Tyler Sticka

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

Comics’ Lost Audience

On Strange Love Live I made mention of a paper I had written in college on the decline of interest in American comic books, with a subsequent promise to post said essay online. I’m nothing if not a man of my word!

What follows is a somewhat younger Tyler’s passionate explanation of why fewer Americans buy (and to a certain degree, care) about comic books than ever before. Perhaps therein we may learn what to avoid as we drive forward the stories of tomorrow.

Comics’ Lost Audience:
An Analysis of the Decreased Popular Interest in American Comic Books

The superhero is an endangered species. Even with superhero movies at an all-time high in popularity (Spider-Man 2 was the second top-grossing movie of 2004, making over 370 million dollars, and its 2002 prequel is the sixth highest grossing film of all-time) (“All-Time USA Box Office”), comic book sales are at historical lows. In spite of America’s professed love in other media for the traditions and characters of comics, the top-selling comic book of 2004 barely broke 200,000 issues sold (Weiland), a number that, ten years ago, would have put the book up for cancellation. In stark contrast, Japan’s top selling comic books often sell upwards of one million copies every week! Japan’s comics sell incredibly well in all demographics, with more paper being used to produce comic books than toilet paper (Schodt 12). The decline in American comic book sales may have several contributing factors, but it becomes clear upon an examination of history that many (if not most) of the problems plaguing comic books’ accessibility are a result of the very industry that creates them.

Read the rest of this essay

Icons and Comics on Strange Love Live

If you missed viewing my Strange Love Live appearance when it was actually live, you can now view it on Blip.TV, in iTunes, or right here:

I had a blast being on the show! Thanks again to Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal for being such gracious hosts. I’ll be sure to post my comics essay (as promised) in the coming weeks.

Icon designers I should have mentioned (but didn’t for some reason) include Susan Kare, the Iconfactory, John Hicks and Adam Betts.

Some of the comics I talked about (not all of which are safe for youngsters) were Amulet, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bone, Groo, Usagi Yojimbo, Cerebus, Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. For a larger list of keen comics to check out, see my WebVisions follow-up.

If you’re hungry for more comic book, indie rock and tech geekery and don’t mind the occasional expletive, older audiences can check out the less structured Afterhours episode (with appearances by Peter Wooley).

I’ve invaded Squares!

If you haven’t played it yet, Squares! is a simple-yet-challenging puzzle game for your iPhone or iPod Touch that endears itself with cartoony imagery and addictive gameplay. Can you flip all the tiles without distressing the otherwise happy squares?

The app has had multiple sets of artwork for a while now, but the latest version brings with it a set designed by yours truly! You can enable it by heading into the settings and tapping the faces next to my logo.

Squares! is 99¢ and available in the app store.

Blast Processing for Young Imaginations

Despite his failure to adapt to a post-Dreamcast world, I have a soft spot for Sonic the Hedgehog. It started with his second game on the Sega Genesis, and shortly moved to an affinity for the licensed comic book. I was given my first issue (No. 13) by a grade school friend. Along with any Peanuts and MAD paperbacks I could get my hands on, Sonic helped kick-start my lifelong love of comics.

Published by Archie Comics (the same one that regularly dispenses Betty & Veronica “digests” to your local supermarket checkout stand), Sonic the Hedgehog was actually a perfect introduction to the world of serialized comics  The popular video game and cartoon show tie-in immediately hooked my malleable brain into an upbeat mixture of humor and action, the tone set by distinctive artists like Scott Shaw!, Dave Manak, Steven Butler,  Sam Maxwell, Manny Galan and Patrick Spaziante. The book’s level of continuity was deeper than in Valiant’s comparatively short-lived Super Mario Bros. comics, yet more accessible than that of Marvel or DC’s respective universes. It was entertaining, and it kept me coming back.

That trend has continued for over fifteen years; last month the series reached its 200th issue. For reasons of nostalgia, completeness or purely entertainment, I have stuck with it that entire time. Month after month and regardless of which mini-series or spin-offs were introduced, I was there. I mimicked my favorite artists’ styles in my own drawings, learning fundamental principals of expression and composition. One of my first experiences with HTML was in creating a Sonic the Hedgehog fan site. While that level of fanaticism waned with adolescence, those skills I practiced in reaction to it did not.

Above: At left, the ashcan preview issue ¼ of Sonic the Hedgehog published in 1992. At right, the recently published issue 200.

I love taking out my cardboard comic box housing the series, flipping through the hundreds of issues and remembering fondly the worlds they conjured. But alongside comics as challenging and thought-provoking as Maus, Blankets, Kane and the works of Moebius, it has struggled to compete. Issue 200 is truly a milestone; I decided months ago that it would be my last.

Inspiration comes from unexpected sources, and I doubt anyone would have predicted a passion for Lewis Trondheim and George Herriman would be cultivated from SEGA’s marketable mascot. I extend my sincerest thanks to the creators of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book for avoiding the oft-traveled path of half-hearted, licensed schlock in favor of a surprisingly rich continuum of stories that continues to ignite young imaginations.

If you’re a parent looking for a book your kids will actually read, I suggest you give it a shot.