he got a face. He has a full beard and a bald head, always wears a tie, a tank top and glasses. Outwardly, he embodies a type often found in the technical faculties of universities. He has no life outside of university and ultimately sees his students only as tools. Prof. Smith is the most common comic professor as he is the Nameless Guy 's Advisor and Mike Slackenerny's boss . The other professors are Prof. Rivera as the supervisor of Tajel and Prof. Jones as the supervisor of Cecilia .

Recurring minor characters are z. B. Dee , the little sister of the Nameless Guy , Jen and Sophy , wife and daughter of Mike Slackenerny, as well as the children of Prof. Smith, who are allowed to scribble with the red pencil on the students' theses during the holidays.

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