Tyler Sticka

This May, I’ll be presenting Graphic Storytelling in New Media at WebVisions 2009. I’m extremely excited to discuss the compositional, narrative and iconic potential of comics as applied to the interactions and communities inherent to the web. My knowledge of where these two incredible mediums converge did not come suddenly or unexpectedly; without comics, I may not have fallen in love with the web at all.

I was a wee lad when I first started accumulating old Peanuts and MAD paperbacks. They had the graphic straightforwardness of film and animated cartoons, but they moved at my speed, trading in the dimension of time for a command of composition. Of course, I had no idea that was why I liked them. Scott McCloud had to tell me that.

I remember vividly discovering and being enamored with Understanding Comics when I first found it at my local library. I read it cover-to-cover in one sitting, absolutely enthralled as McCloud de-mystified the elements of the medium while simultaneously elevating the level of wonder inherent to it.

Among other things, Understanding Comics partially or completely initiated my enthusiasm for:

• Storytelling
• Crafting experiences
• Composition
• Symbols and iconography

In short, the foundations of visual communication. The passion born at that moment exists to this day; I attempt to infuse that feeling into everything that I do.

Join me on Friday, May 22 at 10:30am Thursday, May 21 at 2:45pm at the Oregon Convention Center. We’ll take a look at the web through four-color, halftone glasses, and uncover your inner storyteller in the process.

Update (4/27): The presentation has been rescheduled one day earlier in the afternoon, see the correction above.