Tyler Sticka

Fragments Comic Anthology Available Now! Proceeds Go to Save the Children

I’m so wicked proud to announce that Fragments (the comic anthology I’ve been organizing to benefit the amazing charity, Save the Children) is finally available for purchase! If you like comics, or if you just like doing something awesome for a good cause, you should purchase a copy.

The book features awesome comics by Tram Ngo, Kristen Bailey, Pav Kovacic, Theodore Taylor and many more. The cover was illustrated by Tony Papesh, with a logo by Marc Roman. It’s thanks to all the contributors that this book exists.

The Fragments web site is the first time I’ve published a site written in HTML5 with liberal use of CSS3. Safari 5 users should notice a cool three-dimensional transform on the cover, accomplished via some CSS Transforms and a bit of JavaScript.

If you don’t have Safari, you can see the effect in this screencast:

A special thanks to everyone who has supported the project by tuning into its progress via Facebook or Twitter. Please continue spreading the word; with your help, this project will be a resounding success.

Inbetween Projects 2: Bud the Bulldog

My girlfriend’s sister and brother-in-law have a sweet, quirky bulldog named Bud (technically Bud, Jr., after his papa’s nickname). Like my parents’ dog, Suzie, I’ve found myself doodling him incessantly. There’s just something so endearing about dogs with hopelessly distinctive personalities.

Two Christmases ago, I decided to make Bud’s owners, Lyndsey and Keith, matching t-shirts celebrating their pride and joy. Using a reference photo, I thought a thick-lined, vector representation might be most amusing.

The shirts came in on time, but ended up being a pinch too small due to American Apparel’s sizing strangeness. Nevertheless, they elicited the laughter I was hoping for, so all was not lost.

Later, I helped Lyndsey re-purpose the artwork for their first human child’s room, but in a ginchy new infant-Warhol color scheme.

Animals are way more fun to caricature than people. Dogs and cats are intellectually incapable of comprehending abstracted images of themselves, which means they can’t complain about or take offense to them (which is why I avoid caricaturing friends and family).

iPad Angst

Sticky Note Doodles

Lately, a large amount of my time has been devoted to discovery and ideation exercises. What’s somewhat liberating about these projects is how little computer work is required. For days or weeks at a time my tool set may consist largely of markers, masking tape, push-pins and, above all, sticky notes.

These activities benefit from embracing a sense of playfulness, which only encourages my ever-present habit of compulsive doodling.

I found this latest crop more amusing than most, so I thought I’d share. Many underestimate the opportunity for drawing and illustration in the field of experience design, but they’re mistaken. These modest, innocuous artifacts are merely a hint at the wealth of drawings I create with each and every project.

Fragments: Great Comics For a Great Cause

Fragments is a unique comic book anthology that donates its proceeds to those in need, but not without your help.

We’re now accepting submissions for comics and artwork to be featured in the first volume, benefiting the victims of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. If you’re an artist, please consider contributing. If you know an artist, please direct their attention to this project.

With our combined creativity, we can make this an amazing book that actually saves lives.

For more information, please visit the project’s web site or follow @FragmentsComic on Twitter.

Spider-Man Drawings

My favorite superhero is, without question, Batman. His is the simplest premise with the richest psychological results.

But just as certainly, my favorite to draw is Spider-Man.

When I was a very young comics fan, I was drawn to John Romita’s flawless brushwork. But as I grew older, I became increasingly enamored with Steve Ditko’s Spidey. It felt quirky, jittery, jerky. The opposite of graceful. In a world of sweeping capes, bold shapes and dynamic lines, Ditko’s Spider-Man (and to some extent, Peter Parker) was hopelessly broken and askew.

I would guess at least half of American cartoonists go through a phase of romanticizing superhero comics, and I was no different. I never thought I was very good at drawing superheroes, mind you, but they were really fun.

I recently stumbled upon some Spider-Man drawings I did as a freshman in college. It looks like I was reading a lot of comics by Sam Kieth and Humberto Ramos. I was obviously avoiding the “hassle” of rendering settings or backgrounds (something many young artists struggle with). But these drawings make me smile in spite of their flaws because I had so much fun making them.

And my Spider-Man is definitely quirky, jittery, jerky.

My Media Picks of the Decade

The inaugural decade of the new millennium proved to be as tumultuous, but no one can argue that it came and went without introducing gobs of fantastic media and entertainment. While by no means a definitive list, here are my personal favorites.

Favorite Web Site

Twitter (2006)

No online service has changed the way I communicate more radically. Twitter trained me to expect immediacy in my communication tools, and opened my mind to the possibility of manipulating public data on the web. While lacking the ubiquity of Facebook, it’s influence is felt far more perceptibly in nearly all competitors.

Hopefully 2010 will bring enough UI improvements to make me consider using the actual site instead of apps like TweetDeck.

Honorable mentions: Hulu (2007), Wikipedia (2001)

Favorite Gadget

iPhone 3G (2008)

I resisted the temptation of this device for quite some time, until a horrific experience with Verizon customer service pushed me into switching to AT&T. In hindsight, I should really thank that terrible service rep (with bad tattoos and a fake tan) for giving me the opportunity to experience one of the best devices ever. The iPhone almost single-handedly pushed the mobile web out of the dark ages (or at least got the ball rolling) into a period of relative optimism.

