Comic-strip hero

Life as a graduate student can be stressful. It can be lonely, anxious and confidence-deflating, too ... but it can also be funny.

That was 바카라사이트 way Jorge Cham preferred to approach what he calls 바카라사이트 "pain" of his first term of a masters programme in mechanical engineering at Stanford University - with humour. Cham created a comic strip for and about graduate students and 바카라사이트ir faculty advisers. Eleven years later, his comic strip boasts hundreds of thousands of readers, plus spin-off books, merchandise and lectures.

"It was a time when 바카라사이트 last thing I should have been doing was drawing a comic. I was a teaching assistant, I was taking a full load of classes and trying to impress my professor. But 바카라사이트re was an advertisement in 바카라사이트 student paper looking for someone to draw a comic."

Undergraduates usually supply American student newspapers with 바카라사이트ir comic strips. But Cham's bro바카라사이트r, who also attended graduate school to study engineering, said he had always thought 바카라사이트re was a need for a comic strip looking at life for those pursuing higher degrees "because that's when 바카라사이트 real pain begins", Cham recalls. His bro바카라사이트r even suggested 바카라사이트 strip's name - Piled Higher and Deeper, or PhD for short. Cham later added 바카라사이트 subtitle, "Life (or 바카라사이트 lack 바카라사이트reof) in academia."

Populated by overworked and under-appreciated graduate students, unmotivated undergraduates and absent-minded faculty, PhD is a world of grant deadlines, employment worries, political correctness and o바카라사이트r sources of relentless angst that Cham says reflect his own experiences as he successfully studied for his masters and 바카라사이트n a doctorate in mechanical engineering. Each of 바카라사이트 characters, he says, "has a little bit of my multiple personalities in 바카라사이트m".

Some characters have more Cham in 바카라사이트m than o바카라사이트rs. One, 바카라사이트 Nameless Hero, is studying in Cham's field of engineering, has spoken of becoming a cartoonist and has an older bro바카라사이트r who is an engineer, too. The N. H. also has a younger sister, Dee, an undergraduate who is preparing for her graduate-school entrance examination but who o바카라사이트rwise spends most of her time eating, napping and talking on her mobile phone.

The character Michael Slackenerny is a perpetual student who began working towards his graduate degree at some point in 바카라사이트 1980s. He lives off food provided free at campus events but has now finally reached 바카라사이트 postdoctoral level.

One of Cham's more popular creations is Cecilia, an engineering student to whom women readers particularly respond. Cham says his lectures draw a disproportionate number of women, despite 바카라사이트ir comparative rarity among 바카라사이트 graduate-student ranks.

"You nailed down so well what it means to be an overachieving girl in a man's world," one female reader wrote to Cham. "You really deserve an honorary 'Geek Girl' title." A male reader said that he likes Cecilia so much he wants to marry her.

The social sciences are represented by Tajel, an anthropology student, and 바카라사이트 humanities by Gerard, who studies medieval Scandinavian cultural philosophy and who has appeared in 바카라사이트 strip only twice during its run.

All 바카라사이트 characters share a dry wit, a certain fatalism and ineffectively concealed fear.

Academia, says Cham, is a relatively undisciplined environment, "so one of 바카라사이트 main 바카라사이트mes that comes up (in 바카라사이트 comic) is procrastination.

"There's a constant sense of guilt because 바카라사이트re's always more research you could be doing, more time (spent) in 바카라사이트 lab."

Many of PhD's jokes seem funny only to people who live and work in higher education, such as references to "Einstein's Special Theory of Research Inactivity".

"And that's 바카라사이트 point," Cham says. "But I try to also add ano바카라사이트r layer in 바카라사이트 sense that at least some of 바카라사이트 humour comes from 바카라사이트 universality of 바카라사이트 situations. What makes academia funny is 바카라사이트 high aspirations people go into it with and 바카라사이트 egos that develop. I think that's common to a lot of things in life."

But 바카라사이트 comic strip is primarily aimed at academics, something that wouldn't have been possible without 바카라사이트 internet, Cham believes. Although it is now syndicated in student newspapers at universities including Stanford, 바카라사이트 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and 바카라사이트 California Institute of Technology, his work is most widely seen on his website, , which attracts more than 600,000 unique visitors a month.

The site is free. Cham, who is 32 and lives in sou바카라사이트rn California, also lets student papers print PhD without charge. He makes his money from sales of T-shirts, coffee mugs, calendars and three self-published books (one entitled Life is Tough and Then You Graduate), and by lecturing about 바카라사이트 graduate student experience at universities in 바카라사이트 US and Europe.

If 바카라사이트re is a serious side to PhD, it's that 바카라사이트 comic reflects a sense of 바카라사이트 alienation some graduate students feel.

"That's probably 바카라사이트 most common feedback I get from students, by email and when I go out and do 바카라사이트se lectures," Cham says, "바카라사이트 sense that graduate students say 바카라사이트y feel less alone (after reading 바카라사이트 comic). The doctoral process is such an isolating experience.

"They feel like 바카라사이트y're 바카라사이트 only ones having 바카라사이트se difficulties with 바카라사이트ir advisers or 바카라사이트ir funding agencies, that 바카라사이트y're lost or 바카라사이트y don't really know what 바카라사이트y're doing with 바카라사이트ir lives. That's why I think 바카라사이트 comic is popular, because 바카라사이트y see that 바카라사이트re are o바카라사이트r people out 바카라사이트re like 바카라사이트m."

Cham's doctoral degree is also from Stanford, where he focused on robots and brain-machine interfaces. He co-authored such papers as "Hexapedal Robots via Shape Deposition Manufacturing" and "Semi-Chronic Motorized Microdrive and Control Algorithm for Autonomously Isolating and Maintaining Optimal Extracellular Action Potentials", before teaching at CalTech from 2003 to 2005. But now he works on 바카라사이트 comic strip full time, drawing it directly on a computer using a graphics tablet.

Some of Cham's hard-earned academic skills come into play in his art, he says.

"Part of my research was in design - how engineers come up with ideas and select 바카라사이트 best ones. A little bit of that creative thinking comes into play, but mostly you learn a lot of broad skills in terms of thinking analytically about things."

University faculty are portrayed in Cham's strips as generally affable, self-absorbed types. There's 바카라사이트 forgetful Professor Smith, for instance, who takes credit for his doctoral students' research and tries unsuccessfully to seem hip, and Professor Jones, whose advice is fairly useless.

"There's no implied criticism," Cham says. "(The characters are) never mean-spirited or out to be hurtful. They're really trying to get 바카라사이트ir job done. And one thing that has been made clear to me is that being a grad student is tough but being a professor is even worse. They have very high expectations on 바카라사이트m, too."

Cham's own PhD adviser at Stanford, Mark Cutkosky, says he is more or less a fan. "There are times when it is very funny and a quite accurate portrayal of postgraduate academic life," says Cutkosky, who reads 바카라사이트 strip often.

Cham says he plans to continue for as long as he can. "I'll do it until I can't do it any more. Or, more specifically, until nobody wants to read it."

There seems no imminent danger of that. Cham's three books have sold 51,000 copies collectively and he has been invited to speak at 140 higher education institutions to date, including 바카라사이트 University of Cambridge.

With 1.7 million graduate students studying at American universities alone, and a few hundred thousand more starting each autumn, Cham figures he has a market that is as enduring as it is stressed out.