While devices like the Motorola Droid and Palm Pre may soften the novelty of the iPhone’s interface, we can’t overestimate how influential it continues to be, due in no small part to a bustling app store economy that pushes it’s capabilities on a weekly basis. The next decade will almost certainly belong to the mobile web, and few can argue that the iPhone wasn’t a catalyst for that progression.

Plus, Doodle Jump is wicked addictive.

Honorable mentions: Dell Studio Hybrid (My HTPC), Wii (2006)

Favorite Comic

Bone (1991 – 2004)

Although Jeff Smith’s tale of the lost Bone cousins exploring a vast and mysterious valley started in the 1990s, it wasn’t completed until 2004. While the gorgeous color editions consistently top children’s best seller lists, I’m partial to the black-and-white collection for preserving the prominence of Smith’s incredible brushwork. Few cartoonists alive can match this level of believable acting and effortless storytelling. Superb.

Honorable mentions: Scott Pilgrim (2004 – Present), Blankets (2003)

Favorite Game

Super Mario Galaxy (2007)

Leave it to Mario to remind me of why I love video games in the first place. Galaxy transported me to a fantastic, whimsical and positively surreal universe with exactly the right balance of fun and challenging gameplay. This game transcends mere entertainment and tiptoes into the realm of wondrous art and superb craftsmanship. No other title ate up more of my time this decade.

Honorable mentions: Shenmue II (2001), Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Favorite Album

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

The band’s fourth LP has become nothing short of legendary, thanks in part to the drama played out between Wilco and Reprise Records (thoughtfully immortalized in an excellent documentary). While some of the album’s backstory has been unnecessarily mythologized, the attention it receives is beyond deserving. What songwriter Jeff Tweedy describes as “holes” in the songs can be truly challenging, but are never without reward. Perfect.

Honorable mentions: Radiohead – Kid A (2000), LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)

Favorite Film

The Incredibles (2004)

While I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Pixar, I was not prepared for how much I would enjoy Brad Bird’s debut film at the studio. The Incredibles reaffirmed my belief in the power of cartoony, expressive character design by crafting believable human characters in spite of their abstract structures (a fact that must have been truly embarrassing for the dismal yet purportedly “realistic” Polar Express film which debuted the same month).

While it certainly didn’t hurt that the story combined my love for superheroes with a healthy dose of pure Pixar warmth, what really struck me was the underlying anti-mediocrity subtext.

“Everybody’s special, Dash,” Helen says to her son, who replies “…which is another way of saying no one is.”

Honorable mentions: The Dark Knight (2008), Thank You For Smoking (2006)

Graphic Storytelling in Old Media

I have no idea how this eluded me the past four months. Christopher Knaus (@gniP_gnoP on Twitter) devoted a portion of his notebook to swiftly sketching nifty visual notes of various WebVisions presentations.

Although Chris “found it hard to do visual notes for a presentation about cartoons,” I thought he did an excellent job capturing some of the key messages of my Graphic Storytelling presentation. Enjoy!

25 Years of Usagi Yojimbo

Creativity runs in my family, though not always as obviously expressed as through a career in art and design. I can recall countless projects undertaken by my parents, my mom’s strength being idea generation and my dad’s being execution. I dig the way my parents design their house, yards and living spaces; always warm, creative, modern and comfortable.

Oftentimes these projects would be built from scratch or from something salvageable from an antique store or garage sale. It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford to buy brand spanking new materials. They loved giving these discarded objects a new lease on life beyond what you could purchase new off a store shelf. When I take on projects like repairing and improving a broken iPod, I believe I have them to blame thank.

Growing up, I was a daydreamer. To this day I have a terrible sense of direction, partially because I was never really aware of the world outside the car window. I was too busy conjuring images of ninjas, aliens, robots, superheros and dinosaurs to pay attention to things like intersections and traffic. Similarly I was never fully cognizant of what my parents were looking for in any particular antique store, so much as I was engrossed in the task of finding comic books.

One flea market in particular held many such treasures. It was where I found my second issue of Groo and the Space Ghost one-shot by Mark Evanier and Steve Rude. Most importantly, it was where I discovered my first issue of Usagi Yojimbo.

This was fantastic! My young eyes were dazzled by the economy and expressiveness of the drawings while my mind was engaged and enamored with the authentic Japanese history infused with a hardy sense of adventure and fun. Here was a comic accessible to me, but which didn’t talk down to me. I was in love!

Many years later at San Diego Comic Con, I had the opportunity to meet the man behind Usagi, Stan Sakai, and express my admiration. To my delight, I found him both friendly and humble. His stories alone earn him such a large audience, yet his level of graciousness emphasizes how deserving he really is.

This year, Usagi celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. Members of the Usagi Yojimbo Dojo (a wonderful community-led forum in which Stan is an active participant) decided to put together a gift for Stan comprised of artwork, letters and congratulations from many of his appreciative fans.

While I was unable to attend this year’s Comic Con where fans presented the gift to Stan, I’m thankful to have contributed to the impressive, three-volume tome. I’m also thankful to Michael Takahara for publishing a video of the event (and for subsequently posting it to Vimeo for me to use here).

Watch Stan receive his gift and see my contribution